Power Automate
Microsoft workflow automation and RPA. Microsoft Power Automate is a workflow-automation service in the Microsoft Power Platform that builds automated processes across cloud applications, desktop applications, and Microsoft 365 services. It launched in 2016 as Microsoft Flow and was renamed Power Automate in November 2019.
Performance Scores
13 rankings evaluated
Score range: 6.0 – 8.4
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#2Best Automation Tools for Healthcare in 2026
Score: 8.4 · Best for: Microsoft 365-centric healthcare organisations automating EHR data entry and intake
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#3Best Human-in-the-Loop Automation Platforms 2026
Score: 7.1 · Best for: Organisations already licensed for Microsoft 365 and Power Automate standard connectors
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#3Best RPA Tools 2026
Score: 7.8 · Best for: Organizations already invested in Microsoft 365
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#4Best Enterprise RPA Platforms 2026
Score: 7.3 · Best for: Enterprises with significant Microsoft 365 investment seeking RPA capabilities without adding a separate vendor
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#4Best Workflow Automation Tools 2026
Score: 6.7 · Best for: Microsoft 365 and Dynamics estates
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#4Best CRM Automation Tools in 2026
Score: 7.5 · Best for: Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM users
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#4Best AI-Powered Automation Tools in 2026
Score: 7.2 · Best for: Microsoft ecosystem teams using Copilot and Azure AI
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#5Best Automation Tools for Fintech and Financial Services in 2026
Score: 7.8 · Best for: Microsoft-standardised fintech and banks automating Microsoft 365 and Dynamics workflows
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#6Best ERP Integration Platforms 2026
Score: 7.0 · Best for: Microsoft-centric enterprises needing ERP integration between Dynamics 365 and other business applications
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#6Best Automation Platforms for AI Orchestration 2026
Score: 7.5 · Best for: Organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365 and Copilot Studio
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#6Best No-Code Automation Platforms in 2026
Score: 6.0 · Best for: Microsoft-centric organisations standardised on Microsoft 365, Dynamics, or Azure
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#7Best Customer Support Automation Tools in 2026
Score: 7.2 · Best for: Microsoft-centric support teams
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#8Best iPaaS and Integration Platforms 2026
Score: 7.2 · Best for: Microsoft-centric organizations already on M365
Key Facts
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connector count (July 2026) | Power Automate lists more than 1,400 prebuilt, certified connectors as of July 2026 (up from the 1,000+ previously cited), split into standard and premium tiers. | Jul 2026 | Power Automate pricing |
pricing
| Attribute | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| RPA pricing | RPA plans: Process $150/bot/month (unattended; capacity licence allocated to a machine or a cloud flow); Hosted Process $215/bot/month (adds a Microsoft-hosted machine) | Jul 2026 | Power Automate pricing page |
| Power Automate pricing (July 2026) | Power Automate pricing (verified July 2026): Premium $15/user/mo (cloud flows, premium connectors, and attended desktop RPA), Process $150/bot/mo (unattended), Hosted Process $215/bot/mo (Microsoft-hosted unattended). Process Mining is a separate add-on at $5,000/tenant/mo (100 GB), not part of Premium. Cloud flows on standard connectors are included with Microsoft 365. | Sep 2026 | Power Automate pricing |
| Premium plan | Power Automate Premium: $15/user/month — unlimited cloud flows, premium and custom connectors, process mining, 250 MB Dataverse | Jul 2026 | Power Automate pricing page |
technical
| Attribute | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connector model | 1,000+ connectors in two tiers: standard (included with Microsoft 365) and premium (requires a paid Power Automate license) | Jul 2026 | Microsoft Power Automate product page |
Core Features
| Attribute | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connectors | 1,400+ | Jul 2026 | Microsoft Power Automate product page |
AI Features
| Attribute | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot Studio | Generative orchestration via Copilot Studio: AI-driven conversations dynamically find and call tools, topics, and other agents in real time | Jul 2026 | Microsoft Learn — Orchestrate agent behavior with generative AI (Copilot Studio) |
| AI Features | Dynamic, multimodal, and self-healing automations with built-in AI. Intelligent document processing improvements in 2025 Wave 1 | Jul 2026 | Microsoft Learn — Overview of Power Automate 2025 release wave 1 |
Support
| Attribute | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| RPA Support | Desktop and Cloud flows | Jul 2026 | Microsoft Power Automate product page |
General
| Attribute | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Power Automate Premium: $15/user/month. Power Automate Process: $150/bot/month. Power Automate Hosted Process: $215/bot/month | Jul 2026 | Power Automate pricing page |
| M365 Price Change | Microsoft 365 prices rose on 1 July 2026 (Business Basic +16%, Frontline F1 +33%), affecting bundled Power Automate access costs | Jul 2026 | Microsoft Licensing News — Microsoft 365 Packaging and Pricing Update |
| Wave 2 Features | 2025 Release Wave 2 (October 2025-March 2026): enhanced desktop flows for Windows automation and cloud flow ROI analytics and runtime debugging | Jul 2026 | Microsoft Learn — New and planned features for Power Automate, 2025 release wave 2 |
| Microsoft 365 Bundling | Included in Microsoft 365 E3 ($39/user/mo) and E5 ($60/user/mo) plans with standard connectors; premium connectors require add-on license | Jul 2026 | Microsoft 365 enterprise plans and pricing |
| Desktop Flow Pricing | Power Automate Desktop is free for Windows 11 users (attended mode, local execution only); unattended desktop flows require a Power Automate Process license at $150/bot/month | Jul 2026 | Microsoft Learn — Deep dive on specific Power Automate licenses |
| Connector Count | 1,400+ | Jul 2026 | Microsoft Power Automate product page |
Strengths
- ●BAA covers Power Automate, Power Apps, Dataverse, and Azure as a unified suite
- ●Desktop flows automate legacy EHR screens without API access
- ●AI Builder includes healthcare-aligned models for intake and document processing
- ●Strong fit for organisations already on Microsoft 365 and Dynamics
- ●Approvals ride a standard connector, and Microsoft states that any licence granting Power Automate access and standard connector use "is sufficient to create approval flows" (learn.microsoft.com, 14 September 2026)
- ●Premium is $15.00 per user per month paid yearly, a published figure a buyer can model against a seat count (microsoft.com, 14 September 2026)
- ●Copilot Studio documents multistage and AI approvals in agent flows as a supported pattern rather than a custom build (learn.microsoft.com, read 21 September 2026)
- ●Approval activity is retrievable through both Dataverse and Purview audit, so the record survives outside the flow's own run history
- ●Bundled value inside Microsoft 365
- ●Copilot Studio agent integration
- ●Included with Microsoft 365 E3/E5 licenses reducing incremental RPA cost
- ●Deep integration with Microsoft ecosystem and Azure AI services
- ●AI Builder provides built-in document processing and form recognition
- ●Native depth in the Microsoft ecosystem
- ●Cloud flows plus desktop RPA
- ●Cloud flows run on Power Automate licensing; Microsoft applies Copilot Credit metering to Copilot Studio agent flows (learn.microsoft.com, read 29 September 2026)
- ●Native Dynamics 365 CRM integration with real-time triggers on record events
- ●Included in Microsoft 365 E3/E5 plans at no additional cost
- ●Desktop flows (RPA) automate legacy CRM systems without APIs
- ●Copilot AI flow builder
- ●Azure AI Services integration
- ●Premium at $15 per user per month adds Premium connectors and AI Builder on top of the standard connectors in M365 licences (learn.microsoft.com, read 29 Sep 2026)
- ●Desktop + cloud flows
- ●Inherits Azure compliance posture: SOC 1/2, ISO 27001/27017/27018, PCI DSS, FedRAMP High
- ●Customer-managed keys through Azure Key Vault
- ●Desktop flows handle legacy banking apps lacking APIs
- ●No additional vendor procurement for Microsoft-standard fintechs
- ●Native Dynamics 365 and Microsoft ecosystem connectors
- ●Included with Microsoft 365 E3/E5 licenses
- ●On-premises data gateway enables hybrid ERP connectivity
- ●More than 1,400 certified connectors as of July 2026
- ●MCP generally available in Copilot Studio, with connectors and MCP servers as parallel tool sources
- ●Makers can publish governed MCP servers built from internal APIs and connector actions
- ●Advanced connector policies provide tenant-level governance over what agents may call
- ●Included with Microsoft 365 E3/E5 for personal automations
- ●Desktop flows for legacy system RPA
- ●HIPAA BAA available for regulated workloads
- ●AI Builder for document processing
- ●Native integration with Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Microsoft 365
- ●AI Builder for sentiment analysis and entity extraction
- ●Included in many Microsoft 365 enterprise plans at no additional cost
- ●Included in Microsoft 365 licenses
- ●Deep Microsoft ecosystem integration
- ●Desktop flows (RPA)
- ●Process mining via Process Advisor
Limitations
- ●Per-user premium licensing required for HTTP connectors and Dataverse tables
- ●Learning curve shifts between cloud flows, desktop flows, and AI Builder
- ●Non-Microsoft SaaS integrations are shallower than Zapier or Workato
- ●Copilot Studio agent flows meter separately in Copilot Credits, at 13 per 100 agent flow actions with capacity sold at $200.00 per 25,000-credit pack per month, so the approval a buyer already owns and the agent approval they pay for run on different meters
- ●Once prepaid Copilot Credit capacity is exhausted, new agent flow runs are blocked. A credit shortfall stops the approval instead of adding an overage line
- ●The decision record splits across Dataverse and Purview rather than sitting in one approval log, so reconstructing a single decision means two surfaces
- ●Microsoft's own approvals page states "There are four approval types you can use" directly above a table with five rows (ms.date 29 April 2026)
- ●Premium-connector licensing escalates cost
- ●Less depth than dedicated RPA at scale
- ●Desktop automation less mature than dedicated RPA tools like UiPath
- ●Complex licensing tiers can obscure true cost for unattended bots
- ●Cross-platform support outside Windows is limited
- ●Premium-connector licensing can escalate cost
- ●Less compelling outside Microsoft estates
- ●Limited CRM automation outside Microsoft/Dynamics 365 ecosystem
- ●Complex connector licensing model can increase costs for premium CRM connectors
- ●AI features best within Microsoft ecosystem
- ●Complex licensing model
- ●Limited non-Microsoft AI integration
- ●Full value requires Microsoft 365 and/or Dynamics licensing commitment
- ●Licensing for premium connectors and Dataverse can compound quickly
- ●Non-Microsoft SaaS connectors are shallower than Workato
- ●SAP and Oracle connectors require additional gateway configuration
- ●Less depth in non-Microsoft ERP systems than dedicated iPaaS
- ●Complex licensing for premium connectors
- ●Assumes an existing Microsoft 365 estate and fits poorly outside one
- ●Premium connectors require additional licensing on top of the base plan
- ●Agent tool access is tenant-bound rather than portable between environments
- ●Setup is an administration project rather than a single authorisation step
- ●Connector licensing splits between standard and premium tiers
- ●Best fit for Microsoft-centric stacks; weaker outside the Microsoft ecosystem
- ●No self-hosted option
- ●Limited utility outside Microsoft ecosystem
- ●Complex workflow authoring compared to Zapier or Make for non-Microsoft connectors
- ●Limited non-Microsoft integrations
- ●Performance issues with large flows
Based on evaluations in 13 rankings: Best Automation Tools for Healthcare in 2026, Best Human-in-the-Loop Automation Platforms 2026, Best RPA Tools 2026, Best Enterprise RPA Platforms 2026, Best Workflow Automation Tools 2026, Best CRM Automation Tools in 2026, Best AI-Powered Automation Tools in 2026, Best Automation Tools for Fintech and Financial Services in 2026, Best ERP Integration Platforms 2026, Best Automation Platforms for AI Orchestration 2026, Best No-Code Automation Platforms in 2026, Best Customer Support Automation Tools in 2026, Best iPaaS and Integration Platforms 2026
Pricing Plans
Power Automate (Microsoft 365)
Included with Microsoft 365
- ✓Cloud flows on standard connectors
- !No premium/custom connectors
Premium
($15.00/mo billed annually)
Per user/month
- ✓Standard + premium connectors, Dataverse
- ✓Attended desktop RPA (Power Automate Desktop)
- ✓AI Builder credits
Process
($150.00/mo billed annually)
Per bot/month
- ✓Unattended RPA
- ✓Cloud flows scoped to the bot
Hosted Process
($215.00/mo billed annually)
Per bot/month
- ✓Microsoft-hosted unattended RPA
- ✓No self-managed machines
Process Mining (add-on)
Per tenant/month add-on (requires Premium)
- ✓Process Mining, 100 GB
- !Add-on only
About Power Automate
Microsoft Power Automate is a workflow-automation service in the Microsoft Power Platform that builds automated processes across cloud applications, desktop applications, and Microsoft 365 services. It launched in 2016 as Microsoft Flow and was renamed Power Automate in November 2019. The product sits alongside Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Pages in Microsoft's low-code platform, sharing the Dataverse data layer and the connector framework with those products.
Power Automate splits into two distinct automation models. Cloud flows run on Microsoft's servers and automate API-connected services through triggers and actions, covering scheduled flows, automated event-triggered flows, and instant manually triggered flows. Desktop flows provide robotic process automation through Power Automate Desktop, a Windows application that records and replays user-interface interactions for systems that have no API. Power Automate Desktop is included at no cost for Windows 10 and Windows 11 users for attended manual runs; unattended desktop automation requires a paid plan.
The platform offers more than 1,000 connectors split into standard and premium tiers. Standard connectors such as SharePoint, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and Excel are included with most Microsoft 365 business subscriptions. Premium connectors such as Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, ServiceNow, and generic HTTP, along with custom connectors, require a paid Power Automate license. This split is the single most consequential pricing detail of the product: a flow that touches one premium connector moves the entire flow into paid territory.
As of May 2026 the paid lineup centres on Power Automate Premium at $15 per user per month, which grants one user unlimited cloud flows, premium and custom connectors, 250 MB of Dataverse capacity, process mining, and a monthly AI Builder credit allotment. For RPA at scale, the Power Automate Process plan is priced at $150 per bot per month and is licensed to a flow rather than a user; the Hosted Process plan at $215 per bot per month adds a Microsoft-hosted virtual machine so customers do not supply their own RPA infrastructure.
flowchart TD
A[New automation] --> B{Target system has an API?}
B -- No --> C[Desktop flow / RPA]
C --> D{Attended or unattended?}
D -- Attended --> E[Power Automate Desktop: free on Windows 10/11]
D -- Unattended --> F[Process plan: $150/bot/month]
B -- Yes --> G{Flow uses a premium connector?}
G -- No --> H[Covered by Microsoft 365 standard connectors]
G -- Yes --> I[Power Automate Premium: $15/user/month]
Power Automate competes with Zapier, Make, and Workato in the cloud-flow category and with UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism in the RPA category. Its principal advantage is native depth inside Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 estates. Microsoft has added Copilot features that generate flows from natural-language descriptions and AI Builder models for document processing and prediction. For organisations already licensed for Microsoft 365, Power Automate is frequently the default automation surface; for organisations outside that ecosystem, the premium-connector licensing model often makes a dedicated platform more economical.
Editor's Note: Across 12 ShadowGen Power Automate deployments in 2024-26, the most common budgeting error is assuming Microsoft 365 "includes" Power Automate. It includes standard connectors only. In 9 of those 12 engagements a single premium connector, most often Salesforce or an HTTP call to an internal API, pulled an entire department onto $15/user/month licensing inside the first month. The mitigation that works: inventory every connector a flow will touch before committing to a licence count, and consolidate premium-connector calls into a small number of service flows owned by a handful of licensed users. — Rafal Fila, ShadowGen
Integrations (3)
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Workflow AutomationSee How It Ranks
Best Human-in-the-Loop Automation Platforms 2026
Eight platforms are ranked here on a single mechanism: how a person enters an automated path, and what the system can prove afterward about the decision they made. Moxo scores 7.7 and ranks first; Camunda 8 scores 7.2, Microsoft Power Automate 7.1, Pega 6.9, n8n 6.7, Zapier 5.9, Kissflow 5.8 and ServiceNow 4.8, scored 22 September 2026 on the five weighted criteria. Those criteria cover the step type, the approver's account or licence, the routes available on a rejection, the audit record, and the meter that charges for the decision, and none of them can tell a review from a rubber stamp, so the methodology adds a check readers can run on any product in a few minutes: whether the decision record tells a considered approval from an instant one. Every figure was read from a vendor-owned surface and carries its own date.
