The short version: the cheapest way to licence one Power App died, half came back, and which half applies to you depends on where you buy licences. General sale of the Power Apps Per App plan ended 2 January 2026. Enterprise Agreement customers can keep renewing. CSP access came back in April 2026. If you hold the plan, do the maths before you let it lapse, because your channel decides whether you can ever get it back.
The route that replaced the per app plan for most small firms, and its break-even against Premium, is in Power Apps pay-as-you-go in NZ.
The timeline, because it moved three times
This is the licensing change I get asked about most, and the confusion is earned: for eleven weeks in early 2026 a NZ business outside an Enterprise Agreement could not buy the cheapest Power Apps licence at all.
| Date | What changed |
|---|---|
| 2 January 2026 | Per App pulled from general sale. No new purchases through retail channels. |
| January to March 2026 | The gap. EA customers renew as before; everyone else has Premium or pay-as-you-go. |
| April 2026 | Microsoft restores Per App through CSP resellers. Quietly. Most people found out from their partner, not an announcement. |
| Today, August 2026 | EA renewals continue, CSP access holds, general sale stays closed. Confirm against your own channel before budgeting. |
The practical lesson sits under the dates: Microsoft licensing moves mid-year, in both directions, and often without much noise. This is the worked example behind the warning in what a custom Power App costs: check the licensing position on the day you budget, not the day you last looked.
What you can buy today
Three routes, one of them conditional. Power Apps Premium at NZ$32.40 a user a month on Microsoft's NZ price list (USD 20 in the US), covers a person running any number of apps, and it's the right buy once someone uses more than one or two. Pay-as-you-go at about USD 10 per active user per app per month bills only the people who open the app that month, which suits a seasonal or occasional user base. And Per App, if and only if your channel still offers it: EA renewals, or a CSP partner since April.
The sleeper in that list is pay-as-you-go. A twenty-person firm where an app gets opened by six people in a normal month pays for six, not twenty. Firms that budgeted per-seat out of habit are often overpaying for the quiet users.
If you hold Per App now
Treat the renewal date like an expiry on something you can't repurchase. Before it comes around: count monthly active users per app from the Power Platform admin centre, price that against pay-as-you-go, price your heavy users against Premium, and only then decide whether the grandfathered plan still wins. It often does, which is why people are keeping it. The bad version of this is finding out at renewal that your CSP dropped it.
One trap to check while you're in there: the premium connector rule hasn't changed. One premium connector in an app makes the whole app premium for every user, whatever plan they're on. The full trap list is in the premium connectors post.
The NZ-dollar note
Everything above is USD list pricing; GST and the exchange rate sit on top, and the rate was about NZ$1.72 to the US dollar in late July 2026. For a five-seat app on Premium that's roughly NZ$170 a month before GST, which is the number to hold against a build-shape decision or a subscription tool doing the same job.
Common questions
Can I still buy the Power Apps Per App plan in NZ?
It depends entirely on your purchasing channel, as at August 2026. General sale ended on 2 January 2026. Existing Enterprise Agreement customers can keep renewing it, and Microsoft restored access through CSP resellers in April 2026. If you buy licences through a CSP partner, ask them directly; if you buy retail, it is off the menu.
What replaced the Per App plan?
Nothing directly. The two remaining routes are Power Apps Premium at about USD 20 a user a month, which covers unlimited apps per user, and pay-as-you-go at about USD 10 per active user per app per month, which only bills for people who actually open the app that month.
Should I switch off Per App if I still hold it?
Not without doing the maths. A grandfathered plan you can still renew is often the cheapest seat in the building. Model your users against pay-as-you-go's active-user billing and Premium's flat rate before letting a renewal lapse, because you cannot get Per App back once it is gone from your channel.
Get your licensing position checked
If you're not sure which channel you're in, or whether a renewal is about to cost you the cheap seat, book a free 30-minute call. Bring the licence list and we'll read it together.