Fabric and Capacity Questions

[DennesTorres]

Hi,

Until now I use the trial of Fabric and this give me a Fabric capacity to use and it's not being charged yet.

I noticed one company building fabric resources with a Power BI Premium Capacity. Considering the Fabric trial is not being charged yet, is this company making a useless waste of money by not using the trial or did I understand wrong?

Besides that, both capacities, Fabric and Power BI Premium, provides Fabric features, but is (or will be) a difference of price ? Fabric capacities seems to be way cheaper than the Power BI Premium one.

Thank you in advance for the guidance!

Kind Regards,

Dennes

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @DennesTorres ,
Thanks for using Fabric Community.
You have understood correctly.  Microsoft Fabric capacity is billed based on the amount of resources utilized. It is significantly cheaper than Power BI Premium capacity.

Differences between Fabric capacities and Power BI Premium capacities

Both Fabric capacities and Power BI Premium capacities provide Fabric features, but there are some key differences between the two:

• Pricing: Fabric capacities are significantly cheaper than Power BI Premium capacities.
• Features: Power BI Premium capacities include all of the features of Fabric capacities, plus some additional Power BI Premium features, such as advanced security and governance features.
• Licensing: Fabric capacities can be licensed independently, while Power BI Premium capacities require a Power BI Premium license.

For using Microsoft Fabric, you’ll have to purchase F SKUs. Since you are paying for the capacity, this means that you need Fabric capacity to be able to leverage Fabric services.

Power BI P1 SKU is equivalent to F64 SKU (8 v-cores). The great thing about Fabric SKUs is the much lower entry point. Unlike Power BI P SKUs, where the entry point is P1 SKU, the entry point into the Fabric world (F2 SKU with 1/4 v-cores) will cost you very less. This is a huge difference and one of the best advantage of Fabric.

The best capacity for an organization will depend on the specific needs and requirements. If you are looking for a low-cost solution with all of the essential Fabric features, then a Fabric capacity is a good option. If you need access to the additional Power BI Premium features, or if you are already using Power BI Premium, then a Power BI Premium capacity is a better option.

You can refer to these links for more information: 
Fabric Pricing

Power BI vs Fabric

Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

[SnoekL]

Hi, im currently working for a client which is are using Power BI Pro and as it's a small company that has always been enough. We are not starting to test Fabric as we want to bring different sources into the Power BI reporting and Fabric seems the way to go. But this testing is now in F64 SKU (fabric trial). The company would normally go for a much lower SKU than F64 but how can I test wether everything is working properly in a lower SKU and how can we check whether what SKU would be appropriate?

[Anonymous]

Hi @DennesTorres ,
Glad that your query got resolved. Please continue using Fabric Community for any help regarding your queries.