Important update coming to Power BI Premium licensing

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3/27/2025: We have updated this blog to include new grace period guidance for customers transitioning from Power BI to Fabric. More information on this grace period can be found via the Power BI blog.

With the exciting release of Microsoft Fabric and the Fabric capacity stock keeping units (SKUs) last year, we are consolidating purchase options and retiring the Power BI Premium per capacity SKUs (P-SKUs). The Power BI Premium product capabilities will not change and there is no immediate action required. You can continue using your existing Power BI Premium capacity until the time of your next renewal. Read below for more information.

After February 1, 2025, existing Power BI Premium per capacity customers should work with their Microsoft account representative to transition to a suitable Fabric capacity and pricing plan at the time of their next renewal, which provides access to Azure-only features, and is eligible for Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC).

Retiring Power BI Premium per capacity pricing options

Last year, we launched Microsoft Fabric into general availability to help organizations power their AI transformation and reimagine how to connect, manage, and analyze their data. