In Power Platform, personal (developer) environments are an easy, low‑risk way to let people build and experiment without causing chaos. Everyone gets their own space, so makers can learn and try things out. It’s also exactly how Microsoft expects organizations to scale Power Platform without slowing anyone down.

From a capacity point of view, they’re pretty lightweight. Personal environments don’t block or reserve Dataverse capacity upfront. They only use capacity when someone actually stores data. That means you can support lots of makers without suddenly running out of space, while still keeping an eye on things at tenant level.

For users, it’s simple and clear: this is your space. They can safely prototype, test ideas, and build early solutions without impacting anyone else. When something proves useful, it can then be moved into a shared or production environment with the right governance in place. Use solutions to transport your applications, flows, and agents.

Talking about Developer environments: see the Power Platform environments overview. In short: Developer environments are created by users with the Developer Plan (or with environment routing or signup) and are meant for personal use only. They exist as long as the Developer Plan is active, can be restricted by admins, and have limited governance (e.g. Security groups can’t be assigned to developer environments).

Here’s an at‑a‑glance overview of what this means in the real world

Why use personal (developer) environments

Personal (developer) environments are the recommended default landing zone for individual makers. They:

  • Protect the Default environment from uncontrolled development
  • Give makers freedom to experiment without impacting others
  • Align with Microsoft’s environment routing and modern governance model
  • Scale well in large organizations with many makers

They are ideal for learning, prototyping, and early-stage solution development.

What this means for capacity

  • No capacity is pre‑allocated when a personal environment is created.
  • Tenant Dataverse capacity is consumed only when data is actually stored
  • A personal environment with 0 MB usage = 0 capacity cost
  • Creation requires ≥ 1 GB free Dataverse database capacity at tenant level. This is a one-time provisioning check, not a reservation
  • Deleting unused personal environments returns all consumed capacity

Best practice: Monitor actual Dataverse usage, not the number of personal environments.

When is the personal developer environment created

When the Admin enables Environment routing:

  • An user opens a maker portal (e.. make.powerapps.com)
  • The Power Platform automatically provisions a personal developer environment
  • No Developer Plan license is required. The environment is created because of routing, not because of a license.
  • Personal environments created via Environment routing are:
    • Managed Environments
    • automatically placed into an environment group, and
    • governed by tenant settings
  • A user does NOT need a Premium license just because they have a personal developer environment.
  • Users do not need a Developer Plan license, and the environments are always managed by design.

Notes

  • When a user signs up for the Power Apps Developer Plan (not via environment routing), a new personal developer environment is created, but it´s unmanaged and it will not appear in environment groups.
  • Enabling Environment Routing does NOT move existing personal environments into environment groups.

What this means for users (makers)

Personal environment = isolated workspace.

  • Each maker gets an isolated workspace they fully own
  • No risk of breaking shared apps or flows
  • Clear separation between:
    • Personal development
    • Team / project environments
    • Production
  • If the environment is not Managed, no additional premium license is required beyond existing entitlements
  • If later converted to a Managed Environment, users will need premium licensing to continue building/running apps
  • Premium license = required only for premium capabilities (see below)

PPAC-env-routing

When does a user need a Premium license in Power Platform

A user needs a Premium license based on what they do, not where they do it. A Premium license is required when a user:

  • Uses premium connectors (for example: Dataverse, SQL, SAP, HTTP, custom connectors)
  • Runs apps or flows that use Dataverse
  • Builds or runs solutions in a Managed Environment
  • Runs Power Automate flows beyond seeded M365 rights
  • Uses premium features (AI Builder, Copilot Studio, etc.). If Copilot builds something premium, running it still requires a Premium license.

Activate personal (developer) environments routing

With all that in mind, here’s how to turn it on.

PPAC-env-routing

  • Turn on the environment routing for (all) services.

PPAC-env-routing

  • Set the environment routing to None. This creates a new personal developer environment once the user opens a maker portal if not already existing. Click Save.

PPAC-env-routing

  • Back in the routing panel, click Save again. A notification banners shows “Your settings have been successfully saved.” The environment routing is activated.

Governance best practices

  1. Enable environment routing: Route makers automatically to personal environments instead of Default - as described above.
  2. Keep personal environments unmanaged by default: Add Managed Environments only where governance features are required
  3. Set lifecycle rules: Identify inactive personal environments and archive or delete after X days
  4. Limit Dataverse misuse : Use DLP policies. Educate makers on when to move solutions to team/production environments
  5. Monitor capacity trends : Focus on environments with growing Dataverse usage, not environment count

Summary

Personal (developer) environments are the safest way to empower makers at scale, with minimal capacity impact, clear ownership, and a clean path from experimentation to governed production.
We recommend using personal environments and environment routing as a best practice across the organization.