The re-invented SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities including agentic capabilities is now offered as a service across SAP BTP ABAP Environment, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition for releases 2021 and higher.
Joule speaks ABAP, and now it speaks more than ever before.
SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities have already generated strong interest across the SAP ecosystem, enabling customers to achieve remarkable results, as demonstrated by the success story from Bosch.
Following our Sapphire announcements, detailed in Sonja Lienard's blog post Sapphire 2026: GA announcement for agentic ABAP AI and in the blog post Sapphire 2026: ABAP AI - Chapter 3: We go agentic! by Alexander Rother, we are now entering the agentic era of ABAP development.
In addition, we have received valuable feedback from many of you on the existing ABAP AI capabilities. Building on this feedback, we are proud to announce that our re-invented ABAP AI capabilities, including new agentic capabilities, are now officially available.
Beyond these enhancements, we have also expanded support for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, extending the supported releases down to 2021.
Please note : For SAP S/4HANA On-Premise 2025, 2023, 2022, and 2021, availability is subject to the special RISE with SAP contract conditions announced at SAP Sapphire. Please verify your entitlement and contract status with your account executive before planning adoption.
In this blog, we will cover the following aspects:
- How to obtain the required commercial license for SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities.
- How to configure your backend systems and enable SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities in ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse and ABAP Development Tools for Visual Studio Code including an overview of the capabilities supported
New Commercial model for SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI Capabilities
The introduction of the new ABAP AI Hub Service , which exposes our re-invented ABAP AI capabilities running side by side to your ABAP systems, marks a strategic step toward making AI capabilities more accessible, scalable, and future-ready across diverse SAP landscapes. With a single commercial license, customers can purchase once and leverage these capabilities across supported SAP products, independent of their underlying release versions.
One of the key advantages is simplified adoption. Customers can now enable ABAP AI capabilities through a more streamlined onboarding process using SAP for Me reducing setup effort while ensuring consistent lifecycle management across environments.
Another major benefit is release-independent access. Instead of being tightly coupled to specific SAP S/4HANA release cycles, customers can consume ABAP AI services side by side with their existing systems. This enables even customers on lower releases to leverage the latest AI innovations without waiting for a system upgrade.
In short, the ABAP AI Hub service is not just an architecture shift, it is an innovation enabler, helping customers adopt ABAP AI faster, more flexibly, and with greater future readiness.
Commercial model & AI Units
SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities are embedded in the Joule Premium package and offered with separate licenses for customers and partners. Pricing follows a consumption-based model, meaning you only pay for actual usage. Customers and partners purchase AI Units and activate the required packages via SAP for Me. Authorization for developer access is managed through Cloud Identity Services, while AI requests are executed and metered in the ABAP AI Hub Service on SAP BTP.
What is an SAP AI Unit?
SAP AI Units are a form of virtual currency that customers purchase to activate and use premium AI capabilities within SAP Cloud Services. They are consumption-based credits that can be used flexibly across multiple SAP solutions and are not tied to a specific product or line of business. This allows customers to draw from a central pool of AI Units as they use AI-powered features across their SAP landscape. AI Units are purchased annually and expire after 12 months if not used. Customers can track their usage and remaining balance in real time via SAP for Me.
How do I know how many units I should purchase?
SAP provides guidance and estimation tools to help determine the right amount of AI Units. Your SAP Account Executive or Partner can support you in defining the appropriate quantity and help model different usage scenarios.
How to Purchase the License and activate the packages?
For Customers
Purchase AI Units using SKU 8019164 via SAP for Me to begin the Premium AI activation process.
For more Information refer to the SAP Note 3740750.
For Administrators: Steps to configure SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI Capabilities.
Prerequisites
You are an administrator with full access to SAP for Me.
Procedure
- Open SAP for Me and navigate to Portfolio & Products.
- Select the tab My Product Packages and choose the package Joule.
- Select the tab Applications and choose the application SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities.
- Now you can Start Provisioning.
- Enter the solution details. Provide a display name and select a resource group. If no resource group exists, you will be prompted to create one.
- Select a Cloud Identity Services system.
- Select your region.
- Choose a Formation Name (the name is mandatory but has no further technical relevance).
- Review and finish the setup. The provision process might take a few moments to complete. Click on View in Resources to view the status of the generated resources.
- The new solution will achieve the Ready status when all tenants are successfully provisioned, and integrations are fully established.
- Enter the solution details. Provide a display name and select a resource group. If no resource group exists, you will be prompted to create one.
- To activate the feature in SAP Central Business Configuration. Navigate to SAP for Me> Click on Portfolio & Provisioning > Business AI.
- Click on Configure to launch the Central Business Configuration application.
- Ensure user access is available for the Central Business Configuration tenant. To access your SAP Central Business Configuration tenant.You will need to have your user account set up with the readFeatureActivationStatus & writeFeatureActivationStatus policies on your account with the connected SAP Cloud Identity Services tenant.
- On the dashboard, a list of features is provided and grouped by the product name. Select “SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI Capabilities”.
- Click on Activate to proceed with the activation process. Once the activation is complete, ensure that the status is displayed as Active.
