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A plain-language guide to the Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Fundamentals certification, Microsoft’s entry point to Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, and Copilot Studio, as of October 2026. It covers the PL-900 exam, the five domains under the July 2026 outline, the 45-minute format and passing score, the $99 fee, why it never expires, and the roles it opens the door to.
The Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Fundamentals certification, earned through exam PL-900, is Microsoft’s entry-level credential for its low-code platform. It proves you understand what Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, connectors, and Copilot Studio agents do, and how a Power Platform environment is secured and governed.
It is a describe-level exam. Every objective in the outline starts with the word "Describe," so you are asked when a model-driven app beats a canvas app, when a desktop flow is the right tool, or how an agent uses a knowledge source. You are not asked to build any of them under the clock. That makes it approachable for business users who have never opened a maker portal, while still testing whether you can follow a Power Platform project conversation.
There are no prerequisites. Microsoft writes it for anyone starting to build solutions with Power Platform and lists App Maker as its role. It is issued and maintained by Microsoft, and the skills-measured outline was last updated on July 24, 2026, when a Copilot Studio agents domain replaced the old Power Pages domain.
What Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, connectors, Power Pages, generative AI, and Copilot Studio are each for. The smallest domain at 5 to 10%.
Dataverse tables, columns, relationships, and business logic, plus environments, security, monitoring, and pipelines. 20 to 25%.
Canvas, model-driven, and code apps, Plan designer, and building apps with AI. 20 to 25%.
Cloud and desktop flows, connector triggers and actions, and creating flows with AI. 20 to 25%.
Topics, knowledge sources, tools and MCP servers, channels, Agent 365, and agent evaluations. New in July 2026 at 20 to 25%.
Four things that set Power Platform Fundamentals apart from the other Microsoft entry-level credentials in 2026.
Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, and Copilot Studio are usually learned one at a time, by whoever needs them that week. PL-900 is the one Microsoft exam that covers how they fit together, from the Dataverse table an app reads to the flow it triggers and the agent that answers questions about it. It is also the shared starting point for the associate exams above it.
Since July 24, 2026, a full domain (20 to 25 percent) covers Copilot Studio agents: topics, knowledge sources, MCP servers, agent flows, channels, and agent evaluations. Study material written before that date skips all of it, so check the date on anything you study from.
A $99 fee, 45 minutes of exam time, and a credential that never expires. Few certifications ask so little. Our guide to Microsoft certifications shows where PL-900 sits on the Power Platform track.
PL-900 is not a DoD 8140 credential. Microsoft claims no DoD 8140 mapping for it, so it won’t satisfy a cyber-coded position requirement on its own.
Its value is practical instead. It shows an employer that builds on Power Apps, Power Automate, and Copilot Studio that you know how the pieces fit together, which matters most for people who work on the platform without being full-time developers.
The certification and the PL-900 exam as of October 2026, checked against Microsoft Learn.
Power Platform Fundamentals is the bottom rung by design. The Power Platform associate tier changed a lot in 2026: PL-200 retired on August 31, and PL-400 moved to exam AB-400 on October 16. These are the three directions people take from here.
The move from describing the platform to building on it. AB-410 is an intermediate, 120-minute exam on Dataverse data models, canvas and model-driven apps, cloud flows, and wiring agents and Copilot features into apps and Power Pages sites. It is the associate credential for makers who build with low code and AI.
The data and reporting direction. Power BI is not on the July 2026 PL-900 outline, so anyone whose job is dashboards takes PL-300 for it. It is a 100-minute exam on preparing, modeling, visualizing, and securing data in Power BI, and it renews free every 12 months.
The developer direction. AB-400, which replaced PL-400 for registration on October 16, 2026, earns the Power Platform Developer Associate and expects JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, and REST API experience. AB-620 earns the AI Agent Builder Associate and goes deep on Copilot Studio agents, MCP servers, and multi-agent solutions.
