Power Automate is a capable tool, and most of its limits only matter at scale or outside Microsoft. This guide lists nine of them, each taken from Microsoft's own documentation, and says who actually feels them.
What's in this guide
Most lists of Power Automate's drawbacks are written from opinion. This one starts from the documentation: the limits page on Microsoft Learn, the licensing FAQ, the approvals guide and the connector references. Where a limit has a number, the number is Microsoft's. Where we add a view, we say so.
The nine limitations
Licensing follows the connector, and the person
Standard connectors come with Microsoft 365 licenses. Premium connectors and custom connectors need a Power Automate plan: Premium at $15 per user per month, or Process at $150 per bot per month, according to Microsoft's pricing page. For an automated or scheduled flow only the owner needs the license, but for an instant flow every person who runs it does, per the licensing FAQ.
Our read: the question is rarely whether $15 is affordable. It is who ends up running the flow, because that decides how many licenses you need.
Daily request limits depend on the owner's plan
A flow's performance profile sets how many Power Platform requests it can make. Microsoft's transition-period figures are 10,000 a day on the Low profile (free and Microsoft 365 plans), 200,000 on Medium (Premium per user) and 500,000 on High (Process and per-flow plans). Every action counts, including variables and compose steps, failed actions, retries and pagination, so a loop adds up faster than it looks.
A flow is only as stable as its owner
A cloud flow uses the plan of its owner. If the owner leaves the organization, Microsoft's limits page says the flow reverts to the Low performance profile. Connections are personal as well: the Gmail connector lists its connection as not shareable, so whoever inherits a flow signs in again with their own account.
Our read: we would treat flow ownership as part of the inventory, next to the trigger and the connectors.
Flows turn themselves off
A cloud flow that fails continuously is turned off after 14 days, and so is one that is consistently throttled. A flow that isn't triggered for 90 days might also be turned off, unless its owner has a premium or capacity license. Owners get notified, which only helps if somebody reads that inbox.
A run can't last longer than 30 days
Run duration is capped at 30 days and includes pending steps such as approvals, which time out after that. In a June 2026 Microsoft Q&A thread, a moderator said no roadmap item to raise the general limit had been published. Run history is kept for 30 days as well.
Size and loop ceilings
A flow can have 500 actions, and Microsoft warns that the editor can slow down well before that. Nesting stops at 8 levels. An Apply to each loop handles 5,000 items on the Low profile and 100,000 elsewhere. A message can be 100 MB, or 1 GB where a connector supports chunking, and a synchronous request times out after 120 seconds.
Connector throttling arrives first
Microsoft's own tip on the limits page is that individual connectors have limits you often reach before the platform's. The Google Sheets connector allows 100 calls per connection per 300 seconds, Gmail 60 calls a minute and Google Tasks 30, according to each connector's reference page.
Thin reach into Google Workspace
Power Automate has six Standard Google connectors. Drive and Sheets have no triggers, we found no connector for Docs, Forms, Chat or the Admin console, and shared drives aren't supported. Our connector guide goes through each one.
Approvals assume a Microsoft tenant
Approvals are stored in Dataverse and can be assigned to users in the Dataverse environment or the Microsoft Entra tenant, guests included. Someone who only has a Google account can't be an approver unless they are also a guest in Entra. We compare the two sides in our approvals guide.
The performance profiles, side by side
Microsoft sorts every flow into a performance profile based on the owner's plan, and the profile decides most of the numbers above. The documentation spreads them over several tables, so this one puts them together.
| Low | Medium | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans in the profile | Free, Microsoft 365 plans, Power Apps Plan 1 and Per App, Power Automate Plan 1, trials | Power Automate Premium per user, Plan 2, Power Apps per user, Dynamics 365 Enterprise | Process and per-flow plans |
| Requests per 24 hours | About 10,000 | About 200,000 | About 500,000 |
| Items in a loop or paginated action | 5,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 |
| Default retries | Up to 2 | Up to 12 | Up to 12 |
| Minimum postpone interval | 5 seconds | 1 second | 1 second |
| Concurrent outbound calls | 500 | 2,500 | 2,500 |
| Content throughput per 24 hours | 200 MB | 2 GB | 10 GB |
Source: Microsoft Learn, limits of automated, scheduled and instant flows, updated July 17, 2026. Daily request figures are Microsoft's transition-period approximations. The table is our compilation.
The detail that changes how you read the list is in the first row. Microsoft 365 plans sit in the Low column, so the flows most teams build under the license they already have get 5,000-item loops, two retries and roughly 10,000 requests a day. Our read: that is the column to design for, because it is where most flows start and where a departing owner leaves them.
Check your own flow against the limits
Describe your biggest flow. The calculator multiplies the loop items by the actions inside the loop, because every action counts toward the daily limit, then compares the result with the documented limits for your plan. The daily request figures are Microsoft's transition-period approximations, not guarantees.