- Assign named users through SAP Cloud Identity Services (IAS) to enable access for authorized users. Navigate to SAP Cloud Identity Services.
Under Users & Authorizations Select the user and assign the group “j4d_abap-enterprise-user” - In the tab Resources you will find a new tenant providing its Main URL (which will lead to the UI of the application).
Provide that URL to the developers so they can configure SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities for side-by-side use in ABAP Development tools for Eclipse or in ABAP Development tools for Visual Studio Code.
For Developers Using ABAP Development Tools (ADT) for Eclipse: Steps to configure SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI Capabilities.
Prerequisites
Your SAP administrator provides you with a URL that refers to the SAP BTP.
You have applied the relevant SAP notes below:
- To enable ABAP development tools for Eclipse (ADT) for SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities refer to SAP Note 3752299 .
- AI Functionality in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition - SAP Note 3558794
- When working on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition also follow the instructions in the SAP Note 3751297 .
- To enable AI Capabilities for ATC Findings follow the SAP Note 3721223 - AI Capabilities for ATC findings - SAP for Me
- If you are unfamiliar how to implement an SAP note with TCI instructions, please refer to https://me.sap.com/notes/3437407
Configure the SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities for Specific ABAP Projects
Note: ADT Client version 3.58.3 or higher is required for the new AI setup based on AI Units. Ensure that your Eclipse ADT plug-in is updated accordingly before proceeding with the configuration.
Home page for installation: https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/#abap
ADT client URL: https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/latest
To use the latest SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities in specific ABAP projects in your ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse.
- In the Project Explorer, select the relevant ABAP project and Choose Properties from the context menu.
- Select make the input available, select the Enable project-specific settings checkbox.
- Beneath the Use Joule side-by-side radio button, enter the URL to the subscription of the central BTP service on the SAP BTP.
Optional: Choose the Check Connection button to control if the connection works. - Confirm with Apply.
- You can now use the SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities side-by-side in the selected ABAP project.
Click here to explore what’s in it!
For Developers Using ABAP Development Tools (ADT) for Visual Studio Code: Steps to configure SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI Capabilities.
Prerequisites
Your SAP administrator provides you a URL that refers to the SAP BTP.
Configure the SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities for all ABAP Projects
As an ABAP developer, you want to use the latest SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities for all of your ABAP projects in your ADT client.
- To enable the SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities side-by-side, open the settings. To do this, use the File > Preferences >Settings menu.
- Navigate to the Extensions >ABAP Development settings group.
- Open the Adt> Joule> Url setting.
- Enter the URL for SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities to the subscription of the central BTP service on the SAP Business Technology Platform.
In ADT for Visual Studio Code, you can now use the SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities side-by-side in all of your supported ABAP projects.
Overview of SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities supported in SAP products including lower releases of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition
Currently using ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse, the following ABAP AI capabilities are supported in the different products and releases:
ABAP AI CAPABILITY | SAP BTP ABAP ENVIRONMENT | SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition | SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2025 | SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2023 | SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2022 | SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2021 |
Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | |
Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | |
Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | |
Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | |
Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | |
Supported | Supported | Supported | No | No | No | |
Supported | Supported | Supported | No | No | No | |
NA | NA | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported |
In addition, of course, all capabilities offered by your coding agent of choice are supported and driven by our ADT MCP Server.
With the introduction of the ADT MCP Server, developers can unlock a truly agentic ABAP development experience. The ADT MCP Server makes ABAP development tools easily accessible to AI systems, streamlining development tasks, simplifying workflows, and improving efficiency.
To learn more about the available MCP tools in ADT for eclipse, see: Model Context Protocol Tools | SAP Help Portal
Furthermore, step by step, we will achieve a similar level of ABAP AI capabilities support in ADT for Visual Studio Code.
To learn more about the available MCP tools in ADT for Visual Studio Code, see: Model Context Protocol Tools | SAP Help Portal
With that, go and explore the re-invented ABAP AI offering!
Coauthors,
@karl_kessler @niloofar_naseri
Troubleshooting Section:
409 Conflict Error
This error occurs during Joule logon if Joule tenant activation is not done in CBC.
403 Conflict Error
This error occurs if the j4d_abap - enterprise-user group assignment is not done in the CIS.
For the AI Configuration - SAP Central Business Configuration, AI-Assisted Scoping and Configuration Services
In SAP Central Business Configuration, AI-assisted scoping and configuration services, you can centrally manage business AI features of SAP cloud solutions. SAP Central Business Configuration, AI-assisted scoping and configuration services, is a centralized hub which enables you to manage SAP's AI solution features via SAP Central Business Configuration.
Please refer -User Setup | SAP Help Portal- for the user setup
Please Note - The CBC tenant is always mapped to the production CIS. So while provisioning the Joule Solution if the Test CIS is selected, then the J4D Tenant is created in the Test Landscape while the CBC(UMS) Application is by default mapped to the production CIS.
Joule not supported issue in ADT - for the private cloud customers refer to - 3558794 - AI Functionality in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition - SAP for Me
Bluesky