PL-900 sits at the fundamentals tier of Microsoft’s Power Platform path. From here the path runs up through the associate exams for builders and analysts, then branches into code, agents, and solution architecture.
The low-code groundwork
Hands-on role-based exams
Pick your path
Two questions to answer before you commit: can you sit it, and should you spend the time on PL-900 rather than going straight to an associate exam. Here’s a straight answer to both.
No prerequisites of any kind.
There is no prerequisite credential or experience requirement, and nothing to apply for. You register through Pearson VUE, at a test center or online, or through Certiport if you are a student or educator, and sit the exam. If you fail a first attempt, you can retake it after 24 hours, then 14 days between later attempts. A business user with no IT title can realistically earn it.
Check the date on your study material.
Microsoft rewrote a large part of PL-900 on July 24, 2026. Power Pages lost its domain, the hands-on app-building objectives went away, and Copilot Studio agents arrived at 20 to 25 percent of the exam. Older courses and question banks still teach the previous version. Build a canvas app, a cloud flow, and a simple agent yourself so the terms stop being abstract, then take Microsoft’s free PL-900 practice assessment to see which domain still needs work.
Power Platform Fundamentals is an entry credential, so it opens doors rather than filling senior seats on its own. These are the roles where it fits best and does the most for a resume.
The closest fit. Analysts sit between the people who want a process fixed and the makers who build the fix. PL-900 gives you the words for Dataverse tables, canvas versus model-driven apps, and cloud flows, so the requirements you write are ones a maker can build from.
Microsoft lists App Maker as the role for PL-900. These are people in operations, finance, HR, or sales who build apps, flows, and agents for their own teams. PL-900 is the starting point, and AB-410 is the associate credential you work toward from here.
IT staff who look after environments, security roles, and monitoring while the business builds. The administration and governance objectives in PL-900, from environments through pipelines, are the starting vocabulary for that job.
Entry seats at Microsoft partners that deliver Power Platform and Dynamics 365 projects. Consultants run discovery sessions and configure solutions, and PL-900 shows a hiring manager you know the parts of the platform before you are put in front of a customer.
Roles that hunt for manual work to remove, such as approvals, document handling, and repetitive Outlook and SharePoint chores. PL-900 covers where a cloud flow fits and where a desktop flow fits, which is the first decision on most automation projects.
Developers who will extend Power Platform with code. PL-900 is not required for AB-400, but it fills in the maker side of the platform (Dataverse, apps, flows, and agents) before you start writing code against it.
The three certifications people weigh against PL-900 most often: the Azure fundamentals sibling, the next rung up for builders, and the Power BI credential for analysts. Here’s how they line up.
| Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900) | Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) | Intelligent Applications Builder (AB-410) | Power BI Data Analyst (PL-300) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issuer | Microsoft | Microsoft | Microsoft | Microsoft |
| Level | Fundamentals | Fundamentals | Associate | Associate |
| Focus | Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, and Copilot Studio basics | Cloud concepts and Azure basics | Building AI-powered apps, data models, and flows | Modeling and visualizing data in Power BI |
| Exam | Count not published, 45 min | Count not published, 45 min | Count not published, 120 min | Count not published, 100 min |
| Passing Score | 700 of 1000 | 700 of 1000 | 700 of 1000 | 700 of 1000 |
| Cost | $99 | $99 | $165 | $165 |
| Validity | Does not expire | Does not expire | 1 year, free renewal | 1 year, free renewal |
| Best For | Business users and new makers | Beginners and non-technical roles on Azure | Makers who build apps and flows every day | Report and data analysts |
Prices are US list prices as of October 2026 and vary by country and taxes. Microsoft fundamentals certifications do not expire, and associate certifications renew free each year through an online assessment on Microsoft Learn. PL-900, AB-410, and PL-300 facts are from Microsoft Learn. AZ-900 facts are from our Azure Fundamentals guide.
Certification Matchups: the published facts, strengths and weak spots of 33 certifications, side by side.
