Table of Contents
Introduction
Microsoft Power BI has become a critical business intelligence (BI) solution for organizations looking to centralize data, improve reporting, and drive better decision-making. Since its launch in 2015, Power BI has grown into a comprehensive analytics platform, used by over 350,000 organizations worldwide. Its seamless integration with Microsoft 365, Azure, and enterprise applications makes it a preferred choice for IT leaders, data analysts, and executives.
As Microsoft continues to enhance Power BI with new features, improved performance, and scalability, the company has announced a Power BI cost increase for Power BI Pro and Premium Per User (PPU) licenses, effective April 1, 2025. This change raises important questions for CIOs, CFOs, and IT decision-makers:
- Which Power BI plan best aligns with your business needs?
- How do these pricing changes impact your BI strategy and budget?
- Is Power BI still the most cost-effective solution compared to Tableau, Looker, or other BI tools?
This guide will provide a detailed breakdown of Power BI pricing for 2025, its key features, and how to determine the right Power BI licensing model for your organization. Whether managing self-service analytics or deploying enterprise-scale BI, understanding these changes is crucial for optimizing your investment in Power BI.
Power BI Overview
Microsoft Power BI is a powerful analytical tool businesses use to visualize and analyze their data. It provides users with a platform to get their data from different sources in one place, analyze it, create interactive insights on it, and then share it with anyone they want. This helps managers and executives to make better business decisions. Let’s discuss about Power BI pricing Model & their features in this blog.
Power BI has 3 Basic Elements:
- Power BI Desktop
- Power BI Service
- Power BI Mobile App
We can see that an increasing number of organizations are adopting Power BI now. While using this powerful tool, they face critical questions related to pricing plans and capacity management. So, in this blog we will discuss Power BI pricing levels, their features, and dedicated capacities that will help you identify which solution fits your enterprise BI needs.
You may also like: Understanding Power BI Licensing
Power BI Pricing Levels:
Power BI has the following pricing levels
- Power BI Free
- Power BI Pro
- Power BI Embedded
- Power BI Premium (Per user & dedicated)
Power BI Free
With the Power BI Free plan, you can download and use Power BI Desktop and Mobile Apps for free. It allows you to use all the analytical features available on the desktop. You can analyze your data, prepare the data model, and create interactive visuals using this free tool. If you are on a desktop and are using the reports and dashboards for personal use, you can get any size of data in it. It also allows you to create or publish your reports on service in your personal workspace, which cannot be shared with anyone else. But licensing charges start as soon as you start sharing from service.
Power BI Free Plan provides a solution to Power BI Consultant by providing a feature to publish on the web. This is the only free method for sharing reports. All other methods need licensing. By publishing your reports or dashboards to the web, you are making them public, and anyone can access them whether you share its link or not. But if your data is sensitive and needs to be protected then this is not the right choice for you because publishing your reports to the web is not secure.
Microsoft 365 subscription is not required for Power BI Desktop. It can be downloaded for free.
So, Power BI Free allows you to analyze and model data, create reports, publish them on service and share them with others through the web, but you will have to compromise on security.
Power BI Pro
Power BI Pro is the next step after the free plan. It provides all the available capacities in the Free Plan, along with some extra features and sharing methods. It is a per-user subscription for Power BI meaning that every user who requires all the Power BI capabilities will need a separate license.
Power BI Pro licenses its users to create and consume the Power BI content shared with them. If the content shared with you is not on the web, then you need to be part of the paid subscription. Only the publisher needs a Pro license if your organization has a premium license. Everyone else can view the PBI content using the Premium plan.
The maximum data size supported by Power BI Pro is 1 GB, which means a limit of 1 GB per dataset can be imported into Power BI. The dataset refresh frequency with Power BI Pro is up to 8 times a day.
It allows users to share reports with those who also have a Power BI Pro License. It also allows users to create app workspaces and embed Power BI visuals in other Office 365 apps. Power BI Pro is designed for both small and large businesses. It can also integrate with Microsoft solutions like Teams, O365, SharePoint, etc.
