Speed Up Your Power Automate Flows with Parallel Branches

Most Power Automate flows run actions sequentially — one after another. But if two actions do not depend on each other, why wait?

The Problem

Imagine a flow that:

1. Sends an email notification (3 seconds)
2. Updates a SharePoint list (2 seconds)
3. Posts to a Teams channel (2 seconds)
4. Logs to an Excel file (2 seconds)

Total: ~9 seconds. But steps 1-4 are independent. They do not need each other's output.

The Solution: Parallel Branches

Click the + icon between actions and select Add a parallel branch. You can run multiple actions simultaneously.

How to Set It Up

1. After your trigger, add your first action normally
2. Click the + between the trigger and the first action
3. Select Add a parallel branch
4. Add your second action on the new branch
5. Repeat for more parallel branches

Configure Concurrency

By default, Apply to each loops run sequentially. Enable concurrency:

1. Click the three dots on Apply to each
2. Select Settings
3. Turn on Concurrency Control
4. Set the degree of parallelism (up to 50)

Warning: Only enable concurrency if the order of processing does not matter and items are independent.

Real-World Impact

A client had a flow processing 200 SharePoint items that took 45 minutes. After enabling concurrency at degree 20, it dropped to under 3 minutes.

Pro Tip

Use Compose actions after parallel branches to merge results before continuing. The flow will automatically wait for all parallel branches to complete before moving to the next sequential step.

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Works with all Power Automate license types including the free plan.