One of the questions that often comes up when talking about Power Automate is:
"How much time or cost will this actually save us?"
It's a fair question—especially when you're trying to justify the value of building and maintaining automation solutions. Microsoft has introduced a new Savings Estimator to help with exactly that.
I came across this preview feature recently and I'm genuinely keen to try it out in upcoming flows.
What is the Savings Estimator?
The Savings Estimator is a built-in tool in Power Automate that lets you:
- Estimate how much manual effort you're saving by running a flow
- Get a rough idea of the cost savings based on labor rates
- Share tangible impact with your team, stakeholders, or leadership
It’s a small but useful feature, especially when you're trying to quantify the value of your work.
How Does It Work?
To use the estimator, you’ll be asked to provide three simple inputs:
Number of times the flow runs per month
This tells Power Automate how often the process is being triggered.Minutes saved per run
You estimate how much time would be spent manually on the task that’s now automated.Hourly cost of labor
This is used to translate time savings into a dollar figure.
For example, if your flow runs 1,000 times a month, saves 5 minutes per run, and your labor rate is $30/hour, you’re potentially saving around 83 hours—or $2,500—per month. That’s a solid number to include in a business case or ROI conversation.
Where to Find It
You can find the estimator in two places within Power Automate:
- When you're creating a new flow
- On the details page of an existing flow
Look for a section labeled "Savings" or similar—it’s easy to miss but worth checking out.
Here's the official Microsoft documentation for more info:
Power Automate Savings Feature
Why I Think This Is Worth Trying
If you're like me and often building solutions for internal teams or clients, it’s incredibly helpful to put real numbers behind the value you’re delivering.
Even if the numbers are estimates, they help spark important conversations:
- How much time are we really saving?
- Is this flow worth maintaining?
- Should we scale this solution to more teams?
Plus, if you're involved in a Center of Excellence or reporting on Power Platform usage, this is a lightweight way to start measuring impact.
A Quick Note
This feature is currently in preview, so it may change or evolve. Still, I think it's a great step forward, and I’m looking forward to exploring it more as I build out new flows.
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