When it comes to power bi license types, there are three types of licenses: free, pro, and premium. The location of the content, how they will interact with it, and whether or not the content leverages Premium features all influence the sort of license a user needs.
 

Types of Licensing in Power BI

There are three Power BI license types:

Power BI Pro

To process content, a Power BI license with a free or Pro per-user license only uses a shared and limited capacity. Users with a Power bi Pro license can only collaborate with other Power BI Pro users if the content is stored in that shared capacity. They may consume user-generated content, publish material to app workspaces, share dashboards, and subscribe to dashboards and reports. Pro users can share content with users who don’t have a Power BI Pro subscription while workspaces are at Premium capacity.
 
The Power BI Pro version, which is the full version of Power BI, allows you to use Power BI to generate reports and dashboards with limitless viewing, sharing, and use. Kindly refer to below comparison to understand licensing better. 
 

Img source: Microsoft.com
 
Furthermore, customers with a Pro license can share dashboards, reports, and data with a large number of other Pro license holders. They can also set up an app-based workspace with a storage restriction of 10 GB per user.
 

Power BI Premium

The Premium capacity-based license in Power BI lets users with a free license act on content in Premium capacity workspaces. A user with a free license can only use the Power BI service to connect to data and create dashboards and reports in My Workspace outside of Premium capacity. They are unable to exchange content or publish it to other workspaces.
 
Unlike the Desktop and Pro licenses, Power BI premium gave users in an organization a designated unit capacity. The Premium Workspace can save up to 50 GB of data in the cloud and has a total storage capacity of 100 TB.
Instead of depending on shared capacity, BI Embedded allows enterprises to employ their own hardware and dedicated capacity.
 

Power BI Premium Per User (PPU) License

Content developed by a Premium Per User licensed user can only be accessed with other Premium Per User licensed users unless it is specifically placed on a workspace hosted on a Premium capacity when utilizing Premium Per User licensing.
 

Power BI Capacity-Based License Options

License type	Capabilities when a workspace is in shared capacity	Additional capabilities when a workspace is in Premium capacity
Power BI (free)	Content in My Workspace is accessible.	Consume content that has been shared with them.
Power BI Pro	Share material with other workspaces, share dashboards, subscribe to dashboards and reports, and publish with Pro license users.	Distribute material to users who have unrestricted access to it.
Power BI premium Per User	Share material with users who have a Premium Per User license, share dashboards, subscribe to dashboards and reports, and share with users who have a Premium Per User license.	Users with both free and Pro licenses should be able to access the material.

 
Power BI premium Per User Share material with users who have a Premium Per User license, share dashboards, subscribe to dashboards and reports, and share with users who have a Premium Per User license. Users with both free and Pro licenses should be able to access the material.
 

Power BI premium (P SKU)

Power BI Premium is aimed at businesses who want a comprehensive BI solution that gives them a single view of their company, partners, customers, and suppliers.
Power BI Premium is a subscription-based service that lets consumers consume content via mobile apps, internally built apps, or the Power BI online (Power BI service). As a result, Power BI Premium can handle both internal and external customer-facing applications.
 

Embedding Power BI as part of Power BI Premium – Microsoft Office offering

P and EM are the two SKUs available in Power BI Premium
• P SKUs (P1-P5) for embedding and enterprise functionality, with a monthly or annual commitment and a license to deploy Power BI report server on-premises.
• Organizational embedding SKUs (EM1-EM3), which require an annual commitment and are payable monthly. Only volume licensing arrangements are available for the EM1 and EM2 SKUs. You won’t be able to buy them directly.
 

Power BI Embedding (EM SKU & A SKU)

• ISVs and developers who wish to integrate visuals into their applications should use Power BI Embedded.
• Users can consume content saved on Power BI Embedded capacity through applications that use Power BI Embedded.
• Power BI Embedded comes with a product code (SKU).

 

Find out Which Power BI License Type You Have

To use the Azure portal to view and assign Power BI licenses, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Azure portal and log in.
2. Look for Azure Active Directory and choose it.
3. Select Licenses from the Azure Active Directory resource menu under Manage.
4. From the resource menu, choose All products, then choose a Power BI license types to see a list of licensed users.
5. Select + Assign from the command bar to assign a license. Choose a user on the Assign license screen, then click Assignment options to enable a Power BI license for that user account.
6. Choose the checkbox next to the user’s name, and after that select Remove license to remove the license.

