It hasn’t been long since Microsoft increased the Dataverse default capacity entitlements for all customers. This was a very welcome change, given how the actual cost of add-on storage capacity for Dataverse has not decreased since the 2019 licensing model was introduced. Given broader trends in storage hardware pricing, there’s unlikely to be much market pressure to push those add-on prices down.
At the same time, as Microsoft introduces more AI features that rely on Dataverse to store feature components, operational logs, and new records, storage consumption is likely to keep increasing. It has always been an uncomfortable discussion for Microsoft to address why their first-party functionality is eating up the virtual hard drive space that the customers are paying for directly.
To address this, there was a Microsoft 365 Message Center message MC1226278 published in February 2026, titled “Dynamics 365 Sales – Information about Dataverse storage entitlement increase for premium customers”.
Presumably, only customers that had Dynamics 365 Sales Premium licenses in their tenant saw this message. As we know from the recent M365 Copilot Chat 2k seat licensing limitations, Microsoft is increasingly targeting the Message Center information only to the impacted customers. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for their Microsoft partners to provide guidance on the topics, unless these messages are shared publicly by the community.
The latest Dynamics 365 licensing guide now reflects the changes communicated in the above message. Sales Premium has been given its own line in the “Default subscription capacity included per tenant” section. Compared to other Dynamics 365 CRM app licenses, the difference is rather significant:
Instead of 30 GB in Dataverse database default capacity per tenant, having a Sales Premium license unlocks a 45 GB default capacity. On the file storage side, the tenant default capacity goes up from 40 GB to 60 GB. In addition, every seat of Sales Premium accrues double the amount of Dataverse database capacity compared to the Dynamics 365 Enterprise licenses.
Optimizing your Dynamics 365 license portfolio for Dataverse storage
At this point, we need to do one check: is there any new minimum purchase license requirement introduced for Dynamics 365 Sales Premium? Looking at the product terms page, we don’t find any such requirement. So, it is possible to purchase a single license if the customer so chooses.
The next question is: are there restrictions on how different license types can be combined? When it comes to Sales Enterprise and Sales Premium, no such limits are mentioned in the licensing guide. The only clause about SKU combinations in this context remains the familiar restriction on Professional licenses not being eligible for mix & match in the same environment: “Customers using Professional will not be able to combine Sales Premium, Enterprise, or Sales Insights within the same environment instance.”
Perhaps you have already guessed why checking these aspects of the licensing terms is relevant here. Yes, exactly! Because by purchasing just a single Dynamics 365 Sales Premium license, we can unlock considerably more Dataverse storage capacity for the tenant. We can use the interactive Dataverse Capacity Calculator I have built to demonstrate the impact:
In this scenario, there were 10 Sales Enterprise and 1 Sales Premium licenses. The new default capacity entitlement gives an immediate 15 GB boost to the database capacity, plus an added 250 MB per each Premium seat. Nothing changed in the monthly licensing costs.
Without going into details about what additional features the Sales Premium licensing unlocks, from a pure storage cost optimization perspective, the conclusion is clear. If you have Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise licenses in use, purchasing a single additional Sales Premium seat is a no-brainer. Even if you would be simply building custom Power Apps and not using any first-party business apps from the Dynamics 365 product family, the default capacity from Sales Premium is still highly attractive.
The list price for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise license is $105 per user per month. Sales Premium is $150. With upgrading one Sales seat from Enterprise to Premium, you can gain additional Dataverse storage that would cost $640/month if purchased via the add-on licenses:
~15 GB database × $40/GB = $600/month
~20 GB file × $2/GB = $40/month
→ ~$640/month of implied value from added capacity alone
With a growing number of environments, apps and Copilot agents in typical Microsoft 365 tenants, the need for purchasing Dataverse storage beyond the seeded capacity included in the base licenses is becoming increasingly common. It makes sense to analyze how your pool of storage capacity is currently managed, both from the sources of capacity as well as where that capacity has been allocated. If you need a professional to help you in optimizing your Power Platform and Dynamics 365 licensing, please do reach out to me.
