Power BI License

Wijaya, Stephanie 20 Reputation points
2026-08-13T19:27:35.6266667+00:00

Hi,

I’m trying to determine the most appropriate Power BI licensing setup for our organization.

Currently, I would be the primary/only Power BI report developer. I am able to build interactive reports in Power BI Desktop, but our longer-term goal is to publish selected dashboards (for example, quality and performance dashboards) so that leadership can view and interact with them through SharePoint Online or just shared to them without needing me to export it as PDF and share.

I’m hoping to confirm the following:

  1. If I use Power BI Free, can I continue building and interacting with reports for my own use in Power BI Desktop/Service?
  2. If I want to publish a report and embed it in SharePoint Online for leadership to interact with, would I need a Power BI Pro license as the report creator?
  3. Would each leadership user who views the embedded SharePoint report also need a Power BI Pro license, assuming we do not have Premium/Fabric capacity?
  4. If I were assigned Power BI Premium Per User (PPU), could I still publish leadership-facing reports to a regular Pro workspace so that viewers only need Pro licenses? Or would my PPU license require the viewers to have PPU as well?

For context, we are initially looking at a relatively small deployment—one report developer and a limited number of leadership viewers, rather than an enterprise-wide rollout.

Any advice, or a Microsoft sales rep/contact who could assist us, would be helpful.

Thank you!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Subscription, account, billing | For business | Other
Answer accepted by question author

AI answer

2026-08-13T19:27:54.6166667+00:00
  1. Yes. With a Free license, reports and dashboards can be created for personal use, including creating content in My workspace and using the Power BI service for personal BI. Free users can connect to data and create reports and dashboards for their own use, but they can’t share, collaborate, or publish to other people’s workspaces.
  2. Yes. To publish content to an app workspace, share content, or make it available for others to consume in a non-Premium workspace, a paid license is required. That means the report creator needs Power BI Pro or PPU.
  3. Yes. If the report is in a non-Premium workspace, each viewer also needs a paid license. The license table states that viewing shared content in non-Premium workspaces is not allowed with Free, but is allowed with Pro and PPU. Without Premium capacity, leadership viewers would therefore need Pro or PPU.
  4. Yes. A user with PPU can also work with Pro scenarios. The service uses the most permissive license a user has. PPU includes Pro capabilities. However, the key rule is based on where the content is stored:
    • If the report is published to a regular non-PPU workspace, viewers can access it with Pro licenses.
    • If the report is published to a PPU workspace or uses PPU-only features, then all users who need access must also have PPU, unless the content is saved in a workspace hosted in Premium capacity.

For the described small deployment, the simplest fit is usually:

  • 1 Pro license for the report developer
  • 1 Pro license per leadership viewer
  • No Premium/Fabric capacity unless there is a need to let Free users consume shared content or there is a need for Premium-only features

Supported ways to check or obtain licensing:

  • In app.powerbi.com, open the profile picture menu and use View account > Subscriptions to see current licenses.
  • Organizations can get licenses through an administrator or by self-service if that is enabled.
  • Power BI Pro is included in Microsoft 365 E5.
AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.

0 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.