 

Content Creation, Content Publication and Content Consumption Capabilities in A Different Version of Power BI

 

Power BI Desktop vs Power BI Pro vs Power BI Premium

	Power BI Desktop	Power BI Pro	Power BI Premium
Content Creation	Prepare data and create infinite visualizations with Office 365 Enterprise E5; included in all Office 365 Enterprise E5 subscriptions.	Data from the service can be analyzed in Excel, and reports can be up to 1GB in size.	Enable dashboard and report wrapping in an app, which may then be shared with users who have a free license.
Content Publication	Upload the report to the internet.	Users with a Pro license can publish content to other workspaces, exchange content with other Pro license users, and share dashboards.	The ability to make public reports across the enterprise without having each user have their own license.
Content Consumption	Use 10GB of cloud storage to store Power BI reports and Excel workbooks.	Set up email subscriptions and collaborate on reports and dashboards using collaborative workspaces.	Storage, data refresh, and compute capability have all improved dramatically.

 

Pros & Cons of Power BI Desktop, Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium

Power BI Desktop	Power BI Pro	Power BI Premium
Pros: Self-service data analysis is available for free. Connect to over 70 data sources, both on-premises and in the cloud. Data transformation and modeling Make charts and graphs. Use the Power BI service to share reports. Make visual collections for dashboards and reporting.	Pros: Make peer-to-peer sharing possible. Make a workspace with other Power BI users, you may share reports, dashboards, and data. Integrate with other Microsoft services, such as Azure data services.	Pros: Provide space and capacity in a Microsoft-hosted cloud. Allow users to choose how to use the designated capacity. Allow recipients to publish reports without requiring them to have a license. Deliver more scale and performance than the shared capacity. Access to the most up-to-date embedded analytics features and a consistent set of skills.
Cons: Does not enable viewing & sharing of reports and dashboards with other BI users. Does not allow Power BI to leverage Office 365 E5 Groups. There are no app workspaces, API embedding, or email subscriptions available.	Cons: There is no pagination for printing.	Cons: Viewing is limited to reports and dashboards Does not permit the creation and distribution of apps.

 

Publishing and Consuming Reports on the Power BI Service

1. Select Publish on the ribbon or File > Publish >Publish to Power BI in Power BI Desktop.
2. If you haven’t previously done so, sign into Power BI.
3. Decide on a destination. You can find the workspace into which you wish to publish by searching your list of possible workspaces. You can use the search box to narrow down your workspaces. To publish, select the workspace and thereafter click the Select button.
You will receive a link to your report after it has been published. To open the report on your Power BI site, click the link.
 

Publishing and Consuming Reports On-Prem with Power BI report Server

1. Make a report: With Power BI Desktop, you can create stunning reports. Use a freeform drag-and-drop canvas and current data visualizations to visually examine data.
2. Upload the report to the Power BI report server: Directly publish reports to Power BI report server. Arrange your reports into folders, control access, and make changes as needed.
3. Disseminate and consume content across several devices: To address a variety of business needs, share reports for your consumers to consume on the web and on mobile devices.
 

Power BI Pricing: How much does Power BI License Cost?

An organization can take advantage of the following features with the free Power BI version:
• Creating data visualizations.
• Reports from the authors.
• 1 GB of storage space.
• Finally, data streaming at up to 10K rows per hour is possible.
 

Cost Structure of Power BI Pro

Power BI Pro is available for $9.99 per month per user. When businesses choose this license, they get the following benefits:
• Cloud-based modern BI and self-service.
• Sharing, publishing, cooperation, and ad hoc analysis are the next steps. MS is in charge of everything.
 

Cost Structure of Power BI premium

With an annual subscription, the Power BI premium costs $4,999 per month per storage resource and dedicated cloud compute. When businesses choose this license, they get the following benefits:
• Enterprise BI, big data analytics, and on-premises reporting.
• Advanced administrative and deployment controls.
• Dedicated cloud computing and storage resources.
• Make use of Power BI content.

As per Power BI community – “For 22 users the capacity pricing options would most likely is not a viable option and instead you should look to license all users on a per license basis”.

 

Conclusion

The Power BI cost and license you choose will be determined by the size of your company and its consumption demands, such as how many people need to access or evaluate reports, how many people need a dashboard or to create reports, and how many people need an at-a-glance reporting style. So, take some time to evaluate each tier and see which one best suit your company.