Power Fx User Defined Types Now Generally Available

Introduction

Microsoft has announced general availability for User Defined Types (UDTs) in Power Fx, a notable update for teams building complex Power Apps. For IT admins, architects, and app makers, this matters because UDTs help standardize formulas, reduce errors, and make large apps easier to maintain in production.

As of Power Apps Studio version 3.26044, UDTs are turned on by default for new apps. Existing apps can enable the feature under Settings > Updates > New > User-Defined types.

What’s new

UDTs are now fully supported for production workloads alongside other Power Fx capabilities such as Enhanced Component Properties and User Defined Functions.

Key improvements include:

• Strongly typed records and tables for cleaner, more understandable formulas
• Better support for passing records and tables into user-defined functions
• Improved return values from functions using typed structures
• Safer and more predictable JSON parsing and conversion
• Support for Type, RecordOf, ParseJSON, IsType, and AsType functions

A practical example is defining a Book type with fields like Title, Author, Pages, and Published date, then reusing that type across functions and app logic.

Why it matters for Power Platform teams

For organizations managing business-critical Power Apps, UDTs can improve app quality and long-term supportability.

Benefits include:

• More modular apps by grouping related data into reusable structures
• Reduced formula errors through strong typing instead of loosely structured data
• Better JSON handling, especially when converting API or external data into usable Power Fx objects
• Improved readability for teams maintaining shared apps over time

This is especially useful when apps rely on integrations, custom connectors, or JSON payloads where inconsistent formats can lead to runtime issues.

Impact on administrators and makers

Power Platform administrators should expect this feature to become part of standard app development practices, especially for enterprise apps with multiple contributors. Makers can use UDTs to enforce more consistent design patterns and reduce troubleshooting caused by invalid or ambiguous data types.

The update also supports safer validation workflows. For example, IsType and AsType can be used to check whether parsed JSON matches an expected structure before the app attempts to use it.

Next steps

• Verify your environment is using Power Apps Studio 3.26044 or later
• Enable User-Defined types for existing apps where needed
• Review apps that use ParseJSON or complex formulas for opportunities to adopt UDTs
• Update internal Power Fx development standards to include typed records and tables
• Test production apps for improved validation and maintainability

With UDTs now generally available, Power Fx continues to mature as a stronger language for enterprise-grade app development.