Best Automation Platforms for AI Orchestration 2026
This ranking answers one question: how many real business applications can an AI agent act on out of the box? It evaluates nine platforms as of August 2026 on the reach they give an agent, not on the workflow logic they can express. That boundary is deliberate, because two neighbouring pages on this site answer different questions. Best Process Orchestration Platforms 2026 scores multi-step process control, error handling and state management. Best AI Agent Platforms 2026 scores building and hosting the agent itself. This page scores the layer between them: the connective tissue that lets an agent already built elsewhere reach the applications a business actually runs on. A platform that leads one of those pages can place low here, and two of them do. Scores derive from application and action catalogue counts, the exposure model each platform uses to publish those catalogues to an agent, setup effort, failure handling and cost per agent action. Every figure was retrieved from a vendor-owned surface on 11 August 2026 unless an earlier date is stated against it.
Questions About Power Automate
What are the best Blue Prism alternatives in 2026?
The leading Blue Prism alternatives in 2026 are UiPath (largest RPA ecosystem and marketplace), Automation Anywhere (cloud-native, AI-first RPA), Power Automate (Microsoft-centric and license-bundled), and Pega (process orchestration with RPA). Most enterprises evaluating a Blue Prism replacement weigh UiPath for ecosystem breadth and Automation Anywhere for cloud-first deployments.
What are the best automation tools for finance and AP teams in 2026?
Finance and AP teams in 2026 most often combine UiPath or Power Automate (RPA for legacy ERPs and invoice extraction), Workato (audit-friendly iPaaS), and Zapier or Make (lightweight task automation) alongside built-in tools such as NetSuite SuiteFlow. Selection depends on ERP, audit requirements, and invoice volume.
What is the best enterprise RPA platform in 2026?
The top enterprise RPA platforms in 2026 are [UiPath](/tools/uipath/) (largest ecosystem with banking accelerators), [Automation Anywhere](/tools/automation-anywhere/) (cloud-native AI-first RPA), and [Blue Prism](/tools/blue-prism/) (audit-ready RPA used in tier-1 banking).
Is Sema4.ai (Robocorp) worth it in 2026? A detailed review
Sema4.ai scores 7.5/10 in 2026. The Helsinki vendor (formerly Robocorp) offers Python-first RPA and AI agents on Robot Framework, with free developer tooling and a Team Edition at $15 per agent per day via the Snowflake Marketplace (July 2026).
Learn More
Supergood vs Microsoft Power Automate in 2026: Bundled Desktop Flows Against Generated API Calls
Power Automate can automate a system with no API for nothing, on a licence many buyers already hold; Supergood publishes no price at all. In production a desktop flow replays recorded clicks every run while a Supergood integration ships generated HTTP calls, and the two combine: called from a cloud flow, a generated endpoint moves a Process licence off the machine and onto the flow. Licensing units, pricing, failure modes and governance compared, read 21 to 23 September 2026.
Which Automation Platforms Can an AI Coding Agent Actually Edit?
This guide compares the canonical workflow representation of ten business process automation platforms and asks a single practical question of each: can an AI coding agent read that representation, change it, and put it back? It covers what each platform exports, what the export silently drops, which route requires a paid or enterprise tier, and where the round trip breaks. Verified against vendor documentation on 26 August 2026.
Healthcare Automation and HIPAA Compliance in 2026
Healthcare automation must meet HIPAA, audit, and data-residency requirements before feature depth matters. This guide covers BAA coverage, deployment models, priority workflows (eligibility, prior auth, intake, reminders), and stack recommendations for clinics, multi-site practices, and hospital systems.