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Microsoft Idea

Power BI

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Power BI Lite License

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on 09 May 2017 00:25:49

Power BI should have a Lite License for people that only consume dashboards or reports every now and then. This is for people that don't create reports but need to see the dashboards and may need to use the "report level" to be able to export output to PowerPoint (since you can't export the dashboard to PowerPoint but can only do it at Report level).

Administrator on 22 Oct 2017 01:35:52

With the introduction of Power BI Premium earlier this year, there are now two licensing options for Power BI: Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium. This provides the flexibility to select the model that best meets the needs of individual users and entire organizations – whether that’s equipping users with access to self-service BI, broadening the reach of BI content for users occasionally viewing dashboards and reports, or elevating storage sizes, increasing refresh rates and introducing other performance capabilities based on workload requirements. The right choice, Pro or Premium, depends on your particular situation. We've been listening to your questions on UserVoice, the community, and other forums about what option to choose, and have developed a FAQ on our blog that answers the most common questions. Check it out at https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-pro-power-bi-premium-flexibility-to-choose-the-licensing-best-for-you-and-your-organization/.

Comments (139)
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Bogdan on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:56

RE: Power BI Lite License

As an ISV that embeds PowerBI solutions into their enterprise solution from SMEs, this is absolutely killing the whole business case. No SME in the emerging markets can ever afford such amounts for just having reports online. It's sad, after we have invested so much in promoting PowerBI to our customers, MS's decision completely kills PowerBI for SMEs. We will be looking for a more reasonable solution, including baking our own.

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Bogdan on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:56

RE: Power BI Lite License

Agree with the idea. This could be such a powerful tool for PowerBI to capture the "analytics" mindshare in the SMEs and have them hooked on DAX rather than other data modelling languages. Once this is done, since SMEs naturally grow, their analytics consumption and maturity will also grow, moving them to higher pricing tiers.

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SteveCK on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:47

RE: Power BI Lite License

I have to add my voice to this in the hope that Microsoft will finally pay attention to the problem. I started in a permanent job for an SME this month who want to really push Power BI forward. However we now have to explain to the relevant director that for users just to consume the reports I create will cost £7.50 per user per month. Given that we have the full MS BI Stack installed I can forsee a change of direction to SSRS which I am far more proficient in anyway. It'll take longer to develop the BI solutions but it won't cost anymore money. I'm astounded that the Power BI team have this far completely ignored this.

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Michael Buckingham on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:46

RE: Power BI Lite License

A view only license would be good. Something like the Kiosk license for Office 365.

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Z on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:40

RE: Power BI Lite License

Bring back a session based price model and solve multi-tenancy. It would be a perfect fit for any small ISV or startup that already resides in Azure.

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Power BI Ideas Admin on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:33

RE: Power BI Lite License

Important to scale out to my organization

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Power BI User on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:16

RE: Power BI Lite License

Hi All,

Good Day!

Need your help to clarify the below two doubts.
1)
We are implementing Power BI in one of organization where we have 300+ end users who will be using Power BI reporting for daily business process .
What should be best cost effective way to get Licenses .
As some user might not be modifying any report and willl be using just as it is report.

2)
We have a plan to Publish the Power BI report using SharePoint also . In case if user want to access using Power BI report using sharePoint still do we need license of Microsoft Power BI?

Thanks in advance!

Sesha Kumar

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Adrian Darby on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:15

RE: Power BI Lite License

Would be beneficial to users who pin SSRS reports to PowerBI.

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Devon Connor on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:13

RE: Power BI Lite License

From a licensing perspective what is the best way to license those types of users now? We have a group of Power BI Pro subscribers and then another segment of internal users that only need to view the Pro subscribers reports. Can the report read-only people just use the free Power BI Desktop, or would they need a Power BI Pro subscription and/or Power BI Premium capacity licensing?

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Kieran Wood on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:12

RE: Power BI Lite License

Agreed. Although Power BI is already awesome value for money in providing features which other reporting tools do not supply yet cost more than 1000USD per desktop license. For Microsoft Power BI to maintain it's momentum in the public sector including facilitating self service analytics which save lives within the healthcare sector... There does indeed need to be a Power BI Lite License. As a minimum this needs to be where Power BI Users can access other Power BI Authors dashboards and reports without the Power BI User Power BI Pro license. Where the Power BI User has no intention of authoring there own reports.