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Anonymous
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7 years ago
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Licensing for Non-Publishing Desktop(Report Server Version) Users

I'm looking to learn about license requirements for the Desktop version of Power BI Report Server(PBIRS). I'm also looking for the documentation describing it. Using a scenario, here's what is confir...
  • Greg_Deckler's avatar
    7 years ago

    No license should be required. Power BI Desktop is always free. The Pro license is required when sharing via the Service or via Report Server. If you have a PBIX on a shared drive that should be OK, regardless of whether it is RS or normal edition.

     

    See this thread response here from Anonymous: https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/PowerBI-Desktop-not-really-free/m-p/112258#M47333

     

    So then, all of that being said, I found this here:

    https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/

     

    • Prices shown per user per month but annual subscription is required.
    • US pricing shown in USD for Commercial ERP through the Microsoft Online Subscription Program.
    • Academic, Government, and Nonprofit pricing available. Learn more
    • Contact Microsoft to learn more about Volume Licensing.
    • A Power BI Pro license is required to distribute content to other users, and for peer-to-peer sharing and collaboration.
    • A Power BI Pro license is required to publish content to Power BI Premium.
    • A Power BI Pro license is required to receive content from other users, unless the user is associated with dedicated capacity in Power BI Premium.
    • Natural language query, Quick Insights, dashboards, and other Power BI features are not available with Power BI Report Server. <More information>
    • A Power BI Pro license is required to publish content to Power BI Report Server.

     

    So I guess that could be read that sending a PBIX over email or on a file share requires a Pro license. But I seriously doubt it because then probably half the users on this forum would be in violation when they attach a PBIX file or include a link to one in their posts. So, I'm 99.99% sure you're OK.