Our Power Platform Fundamentals boot camp covers all five PL-900 domains, including the July 2026 Copilot Studio material, in one instructor-led day, live online or in person. You work from official Microsoft courseware in hosted Power Platform environments, and your exam voucher and a free retake are included.
Where PL-900 sits on the Microsoft map, how to read its study guide, and what to expect on exam day.
The full Microsoft map, including the Power Platform track where PL-900 is the fundamentals exam, PL-300 covers Power BI, and PL-400 becomes AB-400. It also covers how long fundamentals and associate exams take to prepare for.
The Microsoft credentials people are sitting and budgeting for this year, what each one costs in the US, and where PL-300 for Power BI fits among them.
Why Microsoft retired or replaced more than a dozen certifications in 2026, how its credentials are being rebuilt around Copilot and agents, and what that means for the exams you pick now.
Microsoft publishes its objectives as a study guide on Microsoft Learn, with a percentage range per skill area and a change log. Here is how to read one as a specification, not a table of contents.
Why a practice test percentage does not map onto Microsoft’s 700 on a 1 to 1,000 scale, and how to tell whether you are ready to book the real exam.
ID checks, online proctoring, and retake waits compared across vendors, including Microsoft’s 24-hour then 14-day retake rule and how its waiver process works.
Who qualifies for extra time or other accommodations, and how the request works at Microsoft and the other major certification bodies, so the paperwork never delays your exam.
Microsoft calls them skill areas. Four of the five carry the same 20 to 25 percent weight, and business value is the smallest at 5 to 10 percent, so there is no single domain you can lean on. Click any domain for what it covers.
A tour of what each part of the platform is for. You need to explain the value of Power Apps for building applications, Power Automate for automating processes, Dataverse for organizing business data, connectors for pulling services and data into apps and flows, Power Pages for building websites, and Copilot Studio for creating agents, plus the generative AI features that run across all of them. It is the smallest domain, and its weight went down in the July 2026 update.
Two halves. The Dataverse half covers how Dataverse differs from a traditional database, then tables, columns, and relationships, forms and views, the business logic options (including Power Fx), and using AI to create and edit tables and relationships. The administration and governance half covers environments, the Power Platform security model, data privacy and accessibility, monitoring and analytics, and application lifecycle management with Power Platform pipelines.
The four ways to build an app and when each one fits: canvas apps, model-driven apps, Plan designer, and code apps. The second half is about building with AI. You describe how AI creates a canvas app and a model-driven app, and how the vibe experience produces AI-powered apps. The older objectives that walked you through building a canvas app and a model-driven app by hand were removed in July 2026.
Cloud flows versus desktop flows, and the everyday automation cases the outline names: approvals, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, Forms, and document automation. On the build side you describe connector triggers and actions for cloud flows, and how AI is used to create and modify both cloud flows and desktop flows.
The domain added in July 2026. Building agents covers use cases, conversation paths built from topics, knowledge sources, tools (including MCP servers and agent flows), and publishing through channels. Managing agents covers the use cases and capabilities of Microsoft Agent 365, monitoring agent usage and adoption, and agent evaluations.
Domains and weights reflect the Microsoft PL-900 study guide, skills measured as of July 24, 2026. That update added the Copilot Studio agents domain, removed the Power Pages domain, and moved Power Apps from building apps by hand to building them with AI. Microsoft updates the English exam first and localized versions about eight weeks later, so confirm the current outline on Microsoft Learn before scheduling.
The questions candidates ask most often when researching the Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals certification.
The Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Fundamentals certification, earned by passing exam PL-900, is Microsoft’s entry-level credential for its low-code platform. It tests whether you understand what Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, connectors, and Copilot Studio agents do, and how a Power Platform environment is managed. It’s written for people starting to build business solutions, and it doesn’t assume you’ve built anything yet.
