Power Apps Grid Control: How to Add and Configure It in a Model-Driven App

Contoso’s project managers kept opening every task record just to change its status from Not Started to In Progress. With 40 tasks per project, that was a lot of clicks. Switching the task list on the project form to the Power Apps grid control let them edit the status right in the grid.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you what the Power Apps grid control is, how to add it to a subgrid in a model-driven app, which properties to turn on (editing, colors, grouping and totals), what users can do with it, and how it compares with the grid options in canvas apps.

Quick answer: The Power Apps grid control is the modern grid for model-driven apps built on Dataverse. To add it to a form subgrid, open the form in the form designer, select the subgrid, go to Components > + Component > Power Apps grid control, set properties such as Enable editing to Yes, select Done and then Save and publish.

What is the Power Apps grid control?

It’s a Microsoft-built grid component for views and subgrids in model-driven apps. It replaces both the old read-only grid and the editable grid with one control that supports inline editing, infinite scrolling, grouping, totals, colored choice values and nested child grids.

Microsoft deprecated the Editable Grid control and the Power Apps read-only grid in March 2026. They still work, but they only get security fixes, and nothing switches your forms automatically.

If you build canvas apps instead, you’re looking for a different control, such as the Data table control in canvas apps, which I compare at the end of this post.

Grid	Where	Status in 2026
Power Apps grid control	Model-driven views and subgrids	Current, recommended
Power Apps read-only grid	Model-driven (default for views)	Deprecated March 2026
Editable Grid	Model-driven views and subgrids	Deprecated March 2026

What you need

• A Power Platform environment with Dataverse and a model-driven app. Use a trial or sandbox environment for testing, because new unmanaged developer environments stop being created from November 15, 2026.
• Permission to customize tables and forms (System Customizer or System Administrator).
• A table with related rows. My demo uses ESP Demo Project and ESP Demo Task, with a Project lookup on each task.

Each task has Task Name, Project, Assigned To, Task Status (a choice with Not Started, In Progress, Completed and Blocked), Priority (High, Medium, Low) and Estimated Hours. Choice columns matter here, because the grid can show their colors. The same choices work in canvas apps too, as in displaying Dataverse choice values in a gallery.

Add the Power Apps grid control to a subgrid

I added the grid to the main form of the Project table, so each project shows its tasks:

1. In Power Apps, go to Tables, open your table (ESP Demo Project), select Forms and open the main form.
2. If the form doesn’t have a subgrid yet, select Components on the left, expand Grid and choose Read Only Grid. Turn on Show related records, pick the related table (ESP Demo Tasks (Project)) and the default view, then select Done.
3. Select the subgrid. In the properties pane on the right, scroll down to Components and select + Component.
4. If Power Apps grid control isn’t in the list, select Get more components, choose it and select Add.
5. Pick Power Apps grid control from the Add component list. The settings panel opens.

Notice the two deprecated entries in the same list. Pick the one without “Deprecated” in its name.

Configure the most useful properties

The panel lists every property with a Value drop-down. Editing is off by default, so this is the first one to change:

Property	Default	What it does
Enable editing	No	Lets users change cells directly in the grid
Enable filtering	Yes	Adds Filter by to each column header
Enable sorting	Yes	Sorts by a column (Shift for several columns)
Enable grouping	No	Adds Group by to column headers
Enable aggregation	No	Adds Totals (Sum, Average, Minimum, Maximum) for numbers
Allow column reordering	No	Lets users drag columns (preview)
Enable multi-select	Yes	Lets users select several rows
Allow range selection	Yes	Lets users select and copy a block of cells
Enable jump bar	No	Shows an A to Z bar for quick navigation
Enable pagination	No	Shows page buttons instead of infinite scroll
Enable OptionSet colors	No	Shows choice values with their colors
Navigation types allowed	All	Controls which links in the grid open records
Reflow behavior	Reflow	Switches to a card list on narrow screens
Child items	None	Shows related rows as nested grids

For my task list, I set Enable editing, Enable grouping, Enable aggregation and Enable OptionSet colors to Yes, and raised Maximum number of rows to 10. Then I selected Done and Save and publish. To check which fields people should be able to change, the DisplayMode guide for Power Apps explains the same idea for canvas forms.

Add the grid to every view of a table

The steps above change one subgrid. To use the control in every view of a table, Microsoft still documents the classic way: open the solution in the classic solution explorer, go to the table’s Controls tab, select Add Control, choose Power Apps grid control, set the properties, then Save and Publish.

If you’d rather change many rows at once outside the app, see how to update multiple Dataverse rows with Power Automate.

What users see in the app

After publishing, open a project in the app. The Project Tasks subgrid now shows Task Status and Priority with their choice colors, which makes blocked and high-priority work easy to spot:

I set the colors on each choice in the table’s column settings. Colors only appear in the grid when Enable OptionSet colors is Yes. In canvas apps you do something similar by hand, as in conditional formatting in a Power Apps gallery.

Edit a value inline

Select a cell, and with editing on, it turns into an input. For a choice column you get a drop-down with the colored options. The change saves when you move to another cell or row, and the command bar shows Edit, Activate and Deactivate for the selected row:

Lookup cells (like Project) can be edited too, but customizing how an editable lookup cell looks isn’t supported. If you need to set choice values from a canvas app instead, see how to patch a Dataverse choice column.

Group, filter and total columns

Every column header has a menu. With the properties I turned on, a numeric column such as Estimated Hours offers sorting, Group by, Filter by, Column width and Totals with None, Average, Maximum, Minimum and Sum:

Grouping works on one column at a time, and date columns can be grouped by day, week, month, quarter or year. Groups and totals aren’t saved to the view, so they reset when the user leaves the page.

Limits and known issues

• Select all isn’t available with infinite scroll, and users can select up to 1,000 rows at a time.
• Grouping isn’t available on lookup columns or when pagination is on.
• In the narrow card list view (phones), sorting, Select all and the jump bar aren’t available.
• Legacy themes aren’t supported, and empty cells show blank instead of dashes.
• If users only have read access to the parent record, they can’t edit rows in its subgrid.
• Only one customizer control (a PCF component that changes how specific columns render) can be attached to a grid.

For very large tables, turn on pagination so users see page buttons instead of loading rows as they scroll. Lists of related records can also be shown as nested child grids, which works like a nested gallery in a canvas app but without any formulas.

Power Apps grid control vs canvas app grids

The name confuses people, because canvas apps have their own grid-like controls. The model-driven Power Apps grid control isn’t available in canvas apps. Here’s how they compare:

Control	App type	Inline editing	Notes
Power Apps grid control	Model-driven	Yes	Grouping, totals, colors, child grids
Data table	Canvas	No	Read-only, one selected row
Table (modern, preview)	Canvas	No	Microsoft now points makers to Data Grid instead
Data Grid (modern)	Canvas	No	Search, sort, multi-select, fast with large data
Gallery	Canvas	Yes, with your own controls	Fully custom layout and Patch formulas

If you need editing in a canvas app, a gallery with text inputs and Patch is still the most flexible option. Start with how to use the gallery control in Power Apps.

These Power Apps tutorials will help you go further:

• How to Create a Canvas App From Excel in Power Apps? [With Data from Scratch]
• How to Create a Canvas App in Power Apps From a SharePoint List?
• Create a Power Apps Collection From Excel [Complete Guide]
• 2 Best Methods to Create a Simple Form in Power Apps [Step-by-Step]

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