This plan costs $10 per user per month. Key features of Power BI Pro:
- All capabilities of Power BI Pro
- Access to large model sizes
- More frequent data refreshes
- Advanced AI capabilities
- Paginated reports
Read Further: Power BI AI Capabilities: Transform Data Insights
Power BI Embedded
Power BI Embedded is used to embed your content, such as reports, dashboards, etc., in custom or web applications. It allows the external users to see the embedded content without signing to Power BI. It is mainly used by ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) who develop applications for third parties. But for report development, you will still need Power BI Pro Account.
Power BI Embedded requires A SKU.
SKUs are billed per hour. They can be purchased hourly and can be paused too. So, no long-term commitments are required for this capacity. It can be scaled up and down according to the requirements of the business model and is purchased through Microsoft Azure.
| Capacity Node | Virtual Cores | RAM (GB) | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
|
A1 |
1 |
3 |
~ $1/hour |
|
A2 |
2 |
5 |
~ $2/hour |
|
A3 |
4 |
10 |
~ $4/hour |
|
A4 |
8 |
25 |
~ $8/hour |
|
A5 |
16 |
50 |
~ $16/hour |
|
A6 |
32 |
100 |
~ $32/hour |
Power BI Premium (Per User)
Premium Per User (PPU) licenses premium features on a per-user basis. It includes all the features of the Power BI Pro license with some other capabilities that were only available in Premium capacity. This includes features like paginated reports, AI (Artificial Intelligence), more frequent refreshments, etc. However, it is not flexible enough to license by capacity as you can in Power BI Premium. When premium capacity is selected in the capacity of your workspace, it is called “Premium Per User.”
It will have the same 100 TB storage limit as a premium plan. The model size limit is 100GB, and the refresh rate for Power BI PPU is 48 times a day, just like the premium plan.
PPU has some reporting/sharing constraints, including that any report created in the PPU workspace can only be accessible to users with the same license. All users must have a PPU license to view the report. A Pro user cannot view or access that report.
The price of Power BI PPU is fixed at $20 per user/month with a trial period.
This plan addresses all the needs of users who want to access Premium features cheaply.
Note: Microsoft is phasing out the Power BI Premium per capacity (P-SKUs) in favor of Microsoft Fabric capacities. Existing customers can continue using their current capacities until their next renewal. After April 1, 2025, transitions to Fabric capacities are recommended.
Power BI Premium (Dedicated Capacity)
A new licensing plan, Power BI Dedicated Capacity, was designed to overcome some limitations of Poer BI free and pro account. This plan is designed for companies who want to have a dedicated capacity. Power BI Premium is an additional plan, which means that it might be useful for some companies but not essential for all. It is a suitable choice for a large user base where the size of the data is huge.
It provides you with a storage of 100 TB and the model size limit is up to 400GB. The refresh rate for datasets in Power BI Premium is 48 times per day. It has a built-in license to extend on-prem Power BI with Power BI Report Server. Power BI Premium also provides the capability of incremental refresh which is typically much faster and memory efficient.
Power BI Premium is good for accessing and consuming reports or dashboards but if you want to create content you will still need Power BI Pro Account.
In PBI Premium, you get dedicated resources like nodes, cores, and processing units. The subscription is available in two SKUs.
- P SKUs
- EM SKUs
SKU, known as Stock Keeping Unit is synonymously used for licensing options.
Fabric Capacity
In 2024, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Fabric, a comprehensive platform that unifies data, analytics, and AI into a single, cohesive experience. Fabric builds upon the existing Power BI framework, offering an all-in-one solution for organizations aiming to harness the full potential of their data assets. With the introduction of Fabric, Microsoft is transitioning from the traditional Power BI Premium per capacity (P-SKUs) to Fabric capacities (F-SKUs). This shift provides enhanced capabilities and a more streamlined licensing model.
Key Benefits of Microsoft Fabric Capacity:
- Unified Platform: Integrates data engineering, data warehousing, data science, real-time analytics, and business intelligence into a single platform.
- AI Integration: Offers AI-powered services to enhance data analysis and insights.
