Manage storage capacity
Power Platform environments with Dataverse consume storage capacity from your tenant's pool. Understanding how capacity works, monitoring usage, and responding to overages prevents environment creation failures and service disruptions. Developer environments handle capacity differently. For more details, see Dataverse storage capacity.
Understand the capacity model
Dataverse measures storage across three categories:
- Database: Stores structured data in Dataverse tables (rows, columns, metadata). This is the most common type of storage consumed by apps and flows.
- File: Stores attachments, images, annotations, and web resources. Files stored through SharePoint integration don't count against this capacity.
- Log: Stores audit logs, plugin trace logs, and elastic table data. Grows rapidly in environments with auditing enabled.
Where capacity comes from
Your tenant's total available capacity comes from multiple sources:
| Source | Description |
|---|---|
| Org (tenant) default | Base capacity included with your tenant at sign-up |
| User licenses | Additional capacity added for each licensed user |
| Additional storage | Capacity add-ons purchased separately |
All storage capacity accrues at the tenant level. You don't need to allocate database storage to individual environments — they draw from the shared tenant pool.
Monitor capacity in the admin center
- Sign in to the Power Platform admin center.
- In the navigation pane, select Licensing > Capacity add-ons.
- The Summary tab shows tenant-level capacity usage across all three categories.
The summary view displays:
- Total entitled capacity vs. current consumption for each category.
- Top environments by storage usage.
- Capacity by source (default, user licenses, purchased add-ons).
Select the details button next to any environment to drill into its specific usage, including top tables by size and growth trends over time.
Tip
Monitor capacity regularly and set up internal alerts when usage exceeds 80%. This gives you time to clean up data or purchase add-ons before reaching overage thresholds.
Respond to capacity overages
Microsoft enforces capacity limits through a tiered notification system:
| Threshold | Notification | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 15% available | Warning email to admins | No operational impact yet |
| Less than 5% available | Elevated warning | Admin operations might be impacted |
| 0% available (overage) | Overage notification | Blocks environment creation, copy, restore, and recovery |
When your tenant exceeds capacity, Power Platform blocks the following operations until you resolve the overage:
- Create a new environment (requires minimum 1 GB available).
- Copy an environment.
- Restore an environment.
- Convert a trial environment to paid.
- Recover a deleted environment.
- Add Dataverse to an existing environment.
Note
Database capacity overflow can compensate for log storage deficits. For example, if you're 10 GB over on log usage but have 20 GB of unused database capacity, you aren't in deficit. However, excess file capacity can't compensate for database or log overages.
Free up storage space
Before purchasing additional capacity, try these strategies to reduce consumption:
- Delete unused environments: Remove sandbox and trial environments that are no longer needed.
- Remove old audit logs: Reduce log storage by adjusting audit retention policies.
- Clean up attachments: Identify and remove orphaned file attachments.
- Archive historical data: Move old records to long-term retention using Dataverse data archival features.
Free up storage for Dataverse provides more detailed information on how to reduce usage and free up storage.
Purchase and manage add-ons
If you need more capacity than your existing licenses provide, purchase storage add-ons:
- Buy add-ons through your Microsoft 365 admin center or volume licensing agreement.
- Database storage add-ons accrue automatically to your tenant pool — no per-environment allocation needed.
- Other capacity add-ons (app passes, flow capacity, portal page views) require allocation to specific environments.
To allocate non-storage add-ons:
- In the Power Platform admin center, go to Licensing > Capacity add-ons.
- Select the Add-ons tab.
- Select + Assign to an environment.
- Choose the target environment and allocate the desired capacity.
You can restrict who can allocate add-on capacity through tenant settings by selecting Only specific admins under Add-on capacity assignments.
Plan capacity for your environment strategy
Capacity planning connects directly to your environment topology. Use these guidelines when planning capacity for your environment topology:
- Green zone environments : These environments typically consume minimal capacity because they contain test data only. Monitor total count — many small environments still add up.
- Yellow zone environments : These environments often hold copies of production data. Account for this when estimating database and file needs.
- Red zone environments (production): These are your largest consumers. Plan for growth based on user adoption projections and data retention requirements.
Review capacity at least monthly. Set up a recurring calendar reminder to check the capacity dashboard and compare actual growth against projections. Early detection of growth trends gives you time to purchase add-ons or archive data before reaching overage thresholds.