8/8/25, 7:12 PM What is Power Apps?
- Power Apps | Microsoft Learn
What is Power Apps?
05/21/2025
Power Apps is a suite of apps, services, and connectors, as well as a data platform, that provides a
rapid development environment to build custom apps for your business needs. Using Power
Apps, you can quickly build custom business apps that connect to your data stored either in the
underlying data platform (Microsoft Dataverse) or in many online and on-premises data sources
(such as SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, SQL Server, and so on).
Apps built using Power Apps provide rich business logic and workflow capabilities to transform
your manual business operations into digital, automated processes. What's more, apps built using
Power Apps have a responsive design and can run seamlessly in browser and on mobile devices
(phone or tablet). Power Apps "democratizes" the business-app-building experience by enabling
users to create feature-rich, custom business apps without writing code.
Power Apps also provides an extensible platform that lets pro developers programmatically
interact with data and metadata, apply business logic, create custom connectors, and integrate
with external data.
Power Apps and Microsoft Copilot let you describe the app you want and AI designs it. Make
edits, add automation, and write code—all with Copilot in Power Apps.
For more information:
Try Power Apps for free
Watch videos on the Power Apps channel on YouTube
Power Apps for app makers/creators
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8/8/25, 7:12 PM What is Power Apps? - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn
Using Power Apps, you can create three types of apps: canvas, model-driven, and cards. More
information: Overview of creating apps in Power Apps
To create an app, you start with make.powerapps.com .
Power Apps Studio is the app designer used for building canvas apps. The app designer
makes creating apps feel more like building a slide deck in Microsoft PowerPoint. More
information: Generate an app from data
App designer for model-driven apps lets you define the sitemap and add components to
build a model-driven app. More information: Design model-driven apps using app designer
Card designer for Cards, which are micro-apps with lightweight UI elements that can be
used across multiple applications that don't require any coding or IT expertise.
Ready to convert your ideas into an app? Start here: Planning a Power Apps project
Power Apps for app users
Run apps that you created, or that someone else created and shared with you, in browser or on
mobile devices (phone or tablet). More information:
Find and run apps
Run apps on Power Apps mobile
Power Apps for admins
Power Apps administrators can use the Power Platform admin center
(admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com ) to create and manage environments, view Dataverse
analytics, and get real-time, self-help recommendations and support for Power Apps and Power
Automate. More information: Administer Power Platform
Power Apps for developers
Developers are app makers who can write code to extend business app creation and
customization. Developers can use code to create data and metadata, apply server-side logic
using Azure functions, plug-ins, and workflow extensions, apply client-side logic using JavaScript,
integrate with external data using virtual tables and webhooks, build custom connectors, and
embed apps into your website experiences to create integrated solutions. More information:
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8/8/25, 7:12 PM What is Power Apps? - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn
Dataverse developer
Model-driven apps developer
Canvas apps developer
Power Apps and Dynamics 365
Dynamics 365 apps (such as Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and Dynamics
365 Marketing) also use the underlying Dataverse platform used by Power Apps to store and
secure data. This enables you to build apps using Power Apps and Dataverse directly against your
core business data already used within Dynamics 365, without the need for integration. More
information: Dynamics 365 and Dataverse
Try Power Apps for free
You can build Power Apps for free. Simply sign in to Power Apps . For more information, go to
Sign in to Power Apps for the first time. Initially, you'll have access to the default environment. You
can build in your own developer environment with Dataverse by signing up for the Power Apps
Developer Plan . For more information, see About the Power Apps Developer Plan.
A license is needed to play the apps made with Power Apps. You can play Power Apps for free by
signing up for a 30-day trial.
Request a Power Apps license
If you're a Power Apps user and want to run apps, request a Power Apps license while running the
app. More information: Request a Power Apps license
Purchase Power Apps
If you've decided to purchase Power Apps, go to Purchase Power Apps for detailed information.
Power Apps US Government plans
Power Apps US Government consists of several plans designed for US government organizations
to address the unique and evolving requirements of the United States public sector. The Power
Apps GCC environment provides compliance with federal requirements for cloud services,
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8/8/25, 7:12 PM What is Power Apps? - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn
including FedRAMP High, DoD DISA IL2, and requirements for criminal justice systems (CJI data
types). More information: Power Apps US Government
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