What is the cheapest way to share Power BI reports with 100 users?

For 100 users, Fabric F2 capacity ($262/month) is significantly cheaper than 100 Pro licenses ($1,000/month). Assign your workspace to Fabric capacity, and all 100 users can view reports for free. Only report developers need Pro licenses ($10/user/month each). This approach saves approximately 70% compared to licensing every user with Pro.

Is Power BI Pro included in Microsoft 365?

Power BI Pro is included only in Microsoft 365 E5 ($57/user/month). It is NOT included in E3, E1, F1, F3, or Business Premium plans. If your organization uses E5 for security and compliance features, you already have Power BI Pro at no additional cost. Check your Microsoft 365 admin center under Licenses to verify your entitlements.

Should I buy Power BI Premium or Microsoft Fabric capacity?

For new deployments in 2026, Microsoft recommends Fabric capacity (F SKUs) over traditional Premium (P SKUs). Fabric offers lower entry pricing (starting at $262/month vs $4,995/month), flexible pause/resume, Azure billing integration, and access to all Fabric workloads beyond Power BI. Premium P SKUs are still supported but are no longer the recommended path for new purchases.

Power BI Pricing and Licensing Guide 2026: Pro, Premium, and Fabric Explained

Power BI licensing is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Microsoft analytics ecosystem. With Microsoft's 2024-2026 pricing updates, the introduction of Microsoft Fabric capacity billing, and the evolving per-user vs. capacity model, organizations need a clear understanding of what each license tier provides and which model delivers the best ROI for their specific user base. This guide breaks down every Power BI license type, compares costs across enterprise scenarios, and provides actionable strategies for optimizing your analytics spend. Our Power BI consulting team helps enterprises navigate licensing decisions every day.

Power BI License Tiers: Complete Comparison

The table below compares every Power BI license tier available in 2026:

| Feature | Free | Pro | Premium Per User (PPU) | Premium Capacity (P SKUs) | Fabric Capacity (F SKUs) | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Monthly Cost | $0 | $10/user | $20/user | $4,995+/month (P1) | $262+/month (F2) | | Report Viewing | Personal only | Shared workspaces | Shared workspaces | All users in org | All users in org | | Report Authoring | Desktop only | Desktop + Service | Desktop + Service | Desktop + Service | Desktop + Service | | Data Refresh | 8x/day | 8x/day | 48x/day | 48x/day | 48x/day | | Max Dataset Size | 1 GB | 1 GB | 100 GB | 400 GB | Varies by SKU | | Paginated Reports | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Deployment Pipelines | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | AI Features | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Dataflows Gen2 | No | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | | XMLA Endpoint | No | No | Read/Write | Read/Write | Read/Write | | Autoscale | No | No | No | Yes (add-on) | Yes (built-in) |

Power BI Free

Power BI Free is designed for individual use. You can install Power BI Desktop (free download), connect to data sources, build models, write DAX, and create reports—all without any license. The limitation is sharing: you cannot publish reports to shared workspaces or distribute them to other users. Free users can view content in Premium or Fabric capacity workspaces if an administrator enables this setting. For personal analytics and learning, Free is sufficient. For any team or enterprise scenario, you need at least Pro.

Power BI Pro ($10/user/month)

Power BI Pro is the standard collaboration license. It enables publishing to shared workspaces, sharing reports with other Pro users, creating apps, setting up scheduled refresh, and configuring email subscriptions. Pro is included in Microsoft 365 E5 licenses, which many enterprises already own. The key limitation of Pro is that both the content creator and every viewer must have a Pro license. For organizations with hundreds or thousands of report viewers, per-user licensing becomes expensive quickly.

Premium Per User (PPU) ($20/user/month)

PPU provides all Premium features—larger datasets (100 GB), 48 refreshes per day, paginated reports, deployment pipelines, XMLA endpoints, AI features—on a per-user basis. It is ideal for small teams (under 50 users) that need Premium capabilities without committing to capacity pricing. The drawback is that every user (creators and viewers) must have a PPU license. PPU does not allow free users to view content, unlike Premium capacity.

Premium Capacity (P SKUs)

Premium capacity starts at approximately $4,995/month for P1 and scales to P5. Once you purchase capacity, you assign workspaces to that capacity, and any user in the organization—including free users—can view content in those workspaces. This model becomes cost-effective when you have a large ratio of viewers to creators. For example, 500 viewers on Pro costs $5,000/month, while P1 capacity costs $4,995/month and covers unlimited viewers. Our enterprise deployment team helps organizations right-size their capacity.

Microsoft Fabric Licensing and Power BI

Microsoft Fabric introduces a unified capacity model (F SKUs) that covers Power BI, Data Engineering, Data Science, Data Warehouse, and Real-Time Intelligence under a single billing structure. Fabric capacities start at F2 ($262/month) and scale through F2048.

How Fabric Capacity Relates to Power BI

When you purchase Fabric capacity, Power BI is included. Any workspace assigned to a Fabric capacity gets Premium-equivalent Power BI features: large datasets, 48 refreshes/day, paginated reports, deployment pipelines, XMLA endpoints, and free viewer access. The capacity units (CUs) are shared across all Fabric workloads, so Power BI queries, Spark notebooks, SQL warehouse queries, and data pipeline runs all consume from the same pool.

Fabric vs. Traditional Premium

| Aspect | Premium P SKUs | Fabric F SKUs | |---|---|---| | Minimum cost | ~$4,995/month (P1) | ~$262/month (F2) | | Workloads included | Power BI only | All Fabric workloads + Power BI | | Scaling | Manual (or autoscale add-on) | Flexible, pause/resume, auto-scale | | Trial available | No | Yes (60-day Fabric trial) | | Azure billing | Separate from Azure | Azure subscription billing | | Reservation discounts | Yes | Yes (1-year, 3-year) | | Burstable | Limited | Yes, smoothing over 5-minute windows |

For new deployments, Microsoft is steering organizations toward Fabric F SKUs. P SKUs remain available but are no longer the recommended path for new capacity purchases.

