Microsoft clarifies on Dynamics 365 and Power Platform API fees, Portals licensing

Microsoft is preparing to add more consumption-based pricing to Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and the Power Platform, and as new rules have trickled out, users and partners are working to understand the impact in areas like API usage, data storage, and site traffic.

Several updates are happening nearly at once, from a la carte licensing structure for the Customer Engagement applications, to a new activity-based pricing model for PowerApps Portals (formerly Dynamics 365 Portal), or new limits on API usage for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, PowerApps, and Flow. The changes have been revealed piecemeal since July in different ways, some through updated online documentation, others with presentations at closed events, and more in blog posts from Microsoft and well-connected community members.

We reached out to Microsoft to help understand some of the most common questions that members of the community continue to ask about both the changes to Portals and API limits. A spokesperson provided us with the answers that follow. 

PowerApps Portals: More monitoring, but commitment to the pre-pay model

Microsoft revealed PowerApps Portals in June 2019, then provided a first round of licensing details at the Inspire conference in July. They then followed that up with more details about pricing tiers in September that were buried in a documentation update The community learned even more when Microsoft MVPs Nick Doelman and Colin Vermander released a podcast conversation with Microsoft program management lead Dileep Singh that explained some of Microsoft's rationale for their approach.

In response to questions from MSDW, Microsoft provided additional information on how organizations will license and pay for portals under the new approach. Their answers reveal that Microsoft will rely on a combination of accurate forecasting by customers using data provided via the Power Platform Admin Center and some degree of flexibility in the purchase process so portals won't be shut down at the first overage and to prevent pre-purchased sessions and pageviews from going unused.

MSDW: What happens if the customer under-purchases logins? For example, if they pre-purchase 2,000 but they get 4,000 logins in a month, what would happen?