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What is Power Automate?

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With its automation capabilities, Power Automate helps you streamline your business processes and automate repetitive tasks. Its intuitive interface and many connectors allow you to create workflows with little to no knowledge of coding. You can drag and drop components and set up workflows to save time and improve efficiency. Power Automate can handle simple tasks like sending notifications and more complex processes across multiple apps and services. It's flexible and scalable, making it useful for various automation needs in a modern workplace.

Before you can create a workflow, you need to sign up for Power Automate with any email address. If you never used an online Microsoft product with that address, you need to register it. Learn more in Sign up and sign in for Power Automate.

Once you have access, you're ready to get started using Power Automate!

Types of flows

Power Automate provides three types of flows to meet different automation needs. Each type of flow is designed for specific scenarios and can be used independently or in combination with others.

Select one of the following types for an overview of what it can do:

  • Cloud flows: Create a cloud flow when you want your automation to be triggered either automatically, instantly, or via a schedule.
  • Desktop flows: Use desktop flows to automate tasks on the web or the desktop.
  • Generative actions (preview): Use generative actions in your flow if you want to specify only the intent of the action and then have the AI choose the right set of actions in the right order based on your input, context, and intent.

Create and manage flows in Power Apps

Your Power Automate license gives you rights to create and manage flows in Power Apps. For example, after you sign in to Power Apps, you can select Flows on the left navigation pane. You can also create and manage flows through the Power Automate pane within Power Apps Studio.