When to Upgrade from Pro to Premium or Fabric

The breakeven analysis is straightforward. If your monthly Pro licensing cost exceeds the cost of the smallest Premium or Fabric capacity that handles your workload, upgrade.

Rule of Thumb Breakeven Points

Pro to Fabric F2 ($262/month): 27+ users on Pro = Fabric F2 is cheaper (but F2 is limited for concurrent queries)
Pro to Fabric F8 ($1,048/month): 105+ users on Pro = Fabric F8 is more cost-effective
Pro to Fabric F64 ($8,389/month): 839+ users on Pro = Fabric F64 offers significant savings
Pro to Premium P1 ($4,995/month): 500+ users on Pro = P1 breaks even

Beyond cost, upgrade when you need: datasets larger than 1 GB, more than 8 refreshes per day, paginated reports (SSRS-style), deployment pipelines for CI/CD, XMLA endpoint access for third-party tools, or AI-powered features like automated insights.

Cost Optimization Strategies

1. Audit License Utilization

Run the Power BI activity log (available through the Admin API or Microsoft 365 admin center) to identify inactive Pro licenses. In most organizations, 20-40% of assigned Pro licenses show zero activity in the past 90 days. Reclaiming these licenses saves $10/user/month immediately.

2. Use Microsoft 365 E5 Bundling

Power BI Pro is included in Microsoft 365 E5 ($57/user/month). If your organization already uses E5 for security, compliance, or Teams Phone, your Pro licenses are effectively free. Check with your Microsoft account team to confirm your E5 entitlements.

3. Segment Users by Role

Not every user needs the same license. Create a tiered model: report developers get PPU or Pro + Desktop, power users get Pro, casual viewers access content through Premium/Fabric capacity (free viewer access). This approach typically reduces licensing costs by 30-50%.

4. Right-Size Fabric Capacity

Start with a smaller Fabric SKU and monitor CU utilization through the Fabric Capacity Metrics app. Scale up only when sustained utilization exceeds 80%. Use pause/resume on development capacities to avoid paying for idle resources.

5. Leverage Reserved Instances

Azure reserved instances offer 20-40% discounts on Fabric capacity for 1-year or 3-year commitments. If you have stable, predictable workloads, reserved pricing significantly reduces total cost.

Hidden Costs to Watch For

On-Premises Data Gateway

If your data sources are on-premises (SQL Server, Oracle, file shares), you need an on-premises data gateway. The gateway software is free, but it runs on a Windows server that requires compute, storage, networking, and maintenance. For high-availability scenarios, you need multiple gateway servers in a cluster. Budget $200-$500/month for gateway infrastructure per cluster.

Premium/Fabric Storage Overages

Each Premium capacity includes storage allocation (100 TB for P1). If your datasets, dataflows, and lakehouse tables exceed this allocation, overage charges apply. Monitor storage consumption through the Fabric admin portal.

Capacity Overloading

Fabric capacity uses a smoothing algorithm that averages CU consumption over 5-minute windows, with background operations allowed to burst and be smoothed over 24 hours. However, sustained interactive query overload results in request throttling and queuing, degrading user experience. Overloaded capacity often leads to purchasing a larger SKU than originally planned.

Training and Change Management

Licensing costs are only part of the investment. Budget for training report developers on DAX and data modeling, training administrators on governance and security, and training business users on self-service analytics. Our Power BI training programs are tailored for enterprise teams.

Power BI Licensing with Microsoft 365

Power BI integrates deeply with Microsoft 365, and understanding the bundling options saves money:

Microsoft 365 E5: Includes Power BI Pro ($57/user/month for the full E5 suite)
Microsoft 365 E3: Does NOT include Power BI Pro; requires separate purchase
Microsoft 365 F1/F3 (Frontline): Does NOT include Power BI; requires separate Pro or Premium access
Teams Integration: Embedding Power BI reports in Teams tabs requires Pro or Premium for each viewer
SharePoint Integration: Embedding Power BI in SharePoint Online pages requires Pro or Premium for each viewer
Power Automate: Triggering flows from Power BI alerts requires separate Power Automate licensing

Enterprise Licensing Scenarios

Scenario 1: 500 Users (Mid-Enterprise)

50 report developers, 450 viewers
Option A (All Pro): 500 x $10 = $5,000/month
Option B (Pro + Fabric F8): 50 developers on Pro ($500) + Fabric F8 capacity ($1,048) = $1,548/month
Savings: $3,452/month (69% reduction)
Recommendation: Fabric F8 with Pro for developers only

Scenario 2: 5,000 Users (Large Enterprise)

200 developers, 4,800 viewers
Option A (All Pro): 5,000 x $10 = $50,000/month
Option B (Pro + Fabric F64): 200 developers on Pro ($2,000) + Fabric F64 ($8,389) = $10,389/month
Savings: $39,611/month (79% reduction)
Recommendation: Fabric F64 with 1-year reserved instance for additional 20% savings

Scenario 3: 50,000 Users (Global Enterprise)

500 developers, 49,500 viewers
Option A (All Pro): 50,000 x $10 = $500,000/month
Option B (Pro + Fabric F512): 500 developers on Pro ($5,000) + Fabric F512 ($67,114) = $72,114/month
Savings: $427,886/month (86% reduction)
Recommendation: Fabric F512 with 3-year reserved instance, dedicated capacity for production and separate dev/test capacity on F8

Contact our Power BI consulting team or reach out directly for a licensing assessment tailored to your organization.