If you need a better understanding of the licensing system in Power BI, it’s important to know that access to certain features depends on having a specific type of license.
The features you can access are determined by three factors:
- The type of license you are using
- The type of workspace where the content is stored
- The roles and permissions assigned to the workspace
With the introduction of Fabric, the Power BI licensing system is also set to evolve.
In this article, we will explore the various types of licenses available in Power BI, from the Free version to the more advanced options, to help you determine which one best suits your needs or those of your organization.
Overview Power BI
Power BI is an integrated development environment for end-to-end analytics solutions, covering everything from data collection and cleaning to processing, presenting, and sharing insights in the form of reports and dashboards. The main components include:
- Power BI Desktop, a Windows application for development.
- Power BI Service, a SaaS platform for visualising and sharing content created in Power BI Desktop.
Power BI Desktop can be downloaded for free and used without a licence. With Power BI Desktop, you can:
- Connect to and import data from over 70 different sources, both cloud-based and on-premises.
- Prepare, transform, and integrate data using Power Query, a tool familiar to millions of Excel users.
- Build a semantic model by creating relationships between tables and defining calculation formulas (DAX measures).
- Create customised, interactive reports.
However, to access advanced development features or to publish and share your content, you need to use the Power BI Service platform. This requires one of the Power BI licensing options, designed to meet the needs of individual users, small groups, or entire organisations.
Choosing the most suitable plan typically depends on the following factors:
- Analysis requirements
- Collaboration and/or sharing needs for produced content
- Available budget
Below, we will explore the various types of Power BI licences, analysing the features of each plan and the functionalities they provide, along with potential usage scenarios.
Power BI Free Licenses
Ideal for: anyone who wants to create Power BI content for personal use or needs access to secure, shared content at no cost.
Key Features:
- Access to Power BI Desktop for report creation
- Access to a personal workspace, My Workspace, on Power BI Service for storing and viewing reports in the cloud
- Ability to access Power BI content stored in workspaces (other than My Workspace) with Premium/Fabric capacity
- No options for sharing or collaborating outside the user’s personal workspace
Use Cases:
- Individual User: Suitable for developing personal projects without the need to share work with others
- Corporate: Enables viewer access to reports stored in a workspace with Premium/Fabric capacity without requiring individual licenses for each user
To obtain a Power BI Free license, simply click on “Tryy free” on Microsoft’s website and register using a corporate email address (addresses such as outlook.com, hotmail.com, or gmail.com are not accepted). If you do not have a corporate email address, an alternative procedure is provided.
Once the Free account is created, you can access Power BI Service and publish dashboards to your personal workspace. However, sharing and collaboration features are not available. The Free license is ideal for individuals who want to develop dashboards using all the features of Power BI Desktop without the need to share them with other users.
Power BI Pro Licenses
The Power BI Pro license is designed for users who need to share reports and collaborate with others more efficiently through the Power BI Service.
Ideal for: Professionals and teams who collaborate, share, or consume Power BI content using the Power BI Service platform.
Key Features:
- Share Power BI content within and outside your organization.
- Collaborate with other Pro-licensed users in shared workspaces.
- Schedule up to 8 automatic data refreshes for the datasets underpinning each report.
- Create data models up to 1 GB per report, with a total storage capacity of 10 GB per user.
Use Cases:
- For example, in a corporate setting, a team of analysts collaborates on report creation. All team members need the ability to view, edit, and share content hosted in a shared workspace.
This license is issued per user: if 20 users in your organization require access to all the sharing functionalities of Power BI Service, you will need 20 Pro licenses (one per user). This type of license can be purchased separately or is included in Microsoft 365 E5 e Office 365 E5 plans.
If you need to share your reports and collaborate with other users, the Pro license is the solution for you.
Transition to Microsoft Fabric and Replacement of the Power BI Premium Capacity License
Microsoft Fabric is a unified end-to-end analytics platform (SaaS) that integrates all the tools needed to store and derive value from data in a single solution. One solution, one licensing system, all the features.
With a Microsoft Fabric license, organizations gain access to integrated services for data collection, management, processing, analysis, and sharing, reducing costs and enhancing operational efficiency.
Power BI, previously a standalone product, is now part of Microsoft Fabric. The new Fabric licensing system (F-SKU) will replace Power BI Premium Capacity licences (P-SKU), providing access to a dedicated resource environment. This integration enhances the Power BI experience by incorporating Fabric components such as Data Factory, Data Engineering, Data Warehouse, Data Science, and Real-Time Intelligence. Explore all the features included in Fabric.
Microsoft Fabric adopts a pricing model based on two variables:
- Computational power (CU): Charged on a consumption basis (monthly) or determined by an annual subscription plan (F-SKUs).
- Storage usage: Charged based on consumption (€ per GB/month).
Each capacity is identified by an SKU code, which defines the total computational power (CU) available within the unified Fabric environment. This power can be allocated to individual functionalities and workloads. This approach simplifies resource distribution, minimises idle capacity, and ensures optimal performance and flexibility, supporting complex business environments and high-demand scenarios.
For companies with a Power BI Premium Capacity licence, a transition plan to Microsoft Fabric will take effect upon renewal. For example, a P1-SKU will convert to an F64-SKU.
The Microsoft Fabric license with Fabric Capacity Reservation, offered as an annual subscription, is ideal for companies with consistent workloads as it helps reduce long-term operational costs, offering savings of approximately 40% compared to the pay-as-you-go solution when renewed monthly over 12 months. On the other hand, for businesses with variable workloads, limited budgets, or in the initial stages of planning, the Fabric Capacity license with pay-as-you-go pricing, provides full flexibility in choosing available resources, resulting in a scalable cost (increasing or decreasing) month by month based on requirements.
Fabric SKUs are available in a much broader range of resource levels (from F2 to F2048).
