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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
6 years ago
Solved

Power BI pro users - any additional licences needed by users to view and refresh data?

Hi,

I am completely new in the world of Power BI and after reading and viewing a lot of material I did not find answer to this question, so I am posting it here.

I have a small organization of 30 people interested in implementing Power BI solution for their internal reporting needs. Data is currently located on Oracle database but migration to Microsoft SQL database is planned.  

I was wondering are there any additional licences (costs) associated with potential implementation, above the cost of Power BI pro, which is straight forward, ie. $9,99 per user per month.

Or in other words, do end users need any additional licences to refresh and view the data published on the Power BI server? Are there any differences between imported and live connection data?

Thanks,
Ivca   

licences
power bi
  • stretcharm's avatar
    stretcharm
    6 years ago

    I would suspect that imported data into the powerbi service should be able to use a single SQL user.

    Your pro users would be accessing the Powerbi Model, not the database.

    I'm not sure if DirectQuery/Live connections changes this. I suspect MS would say you need a user licence. I've always used core based SQL licences so users are not an issue.

     

    I prefer imported data over directquery. However, there are certain scenarios where directquery is the best option.

     

    You can get some cheap azure serverless core based single db

    https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/calculator/

    and also SQL express is free for small databases (20gB).

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/sql-server/sql-server-2019-pricing

     

     

     

7 Replies

  • Jon-Heide's avatar
    Jon-Heide
    Icon for Microsoft Employee rankMicrosoft Employee
    6 years ago

    I would suggest contacting your Microsoft account rep for licensing questions. In general Pro licenses are required for any user to authors, shares or consumes content. Unlimited distibution is available through Premium. Yes, refresh is included in all licenses. 

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      6 years ago

      Thank you both for your help. Maybe my question was not clear enough so let me rephrase, if I use Power BI Desktop to import data and publish it to the server, is it enough for me (one PRO user) to have  access (licences) to SQL and perform a daily refresh for entire organisation, or do all my end users (PRO Power BI licenced) need access (licence) to SQL to see refreshed data.

      Additionally, if I chose live connection instead of import then I probably need all my users to have access to database?

      Thanks

      • stretcharm's avatar
        stretcharm
        Icon for Memorable Member rankMemorable Member
        6 years ago

        Are you publishing to the cloud service or the On premise report server.

        The On premise report server needs to be licenced. I had enterprise (with support) core licences so all my users were licenced. Just had pro licences for the people uploading. I had the SQL engine and PBI RS on the same machine so they had the same licence.

         

        Not sure if you need oracle licences.