1. Introduction to Business Intelligence and Power BI
1.4 Licensing Overview (High Level)
He bagha: licensing decides who can publish, share and view content in the Power BI Service. Power BI Desktop itself is free to download and use. Prices change over time and differ by country, so check Microsoft's official pricing page when you need exact figures. The main options are:
| Licence | What it allows (simplified) | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Free (Microsoft Fabric free) | Use Desktop; use your own My workspace in the Service. Cannot share content with others or collaborate in shared workspaces. Can view content that is hosted in a Premium/Fabric capacity of sufficient size (F64 or larger). | Students, personal learning |
| Pro | Publish to shared workspaces, share reports and dashboards, collaborate with other Pro users. Both the creator and the viewers generally need Pro (unless the content is in a capacity). | Most small and medium teams |
| Premium Per User (PPU) | Everything in Pro plus many Premium features (larger model sizes, more frequent refresh, deployment pipelines, advanced AI features) licensed per person. Viewers of PPU content also need PPU. | Teams that need advanced features but not a full capacity |
| Fabric capacity (F SKUs) | The organisation buys a dedicated pool of compute ("capacity"). Content in workspaces assigned to the capacity gets capacity features. With F64 or larger, users with a free licence can view Power BI content. | Large organisations, wide distribution |
Premium capacity and Fabric
Older "Power BI Premium per capacity" (P SKUs) is being replaced by Microsoft Fabric capacities (F SKUs). In current documentation and in the admin portal you will mostly see Fabric capacity. The idea is the same: an organisation pays for capacity, not for each viewer.
For students
You can learn almost everything in this guide with the free Power BI Desktop. To practise the Service features (workspaces, apps, sharing), use a work or school account, or a Microsoft 365 developer/trial tenant if your institute provides one. Power BI Service sign-in needs a work or school email; personal addresses such as Gmail are not accepted.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip
I often see learners build a whole report and only then find out that their colleagues can't open it without a Pro or capacity licence. Check with your admin which licence your team has before you promise to share anything. Licence rules change, so confirm them on Microsoft's current pages rather than relying on old blog posts. Practise, and it will feel very easy.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – मराठी
मला खूप वेळा दिसतं की learners पूर्ण report बनवतात आणि मग कळतं की Pro किंवा capacity licence शिवाय त्यांचे colleagues तो उघडू शकत नाहीत. काहीही share करायचं वचन देण्याआधी तुमच्या team कडे कोणतं licence आहे ते admin कडून तपासा. Licence चे नियम बदलतात, म्हणून जुन्या blog posts वर अवलंबून न राहता Microsoft च्या current pages वर confirm करा. Practice करा, मग एकदम सोपं वाटेल.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – हिंदी
मैं अक्सर देखता हूँ कि learners पूरी report बना लेते हैं और तब पता चलता है कि Pro या capacity licence के बिना उनके colleagues उसे खोल नहीं सकते. कुछ भी share करने का वादा करने से पहले admin से पूछ लो कि तुम्हारी team के पास कौन सा licence है. Licence के नियम बदलते रहते हैं, इसलिए पुराने blog posts पर भरोसा करने की बजाय Microsoft के current pages पर confirm करो. Practice करो, फिर बहुत आसान लगेगा.