Power BI content creators are still required to purchase a Pro license. Power BI content viewers do not need a paid per-user license only if the workspace is associated with an F64-SKU license or higher.
Microsoft Fabric Licenses
Ideal for: companies requiring dedicated and scalable resources for large-scale deployments with high data volumes.
Key features:
- Access to a unified platform that integrates Power BI, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure Data Factory services.
- Access to all functionalities included in Power BI Pro.
- Free user access to Power BI content (in workspaces with F64 or higher capacity) for viewing purposes.
- Expanded storage capacity (100 TB) and up to 400 GB per semantic model.
- Increased refresh frequency for Power BI datasets (48 updates/day).
- Access to AI capabilities (AutoML, Impact Analysis, Cognitive Services).
- Deployment pipelines (highly useful for transitioning data from quality assurance to production quickly).
- Access to Copilot (available for F64 and higher capacities).
- Access to OneLake (a single, logical, unified data lake for the entire organization, enhancing data governance).
Use cases:
Designed for medium-to-large enterprises (500+ employees), where most users primarily view dashboards without needing to create or share their own reports.
Licenza Premium per utente (PPU)
The Premium per User license is assigned to an individual user, granting them access to advanced features on the Power BI Service cloud platform. This enables small or medium-sized businesses to benefit from premium functionalities without the need to allocate a dedicated capacity.
Ideal for: small or medium-sized businesses requiring advanced analytics on large volumes of data with limited distribution needs.
Key Features:
- Access to all functionalities included in Power BI Pro.
- Increased storage capacity (100 TB) and up to 100 GB per semantic model.
- Higher refresh rates for Power BI datasets (48 times per day).
- Access to artificial intelligence features (AutoML, Impact Analysis, Cognitive Services).
- Deployment pipelines (highly useful for quickly transitioning from quality data to production data).
- Share content exclusively with other users holding a PPU license, unless the content is specifically placed in a workspace hosted in Premium capacity.
Use cases:
- Individual user: For example, a professional working with large datasets using AI tools and collaborating with other professionals, all of whom have a PPU license.
- Company: For instance, a small organization generating reports for a limited audience, or a large company with reserved capacity that opts to purchase additional per-user licenses to manage scaling costs effectively.
The additional services available in Fabric, as well as access to Copilot and OneLake, are excluded from this type of license.
Comparison of Power BI Licenses by user and by capacity (Microsoft Fabric)
Power BI Free | Power BI Pro | Power BI Premium Per User (PPU) | Microsoft Fabric | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cost | Free | $10 /user/month | $20 /user/month | Variable pricing (pay-as-you-go or annual subscription) |
Target | Single user | Single user collaborating and sharing Power BI content | Single user with advanced analytics needs. Collaborates and shares Power BI content. | Large organizations, teams with unified/advanced analytics requirements. |
Computational Power | Shared | Shared | Shared | Dedicated, enterprise-level reserved capacity supporting high workloads. |
Maximum Model Size | 1 GB | 1 GB | 100 GB | 400 GB |
Data Refresh Frequency | 8/day | 8/day | 48/day | 48/day |
AI Capabilities | None | AI Visualizations | Advanced AI (machine learning, text/image analytics) | Advanced AI integrated with Fabric Copilot (F64+) |
Paginated Reports | No | No | Yes | Yes |
License Model | By User | By User | By User | By Capacity |
Selection Logic | For individuals who develop personal projects or only view shared content. | For individuals/teams needing development and sharing for moderate usage scenarios. | For individuals/teams with advanced analytics needs, but without the need for dedicated capacity. | For organizations requiring advanced analytics and scalability to handle heavy workloads. Multiple collaboration and sharing options. |
User Capabilities Based on License Type and Workspace Capacity Hosting Power BI Content
Tipo di Licenza | Shared Capacity | Fabric F64 or higher (formerly Premium Capacity) |
|---|---|---|
Power BI Free | Access only to one’s own content. | Can view content shared by Pro or PPU users. |
Power BI Pro | Can share content with other Pro users. | Can distribute content to users with Free or PPU licenses. |
Power BI Premium Per User | Can share content with other PPU users. | Can distribute content to users with Free or Pro licenses. |
Licensing Evaluation Scenarios and Final Considerations
Scenario 1)
- Small/Medium Organization with 100 Users
- If the company needs to manage large data volumes using advanced features (e.g., dataflows, frequent automatic refreshes, paginated reports, and AI services), we assume the purchase of 100 Premium Per User (PPU) licenses, with 50 users being developers.
- Power BI content created by PPU users and hosted in workspaces not in Fabric Capacity must be shared with users holding the same license. Therefore, all 100 users will need a PPU license. The total monthly cost is: 20 $/user * 100 users = 2000 $.
Scenario 2)
- Medium Organization with 550 Users, 50 Developer Users, and 500 Viewer Users
- Case a) Purchase a PPU license for each user, regardless of usage. The total monthly cost is: 20 $/user * 550 users = 11,000 $.
- Case b) Purchase the F64 (subscription) and add a Pro license for each developer user. Viewer users will benefit from the Free license since the Power BI content is hosted in a workspace with Fabric Capacity (F64 or higher). The total monthly cost is approximately: $8,409.60 $/month + 10 $/user * 50 users = 8,909.60 $.
Therefore, when considering increasing distributions of Power BI content and a significantly higher number of viewer users compared to developers, the Microsoft Fabric license provides greater savings and the benefits of a unified data analytics solution.
*by purchasing individual PPU licenses, advanced functionalities can be provided to users upon request, avoiding the financial commitment of investing in greater capacity that might not be fully utilized. This licensing flexibility is particularly beneficial for organizations with a variable number of users or those experiencing growth.
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This article was written and edited by one of our consultants.
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