Which version of Office 365 to buy to access Power BI

[samgray85]

Hi,

My organisation is small corporate strategy consultancy. We are moving from Office 2013 to an Office 365 plan - plan type TBD.

We are increasingly analysing client data in PowerPivot, Power Map and starting to explore the Power BI capabilities through some new hires he have coming on-board.

My question is, what Office 365 plan do I need to access these products? I get confused because the PowerBI website implies that the suite is free, but the Office 365 site implies in need the most expensive Enterprise E5 plan.

Any guidance would be appreciated

[mike_honey]

Power BI is semi-independent from Office 365.  It has 2 price levels - Free and Pro:

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

You can buy Pro it's own or add it to an Office 365 plan. 

I say "semi-independent" because if you buy Pro without Office 365, they spin up an Office 365 site with Power BI as the only product.

From your description of your organisation, your main Pro benefit/attraction would likely be Pro-only Collaboration features e.g. using Office 365 Groups.  Pro also adds live and gateway data refresh features, which would let you access your own databases etc more elegantly.

There is a lot of out-of-date info around on Microsoft sites referring to their previous offering "Power BI for Office 365", which was included in some Office 365 plans.  That product has been retired.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-frequently-asked-questions/

[Anonymous]

Hi there

Does anyone know if this still applies?

"I say "semi-independent" because if you buy Pro without Office 365, they spin up an Office 365 site with Power BI as the only product."

Regards

Chris

[MiguelMartinez]

Hi @samgray85,

@mike_honey is right with a couple of caveats:

1. One Office 365 plan has Power BI included: E5. As other E plans, is for the enterprise
2. In theory, Power BI Pro is standalone, so you do get pro features such as storage and refresh capabilities without Office 365. As @mike_honey mnetions though, to take full advantage of Pro, having Office 365 for features such as groups is ideal

You can always chat with a rep on www.powerbi.com or contact your local Microsoft office for more details.