Help CenterA guide to Power BI licensing can help you understand the various options available for using Power BI within an organization. Power BI licenses come in different tiers, offering varying levels of features, user capacity, and cost structures. Here's an overview of the main types of Power BI licenses:
1. Power BI Free
- Target audience: Individual users.
- Cost: Free.
- Features:
- Full access to Power BI Desktop for data visualization and reporting.
- Ability to publish reports to the Power BI Service.
- Sharing and collaboration capabilities are limited to personal use.
- No access to sharing content with others or viewing shared content.
2. Power BI Pro
- Target audience: Business users and teams.
- Cost: ~$10 per user per month (prices may vary by region).
- Features:
- Everything included in Power BI Free.
- Ability to share and collaborate on dashboards and reports.
- Full access to Power BI Service for sharing, collaborating, and consuming content within the organization.
- Access to app workspaces for managing and deploying dashboards and reports.
- Data governance and administration capabilities, such as row-level security and version control.
- Support for publishing to premium workspaces but requires a Power BI Pro license for the recipient to view the shared reports.
3. Power BI Premium Per User (PPU)
- Target audience: Individual users needing premium features without committing to organization-wide premium capacity.
- Cost: ~$20 per user per month.
- Features:
- Everything in Power BI Pro, plus premium features like AI-driven analytics, paginated reports, and larger data models.
- Supports higher refresh rates and data capacity limits (up to 100 GB per dataset).
- Premium features on a per-user basis without requiring organization-wide premium capacity.
- Ability to share content with other PPU users or those in premium capacity.
4. Power BI Premium Capacity
- Target audience: Large organizations and enterprises.
- Cost: Starts at ~$4,995 per capacity node per month.
- Features:
- Organization-wide premium features.
- Higher dataset storage (up to 400 GB per dataset).
- Higher refresh frequency (48 times per day).
- AI capabilities, advanced dataflow features, and paginated reports.
- No per-user license needed for content consumers (free users can view shared content).
- Enhanced scalability for large data models, allowing for partitioning, incremental refresh, and other advanced functionalities.
- On-premises reporting through Power BI Report Server (licensed separately as part of Power BI Premium).
5. Power BI Embedded
- Target audience: Developers integrating Power BI reports into external applications.
- Cost: Pay-as-you-go, based on usage (pricing depends on the number of renderings and performance).
- Features:
- Provides APIs for embedding Power BI content into custom apps, websites, or portals.
- Pay only for what is used.
- Ideal for ISVs or companies that want to integrate Power BI’s capabilities into external solutions.
- Scales according to the number of users and required performance levels.
6. Power BI Report Server
- Target audience: Organizations requiring on-premises reporting capabilities.
- Cost: Included with Power BI Premium or purchased through SQL Server Enterprise Edition Software Assurance.
- Features:
- Hosts reports on-premises for organizations that do not use the cloud.
- Supports both Power BI reports and paginated reports.
- Provides flexibility to move to the cloud later with hybrid models.
In addition to standalone Power BI licenses, several Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 plans include Power BI features as part of their offering. Here’s an overview of these plans and what they include in terms of Power BI functionality:
Microsoft 365 E5
- Includes: Power BI Pro license.
- Features:
- Full Power BI Pro capabilities (sharing, collaboration, governance, and administration tools).
- Ideal for businesses looking for an all-in-one plan that includes enterprise-level security, compliance, and collaboration features along with Power BI Pro.
Dynamics 365 Plans with Power BI
1. Dynamics 365 (Various Plans like Finance, Sales, Customer Service)
- Some Dynamics 365 applications include basic Power BI capabilities embedded directly into the application interface for analytics and reporting.
- Users can add Power BI Pro or Premium licenses to enhance reporting capabilities or access full Power BI Service features outside of the Dynamics environment.
Power Platform Plans with Power BI
1. Power Apps Per User or Per App Plan
- Power Apps can integrate with Power BI for reporting on data managed within Power Apps. However, Power BI Pro or Premium licenses are required for sharing reports or embedding Power BI visuals.
Key Points to Note:
- Microsoft 365 E5: Best for organizations that want Power BI Pro along with other advanced Microsoft 365 services like advanced security, compliance tools, and analytics.
- Dynamics 365: Offers basic integration with Power BI for internal reporting, but advanced features require additional Power BI licenses.
Choosing the Right License
- For individuals or small teams: Power BI Free or Pro may be sufficient.
- For larger teams needing premium features but not full organization capacity: Power BI Premium Per User (PPU) offers a cost-effective option.
- For enterprises with high demand: Power BI Premium (capacity-based) is ideal for scaling and removing per-user costs.
- For developers embedding Power BI: Power BI Embedded is tailored to your use case.
- For on-premises reporting: Power BI Report Server is a solid solution for those not ready for cloud solutions.
The key to selecting the right license depends on your organization’s size, reporting needs, collaboration requirements, and whether you're working in the cloud or on-premises.