Power Automate Revamps Licensing Again

• Power Automate license types have again been updated, this time to promote remote process automation use.
• Most existing licenses have been removed from the pricing page pending their retirement in Feb. 2024.
• The new licenses represent an increase for customers who are not employing unattended RPA while saving money for those who are.

Power Automate license types were revamped in an Aug. 2023 update. The new licensing plans contain more rights to execute robotic process automation (RPA) workflows at a lower cost per flow while raising the costs for other uses of the technology. Microsoft is attempting to promote the use of RPA at a time when customers should be planning to transition away from older software that requires the technology to automate it.

How Power Platform Provides RPA Services

Power Platform services have increasingly enabled RPA, where a Power Automate flow (called a bot when performing process automation) automates a task in place of a human user.

RPA bots drive legacy applications by sending those programs simulated mouse and keyboard input. Applications that expose their functionality as an API should not be driven through a bot; instead, they should have their functionality accessed programmatically, usually through a Power Platform connector.