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If you want to use Power BI in your organisation, you will quickly ask which licence is the right one. Microsoft distinguishes between per-user licences and capacities purchased for an entire organisation, and the line-up has changed considerably in recent years. This article gives an overview of the current models (as of November 2026).
Two kinds of licences
Power BI is built on two basic principles:
- Per-user licences: each person gets their own licence. These are the free licence (Microsoft Fabric Free), Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium Per User (PPU).
- Capacities: the organisation buys compute in the Microsoft cloud on which workspaces run. Today these are Fabric capacities with so-called F SKUs. An SKU (stock keeping unit) is simply the name of a product variant, such as F2 or F64.
Important: even with a capacity, at least one person needs a Pro or PPU licence to create and publish Power BI content in shared workspaces.
The desktop application Power BI Desktop, used to build reports, is free. Licence costs only arise once reports are shared in the Power BI service.
Per-user licences at a glance
| Licence | List price (as of November 2026) | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|
| Free (Microsoft Fabric Free) | free | own reports in "My workspace", viewing content on capacities of F64 or larger |
| Power BI Pro | USD 14.00 per user per month, billed annually | creating, sharing and viewing reports in shared workspaces |
| Premium Per User (PPU) | USD 24.00 per user per month, billed annually | Premium features for individual users without a capacity |
The prices come from Microsoft's official pricing page and are US dollar list prices. The actual price in your currency depends on region, agreement type and reseller and is only shown at checkout. Microsoft raised the prices of Pro and PPU on 1 April 2025; previously they were USD 10 and USD 20.
Free
The free licence is assigned automatically when a person signs in to the Fabric portal for the first time. It lets users build reports in their personal workspace but not share them with colleagues. Free users can only view other people's content if the workspace sits on a capacity of F64 or larger and they hold the Viewer role.
Pro
Pro is the standard licence for collaboration. Anyone who publishes, shares or views reports in a Pro workspace needs a Pro licence. For smaller teams without a capacity this means every person who should see reports needs Pro. Power BI Pro is also included in Microsoft 365 E5.
Premium Per User
PPU provides most Premium features on a per-user basis. According to Microsoft, these include up to 48 refreshes per day, semantic models that need more than 1 GB of memory, and the XMLA endpoint, which allows models to be edited with external tools. A semantic model is the data model behind a report, formerly called a "dataset".
Note: content in a PPU workspace can only be opened by people with a PPU licence. Pro users can step up with an add-on for USD 14.00 per month. Microsoft describes PPU as cost-effective when Premium features are needed for fewer than 250 users. PPU does not provision a Fabric capacity and therefore does not allow Fabric items such as lakehouses or notebooks.
Fabric capacities (F SKUs)
Fabric capacities are purchased through Azure. Their size is expressed in capacity units (CU), from F2 with 2 CU up to F2048 and beyond. According to Microsoft, billing is per second with a one-minute minimum. Capacities can be paused and resized. Alternatively, one-year or multi-year reservations are available, for which Microsoft states savings of around 41 percent compared with pay-as-you-go (as of November 2026).
Prices vary by region, and Microsoft refers to the Azure pricing calculator for specific figures. We therefore do not quote amounts here.
The key threshold for licence planning is F64:
- F2 to F32: everyone who wants to view Power BI content still needs Pro or PPU.
- F64 and above: users with a free licence and the Viewer role can view Power BI content. Creators still need Pro or PPU.
Smaller F SKUs therefore mainly pay off if you want to use Fabric features such as lakehouses, data warehouses or data pipelines, not to save Pro licences for readers.
What about Power BI Premium (P SKUs)?
The former Premium capacities P1 to P5 are being retired. According to Microsoft's documentation, Microsoft no longer sells new P SKUs, and existing agreements cannot renew them at the end of their term (as of November 2026). F SKUs are the successor; P1 corresponds to F64.
Premium Per User is explicitly not affected. When reading older articles that simply mention "Power BI Premium", check carefully whether they mean the capacity or the per-user licence.
Which licence fits you?
| Situation | Typical choice |
|---|---|
| A few people create and read reports | Pro for everyone involved |
| Small team needs large models or frequent refreshes | PPU for everyone involved |
| Many read-only users across the company | Fabric capacity of F64 or larger plus Pro for creators |
| Data preparation with lakehouses or pipelines | Fabric capacity of suitable size plus Pro for creators |
A simple example: ten people with Pro cost USD 140 per month at list price. Whether a capacity pays off depends on the number of readers and the regional capacity price and should be compared using the Azure pricing calculator.
Checklist for your licensing decision
- Count how many people create reports and how many only read them.
- Check whether licences already exist through Microsoft 365 E5.
- Clarify whether you need Premium features such as large models or frequent refreshes.
- Decide whether Fabric features beyond Power BI are planned.
- Compare Pro and PPU costs with the regional price of a suitable F SKU.
- If you have a P SKU: plan the migration to an F SKU before your agreement ends.
How Simplify Data can help
Simplify Data advises companies in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, and remotely across Germany, on introducing Power BI, including licence planning, data modelling and report design. Find out more on our Power BI page.