Feature
Microsoft
Microsoft is deprecating unmanaged developer environments in Power Platform — including the free environment the Power Apps Developer Plan creates; new ones can no longer be created and existing ones are suspended then deleted
departs 15 Nov 2026
Quick answers
- Is it true that The free Power Apps Developer Plan's unmanaged developer environments are being deprecated?
- Yes. Microsoft has officially announced it, effective 15 Nov 2026. If you use the free Power Apps Developer Plan to get a personal Power Platform environment, or you have any unmanaged developer environment, this is a breaking change.
- When does it take effect?
- 15 Nov 2026. Verified against the vendor's own announcement.
- What should I use instead?
- Before 15 December 2026, decide what to do with each unmanaged developer environment you want to keep.
What this means for you
If you use the free Power Apps Developer Plan to get a personal Power Platform environment, or you have any unmanaged developer environment, this is a breaking change. Per Microsoft's official Power Platform "important changes" page, starting 15 November 2026 signing up for the Power Apps Developer Plan no longer creates a developer environment, and you can no longer create new unmanaged developer environments from Power Apps, the Power Platform admin center, PowerShell, or the Power Platform CLI. Existing unmanaged developer environments are suspended starting 15 December 2026 — their apps, flows, agents, Power Pages developer sites, and data become unavailable — and are deleted starting 15 January 2027. The developer environment type continues to exist, but only as a managed developer environment, and each user can now create only one. The people affected are individual developers and learners who relied on the free Developer Plan for a personal sandbox: after this change, running apps and flows in a managed developer environment needs a premium license, which the Power Apps Developer Plan does not include. Managed environments — including the personal developer environments created by environment routing — are not affected.
Where to go
Before 15 December 2026, decide what to do with each unmanaged developer environment you want to keep. Microsoft's options: enable Managed Environments on it to convert it to a managed developer environment (note: Managed Environments use rights are not included in the Power Apps Developer Plan — users need a premium Power Apps, Power Automate, or Copilot Studio license to run apps and flows there), or export your work as a solution before suspension and import it into another environment. An admin can identify these environments in the Power Platform admin center under Manage > Environments, filtering where Type is Developer and Managed is No. Environments created by environment routing are already managed and need no action. If you take no action, an unmanaged developer environment is suspended on 15 December 2026 and deleted starting 15 January 2027, and its apps, flows, agents, Power Pages developer sites, and data are lost.
- Enable Managed Environments on the developer environment to convert it to a managed developer environment (requires a premium license to run apps and flows; not covered by the Power Apps Developer Plan)
- Export apps, flows, and tables as a solution before suspension and import them into another environment
- Use a personal developer environment created by environment routing, which is managed by default and unaffected
Microsoft is deprecating unmanaged developer environments in Power Platform — and that includes the free personal environment you get from the Power Apps Developer Plan. Per Microsoft’s official Important changes coming in Power Platform page, the change rolls out in three published phases.
What is changing, and when
Microsoft’s timeline table lists these phases exactly:
- Creation ends — 15 November 2026. Signing up for the Power Apps Developer Plan no longer creates a developer environment. You can’t create new unmanaged developer environments from Power Apps, the Power Platform admin center, PowerShell, or the Power Platform CLI.
- Suspension starts — 15 December 2026. Existing unmanaged developer environments are suspended; their apps, flows, agents, Power Pages developer sites, and data become unavailable.
- Deletion starts — 15 January 2027. Suspended unmanaged developer environments are deleted.
The developer environment type doesn’t disappear — it continues, but only as a managed developer environment, and each user can now create only one (existing managed developer environments are unchanged, even if a user already has more than one).
Who this affects
This hits individual developers and learners who used the free Power Apps Developer Plan as a personal sandbox, plus anyone with an unmanaged developer environment. The catch: a managed developer environment needs a premium license to run apps and flows, and the Power Apps Developer Plan does not include Managed Environments use rights. So the free, unmanaged personal environment that the Developer Plan provided is effectively going away — the type that remains carries a licensing requirement the free plan doesn’t meet.
What is not affected: developer environments that are already managed environments (including the personal developer environments created by environment routing, which are managed by default); production, sandbox, trial, and default environments; and any solution you export before an environment is suspended.
What to do
Decide, before 15 December 2026, what to do with each unmanaged developer environment you want to keep:
- Convert it by enabling Managed Environments on it — this turns it into a managed developer environment. Remember the licensing: users need a premium Power Apps, Power Automate, or Copilot Studio license to run apps and flows there, since the Developer Plan doesn’t cover managed-environment use.
- Export your work as a solution before suspension and import it into another environment.
An admin can list the affected environments in the Power Platform admin center under Manage > Environments, filtering where Type is Developer and Managed is No. Take no action and the environment is suspended on 15 December 2026 and deleted starting 15 January 2027, with its apps, flows, agents, Power Pages developer sites, and data lost.
Source: Microsoft Learn — Important changes coming in Power Platform.
Entry changelog
- — last reviewed.
- — Entry created from Microsoft's official "Important changes coming in Power Platform" page on Microsoft Learn. The three published phases are quoted exactly: creation ends 15 November 2026 (signing up for the Power Apps Developer Plan no longer creates an environment), suspension starts 15 December 2026, deletion starts 15 January 2027. sunsetDate set to the imminent milestone — 15 November 2026 — with the 15 December suspension and 15 January 2027 deletion dates stated in full in the impact and migration notes. Status confirmed: the ingestion adapter initially read this item as dateless (signaled), but the primary page publishes explicit phase dates, so it is recorded as confirmed with the exact dates. No detect: fingerprint — an unmanaged developer environment is a Power Platform environment type / account plan, not something a repository scan can match.
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