The limits the calculator checks:
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Actions per flow | 500 |
| Items in an Apply to each loop | 5,000 on the Low profile, 100,000 on the others |
| Run duration, including pending approvals | 30 days |
| Power Platform requests per 24 hours | About 10,000 on Low, 200,000 on Medium and 500,000 on High |
| Message size | 100 MB, or 1 GB with chunking |
Four example flows, worked out
The same arithmetic on four illustrative flows shows which limit each one meets first. They are examples we built to make the numbers concrete, not customer data, and the figures are our calculation from Microsoft's limits.
| Example flow | Shape | Requests per run | Requests per day | What it meets first |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Daily digest | 1 run a day, 18 actions plus a loop over 200 items with 4 actions each | 818 | 818 | Nothing. It uses 8% of the Low profile's daily figure. |
| B. Invoice intake | About 150 runs a day, 22 actions each, no loop | 22 | 3,300 | Nothing. It uses 33% of the Low figure. |
| C. Sheet sync every 15 minutes | 96 runs a day, 12 actions plus a loop over 500 rows with 3 actions each | 1,512 | 145,152 | The daily limit: about 14.5 times the Low figure, 73% of Medium and 29% of High. |
| D. Contract approval | 2 runs a day, 14 actions each, some approvals wait 45 days | 14 | 28 | The 30-day run limit, not requests. The pending approval times out. |
Flow C shows how loops cost more than they look. Its 500-row loop is far below the loop cap, yet the flow spends 1,500 requests a run. If one action in that loop writes a row to Google Sheets, the 500 calls also meet the connector's limit of 100 calls per five minutes, so each run would take at least 25 minutes, longer than the 15-minute schedule.
Flow D shows the opposite case. Almost nothing about it is heavy, and it still fails, because the limit is on time. We would expect that pattern, a quiet flow that stops at an approval nobody answered, to be common wherever approvals wait on busy people.
Who these limits don't affect
If your flows are small, Microsoft-centred and owned by a team account, most of this list never shows up. A flow that reacts to an Outlook email, posts to Teams and writes to a SharePoint list uses a handful of actions, and the size caps are far away. We would expect those teams to meet the licensing question first and little else.
The limits bite earliest in three situations: flows that loop over large lists, processes that wait on people for weeks, and teams that run on Google Workspace and reach it through connectors. The last group meets limits 8 and 9 on day one.
What teams switch to
Which alternative fits depends on which limit hurt. The table matches each option to the reason people usually give for leaving.
| Option | Fits when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Stay and change the license | Throttling, daily limits or flows switching off. Microsoft suggests assigning Process licenses to dedicate capacity. | The cost per bot, and the ownership problem stays. |
| Google Workspace Studio | Simple, personal automations inside Google. We compare it here. | No step that waits for another person's decision. |
| Apps Script and AppSheet | Teams with someone who can write code, or an app to build. See the comparison. | Scripts depend on the account that created their triggers. |
| Integration tools such as Zapier, Make and n8n | Connecting SaaS apps that have connectors on both ends. | Check that the Google-side actions you need exist. |
| Zenphi, a third-party Google equivalent to Power Automate | Google Workspace is where the process lives: approvals, Directory actions, documents, Shared Drives. | A separate subscription, priced per workflow from $50 a month with unlimited users. |
For the head-to-head, see Zenphi vs Power Automate, which also covers where Power Automate is the better choice.
FAQ
What are the limitations of Power Automate?
The main ones are licensing for premium and custom connectors, daily request limits set by the owner's plan, 500 actions per flow, 30 days per run, 5,000 items per loop on the Low profile, connector-level throttling, and flows that switch themselves off after repeated failures. Outside Microsoft, add its thin reach into other ecosystems.
How many actions can a Power Automate flow have?
500 per flow definition. Microsoft recommends child flows for more, and warns that the editor can slow down before you reach 500.
What is the 30-day limit in Power Automate?
A single cloud flow run can last 30 days, counted from its start and including pending steps such as approvals. After that, pending steps time out.
Why did my Power Automate flow turn off?
Microsoft turns off a flow that fails continuously or is consistently throttled for 14 days, and it might turn off a flow that hasn't been triggered for 90 days unless the owner has a premium or capacity license.
How long does Power Automate keep run history?
Microsoft's limits page lists 30 days of run retention. Older guides quote 28 days, so check the current page for your environment.
Is Power Automate free?
Flows that use Standard connectors are included with many Microsoft 365 plans. Premium connectors need Power Automate Premium at $15 per user per month, and unattended automation uses Process at $150 per bot per month.
What are the limitations of Power Automate with Google Workspace?
It reaches Google through six Standard connectors. Drive and Sheets have no triggers, there is no connector for Docs, Forms, Chat or the Admin console, and shared drives aren't supported.
What is the best alternative to Power Automate for Google Workspace?
For simple personal automations, Google Workspace Studio. For processes with approvals, document generation and Google Admin actions, Zenphi, a third-party Google equivalent to Power Automate.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn — Limits of automated, scheduled, and instant flows (updated July 17, 2026)
- Microsoft Learn — Power Automate licensing FAQ
- Microsoft — Power Automate pricing
- Microsoft Learn — Get started with approvals
- Microsoft Learn — Google Sheets connector
- Microsoft Learn — Gmail connector
- Microsoft Learn — Google Tasks connector
- Microsoft Q&A — Power Automate workflow lifetime limit (June 2026)
Limits, licenses and prices were checked on October 1, 2026 and can change.
Related reading
Can You Use Power Automate with Google Workspace?
What the Google connectors can and can't do.
Read more →Power Automate Approvals vs Google Workspace Approvals
How approval flows map between the two.
Read more →Zenphi vs Power Automate
Where each one is the better choice.
Read comparison →Power Automate Alternatives for Google Workspace
The full list of options, grouped by who each one fits.
Read more →Bring the flow that keeps breaking and see it built in Google Workspace.
Start with the one that has caused the most support requests.