Microsoft updated the PL-900 skills-measured outline on July 24, 2026. It added a new domain on agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio (20 to 25 percent), removed the Power Pages domain, and replaced the build-a-canvas-app and build-a-model-driven-app objectives with objectives on using AI to create apps. The business value domain shrank to 5 to 10 percent. PL-900 isn’t on Microsoft’s list of exams scheduled to retire.
No. PL-900 has no prerequisites, so anyone can register and sit the exam. Microsoft writes it for people starting their journey building solutions with Power Platform. It also notes that PL-900 can help you prepare for the role-based certifications, but it isn’t a prerequisite for any of them.
The five domains are Describe the business value of Microsoft Power Platform (5 to 10 percent), Manage the Microsoft Power Platform environment (20 to 25 percent), Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Apps (20 to 25 percent), Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate (20 to 25 percent), and Describe features and capabilities of agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio (20 to 25 percent). Four of the five carry the same weight, so no single product dominates.
Microsoft doesn’t publish a question count for PL-900. It says most of its certification exams have between 40 and 60 questions and that the number can vary by exam. You get 45 minutes to answer them, inside a 65-minute seat time that covers the instructions and the candidate agreement.
You need 700 on a scale of 1 to 1,000 to pass. Microsoft uses scaled scoring, so 700 doesn’t mean 70 percent of questions correct. The passing line takes the difficulty of your question set into account. Some questions may be unscored, and there’s no penalty for guessing.
PL-900 costs $99 USD in the United States as of October 2026, and the price varies by country. You take it through Pearson VUE at a test center or online, or through Certiport if you’re a student or educator. Training Camp’s Power Platform Fundamentals boot camp includes the exam voucher in the program fee, along with a free retake.
No DoD 8140 mapping is claimed for it. Microsoft doesn’t list PL-900 against a DoD 8140 work role, so don’t count on it to satisfy a cyber-coded position requirement. Its value is with employers that build on Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, and Copilot Studio and want staff who understand how those pieces fit together. See the full DoD 8140 work role paths.
No. Microsoft fundamentals certifications, including Power Platform Fundamentals, don’t expire and have no renewal assessment. That’s different from Microsoft’s associate and expert certifications, which renew each year through a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn. Once you pass PL-900, it stays on your transcript.
On its own, PL-900 supports entry-level and business-side roles rather than senior technical ones: business analyst, app maker or citizen developer, junior Power Platform administrator, junior functional consultant at a Microsoft partner, automation or process improvement specialist, and junior developer. For roles where you build apps and flows every day, the next credential to aim for is an associate one such as AB-410.
No. Power BI isn’t part of the July 24, 2026 PL-900 outline. The five domains cover business value, Dataverse and administration, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Copilot Studio agents. If reporting and dashboards are your job, the Microsoft credential for that is PL-300, Power BI Data Analyst Associate.
If you’re new to Power Platform, or you work on the business side of projects built with it, take PL-900. It costs $99, it never expires, and it gives you the map of the platform. If you already build apps, flows, and agents at work, you can go straight to AB-410, Intelligent Applications Builder Associate, because PL-900 isn’t a prerequisite for it.
PL-900 is a fundamentals exam, and every objective in the outline starts with the word Describe, so it tests understanding rather than live building. The hard part is telling similar things apart: canvas versus model-driven apps, cloud versus desktop flows, topics versus knowledge sources in an agent. Our Microsoft certifications guide estimates 20 to 40 hours of study for a fundamentals exam if you’re starting with no background, and Microsoft’s free practice assessment shows you where the gaps are.
For anyone about to build on Power Platform or work alongside the people who do, yes. It’s a $99 exam that takes 45 minutes, never expires, and since July 2026 gives 20 to 25 percent of its weight to Copilot Studio agents, so you learn how Microsoft builds agents as well as apps and flows. It’s less useful if you already build on the platform every day, since AB-410 says more about what you can build.
Deciding between PL-900 and AB-410, planning a Power Platform path, or arranging training for a team of makers: tell us where you are and we’ll help you map out the right next step.