What licenses do I need for Power BI? When I first start working with a customer, this is usually the first question I am asked. Power BI licensing is somewhat complicated. Most people tend to focus on the price, but they forget to focus on the actual solution and goals of the organization. As a consultant, I prefer to focus on the goals of the organization and size the licensing appropriately. A single feature might not justify Power BI Premium Capacity. However, a few chained together could provide a real return on your investment.
My goal is to enable you to make the right choices when it comes to Power BI licensing to meet your budget. No one wants to buy more licensing than they need. While I cannot cover every single situation, I will address the most common licensing scenarios for content creators, modifiers, and consumers.
Power BI Licensing Options
This is where everyone wants to start. They have read the articles and have their questions. Before we dig into which one is right for you, let’s start with the different options that are out there.
Power BI Free
Power BI Free allows users to only work within their personal workspace. Unless they have been granted access to a workspace using Power BI Capacity, they will never be able to consume content outside of their personal workspace.
While restrictive, you do have the potential to try reports out and build some custom visualizations with no additional cost. You might find it to be a great place to start your journey while controlling costs.
Power BI Pro
The first paid tier of Power BI Licensing is Power BI Pro. This license allows for users to interact with workspaces inside of the Power BI Service. Regardless of the role, you will need this license to work outside of their personal workspace if the organization has no Power BI Premium Capacity assigned.
Often people think they can bypass this license, but find out how they need it. You can purchase this license independently as an add-on. However, it is included with the top tier of enterprise (E5), education (A5), and government (G5) licensing packs. At the very least, you must plan for Power BI Pro licenses for your content creators and modifiers as I will explain later.
Power BI Premium Per User (PPU)
The next tier is licensing users with Premium Per User. This intermediate step allows for the features found in Power BI Premium Capacity at a reasonable price point. This is a great option for small organizations who need premium features but are trying to manage their budgets. The biggest catch with Premium Per User is that if the workspace has been designated for Premium Per User features, consumers must have a Premium Per User License. However, content published to a standard workspace can be viewed by other Power BI Pro users.
A little known fact is that there is a step-up license option available for users who already have a Power BI Pro license. It essentially doubles the Power BI Pro license price for each user, but saves you from having to pay for both.
Power BI Premium Capacity
The last licensing tier is to allow users to license a workspace using Power BI Premium Capacity. Instead of licensing users in the entire organization for Power BI, you license a workspace to use Premium Capacity. This opens up content to all users from your organization to access reports without a paid license.
There is a catch – content creators and modifiers still need to be licensed to manage the content in a workspace. So if they do not have a Pro or PPU license, they will not be able to create or manage content. But the biggest benefit is that Pro users will be able to leverage premium features in the workspace without having to upgrade their license to PPU.
Premium Capacity licenses the service and eliminates the need for individual licenses for consumers. It costs more up front, but can pay off considerably.
Premium Per User or Premium Capacity?
So you have already looked at the Power BI Pricing and Feature Guide and determined you need premium features. Which option do I choose? Focusing on the end solution, I find a few factors that push you one direction or another.
Compliance and Regulatory Concerns
For some deployments, you have to use Premium Capacity regardless of other considerations. Premium Capacity has two features that are only available with this licensing option.
Multi-Geo Deployment Management
Common with highly regulated data, Power BI Premium Capacity allows organizations to store their data in a region outside of their home tenant to meet regulatory requirements. Here is an example:
Contoso Financial is based in the United States with locations across the globe. The Berlin, Germany office wants to do some analysis on regulated data that must be stored within the boundaries of their country to remain compliant based on GDPR laws. Because Contoso Financial is based in the United States, their Power BI tenant stores all of the data in the same location. To get around this, they must purchase a Power BI Premium Capacity and assign it to a region in the EU to satisfy regulatory requirements.
This feature is only available for Premium Capacity and must be used to meet these requirements.
Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)
Similar to what was outlined with Multi-Geo Deployments, some organizations need to maintain their own keys for regulatory purposes. If an organization wants to protect select data with their own key, they must use a Premium Capacity so they can assign their own key to satisfy these needs.
Data Model Size
Possibly less of a concern when just starting your Power BI journey, but data model size can play a role in your decision. With Power BI Pro, your data model is limited to 1 GB in size. Power BI allows you to increase that limit. Premium Per User increases the limit to 100 GB model size while Premium Capacity lifts it to 400 GB.
I always recommend providing quality filtering when building your data model. This allows you to keep your model lean and speeds up refreshes. It is possible to prevent the need to move to Premium licensing with a little query tuning and patience.
Consumer Audience Size
The last thing I consider when picking between Premium Per User and Premium Capacity is the size of the consumer audience. There is a tipping point where it is cheaper to use Premium Capacity as opposed to individual Power BI licenses.
If you have over 500 users who are using Power BI Pro just to view content, you will save money by deploying Premium Capacity. Using the same logic, the tipping point for Premium Per User is 250 consumers.
The biggest thing is to remember to exclude your content creators from this count. They still need a Power BI pro license to publish content!
Power BI Licensing and External Sharing
The last big question is how do I share my content with external users? There are a few options available, so it is critical to find the right choice.
Adding Guest Users
This is the easiest approach. Adding a user as a guest using Azure B2B takes a few clicks to complete. If they are accessing content in a premium capacity workspace, then your work is finished! However, if they need a license, there are two options for you.
The first option is the user brings their own Power BI license. If they have one from their own organization, it will allow them to view content in your tenant. This is great if you are inviting users from an organization that is using Power BI already.
If they do not have a license, you can simply apply one of your licenses to the guest user. Obviously there is additional cost to your organization, but for a few users it could work well.
Create a User
I am not a big fan of creating a new user in your organization. There is an additional cost to license the user and you have to maintain their account. You can do this if you want, but I feel like it is a lot of effort. Make sure you create a clear line of communication with your guest organization. As people leave the organization, their account in your tenant will not be automatically disabled. This could be a concern depending on the level of sensitivity with the underlying data.
Embed Your Power BI Content
The best way to share your content with a large audience is through Power BI Embed. If you have Power BI Premium Capacity, it is already included in your license. Using a service principal, you can authenticate and display content from Power BI inside a website. If you already have a customer portal, you can embed your report to keep it secure and easy to view.
Sometimes you might be teetering between Per User and Capacity licensing and this pushes capacity across the line. It is not much of a stretch price wise and brings a lot of additional capability.
But what if you don’t have Power BI Premium Capacity or need it? There is a little secret to enabling that external sharing at a lower price point. The Power BI Embedded service allows you to share content at a lower price point. Even better is that you can turn it on and off in the Azure portal. If you are developing your solution, you can turn it off when you are not using it to save money until you are ready to deploy it.
Bottom Line with Power BI Licensing
It is as simple as this – take some time and think through your scenarios before purchasing your Power BI Licensing. There are a lot of options and angles to consider. Keep your future goals in mind as you plan your purchase. I see customers either under spend which results in grief. Or they overspend to just get things done. Taking the time to size your environment right will pay off handsomely over time.
Did I miss any scenarios? Any questions you might have about Power BI Licensing? Did I miss anything? Tell me in the comments below!
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