- Scalability: Provides scalable compute and storage resources to meet varying organizational needs.
- Simplified Licensing: Consolidating multiple services under a single capacity-based licensing model simplifies procurement and management.
Fabric Capacity SKUs and Pricing:
Fabric capacities are available in various SKUs, allowing organizations to choose the appropriate level of resources based on their requirements. The pricing is structured to offer flexibility through both pay-as-you-go and reservation models.
| SKU | Capacity Units (CU) | Pay-as-you-go Price | Reservation Price (Monthly) | Approximate Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
F4 |
4 |
$525.60/month |
$312.67/month |
~41% |
|
F8 |
8 |
$1,051.20/month |
$625.33/month |
~41% |
Note: Power BI costs are subject to change. For the most current information, consult with a Microsoft representative or visit the official Microsoft Fabric Pricing page.
Impact on Other Power BI Licensing:
It’s important to note that this transition does not affect Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium Per User (PPU) licenses. Organizations using these licensing models can continue using them without changes.
EM SKU (Embedding SKU)
It includes everything that is available in A SKU but also provides the ability to share reports within an organization through content embedding. It allows you to embed your reports and visuals in apps. They are used for testing premium functionalities before you buy a P SKU as it is quite costly.
EM SKUs cannot be paused and are billed monthly. They are only available through a volume-licensing plan and cannot be purchased directly.
| Capacity Node | Virtual Cores | RAM (GB) | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
|
EM1 |
1 |
3 |
$625/month |
|
EM2 |
2 |
5 |
$1,245/month |
|
EM3 |
4 |
10 |
$2,495/month |
P SKUs (Premium SKU)
Premium SKU is the ‘ALL IN’ version of Power BI licensed through capacity. It includes everything that is available in A and EM SKU. Only Premium SKU allows users to access and consume Power BI reports, apps, and shared content in the service free of cost. All Premium SKUs are also billed monthly and can be purchased through Office 365 administration.
| Capacity Node | Virtual Cores | RAM (GB) | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
|
P1 |
8 |
25 |
$4,995/month |
|
P2 |
16 |
50 |
$9,995/month |
|
P3 |
32 |
100 |
$19,995/month |
New Power BI Pricing
Microsoft has announced Power BI cost adjustments for its licenses, effective April 1, 2025. The impact of this change varies based on your organization’s current licensing agreements:
-
New Customers: Commercial purchasing Power BI Pro and Premium Per User (PPU) licenses after April 1, 2025, will be subject to the new pricing structure.
-
Existing Enterprise Agreement (EA) Customers: Commercial customers with existing EA licenses for Power BI Pro and/or PPU will maintain their current pricing until their next renewal. Any new agreements executed after April 1, 2025, will adhere to the updated pricing.
-
Microsoft 365 E5 and Office 365 E5 Annual Subscriptions: Customers who access Power BI through these annual subscriptions with annual billing will not experience any pricing changes.
For a comprehensive overview of the new pricing and its implications, please refer to the official announcement on the Microsoft blog, or you can consult with a Microsoft Solution Partner like AlphaBOLD.
Organizations can effectively plan and adjust their budgeting and licensing strategies to continue leveraging Power BI’s robust analytics capabilities by staying informed about these changes.
Conclusion
With Power BI pricing changes and the transition to Microsoft Fabric, businesses must reassess their BI strategy to ensure they make cost-effective and scalable decisions. Whether you’re an enterprise needing dedicated capacity or a growing business looking for flexible per-user licensing, understanding these updates is crucial.
The new pricing model requires budgeting adjustments for organizations relying on Power BI Pro and Power BI PPU, while those using Power BI Premium per capacity must prepare for the shift to Fabric capacities. This evolution introduces AI-powered analytics, enhanced data governance, and seamless integration with Microsoft’s cloud ecosystem, making it a future-proof investment for enterprise data management.
If you’re unsure about the best approach, consulting with a Power BI expert like us can ensure a smooth transition and long-term ROI.
Need expert guidance on Power BI licensing and implementation? Consult with our team to find the best BI solution for your business.
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