Discover the Impact: What Dataverse Storage Licensing Changes Mean for Dynamics 365
In December 2025, Microsoft made licensing changes to storage capacity for Dynamics 365. Microsoft is reshaping storage entitlements to match the reality of AI-driven ERP.
As someone who spends every day helping clients navigate Microsoft licensing, I’m genuinely excited about the latest changes to Dataverse Storage in Dynamics 365. These updates aren’t just about numbers. They’re about giving you more freedom to innovate and less friction as you build with AI-driven ERP
I know that when licensing changes roll out, it’s easy to focus on price or worry about disruption. But from my experience, the real story here is overwhelmingly positive. Microsoft has listened to feedback and responded with increased default capacity and a simplified, pooled entitlement model. That means more flexibility and fewer headaches for everyone.
If you’re building with Dynamics 365, Power Platform, or Finance and Operations apps, these changes remove long-standing friction and give you more room to innovate without constantly worrying about hitting storage limits.
Why Microsoft is Doing This Now
Business applications are evolving fast. Competitive advantage is shifting toward organizations that can use AI to change how work gets done, not just record transactions.
Across Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, we’re seeing rapid growth in AI-assisted scenarios:
- Natural language queries and Copilot interactions
- Automated decision-making and approvals
- Agentic workflows that reason, orchestrate, and adapt in real time
All of this relies on Microsoft Dataverse, the underlying data platform.
What’s Changing for Dataverse Capacity
Starting in December 2025, baseline Dataverse capacity is increasing across business applications. The updated tenant-included capacity is detailed in the December issue of the Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide, but the reason is simple:
Give customers enough headroom to build, experiment, and scale AI-driven scenarios without immediately running into limits.
Whether you’re building Copilot experiences, orchestrating workflows, or enabling agentic apps, Dataverse now provides more flexibility to support modern workloads.
The biggest shift: pooled storage for ERP
For customers using Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations apps, the most impactful change is how storage is allocated.
Before: separate caps
Historically, ERP customers had:
- Dataverse storage (with its own cap)
- Operations storage (with a separate cap)
After: one shared entitlement
Now, default storage capacity is:
- Increased, and
- Reported as a single, shared entitlement across Dataverse and the ERP operational store.
Instead of managing multiple pools, storage can flow to where it’s needed most as workloads grow.
The two tables below provide a visual explanation. Previously, there were separate lines for the Operations Database and Dataverse Database, but these have now been merged into one. The included storage amount has also increased significantly. Clients who currently purchase extra storage may want to reconsider their needs. The below tables are simplified versions of more complicated scenarios, which can be found on page 44 of December 2025 licensing guide.
Before December 2025:
| Resource Type | Included | Accrued per User |
| Dataverse Database | 10 GB | 250 MB |
| Dataverse File | 20 GB | 2 GB |
| Dataverse Log | 2 GB | 0 GB |
| Operations Database | 60 GB | 4 GB |
| Operations File | 40 GB | 4 GB |
After December 2025:
| Customer Service Enterprise, Field Service, Sales Enterprise, Sales Premium |
Commerce, Finance, Project Operations, Supply Chain Management | |||
| Resource Type | Included | Accrued per User | Included | Accrued per User |
| Dataverse/Operations Database | 30 GB | 250 MB | 90 GB | 5 GB |
| Dataverse/Operations File | 40 GB | 2 GB | 80 GB | 5 GB |
| Dataverse Log | 2 GB | 0 GB | 0 GB | 0 GB |
Looking Ahead
These changes take effect automatically. No customer action is required, and updated entitlements will appear in the Power Platform admin center as the new model rolls out.
Here are tips that our clients should investigate:
- Reevaluate any planned or existing capacity purchases -With the increased baseline Dataverse capacity and pooled ERP storage, many organizations may find they no longer need to purchase additional (and often expensive) capacity add-ons. Recalculate your effective entitlement before renewing or expanding.
- Revisit historical Dataverse overage issues - If Dataverse previously filled faster than Operations storage, that constraint may no longer exist. What once looked like a Dataverse problem may now be fully absorbed by the combined entitlement.
- Use this change as a trigger for a licensing assessment: This is an ideal moment to run a broader licensing assessment, storage is changing, but so are usage patterns, AI features, and SKU value propositions.
Why You Can Be Excited About Dataverse Storage Changes
If you’ve ever felt boxed in by storage limits or found yourself juggling multiple pools, this is your moment to reassess. With the new baseline capacity and shared entitlements, many organizations may find they no longer need costly add-ons. I always recommend using changes like these as a trigger for a broader licensing assessment, because the value you can unlock now is greater than ever.
Honestly, I see this as good news all around. Microsoft recognized that every single client was running into some constraints and they made it better. So, whether you’re building Copilot experiences, orchestrating workflows, or enabling agentic apps, you’ll have more room to grow.
Let us know if we can help you reach out to our team for more information!
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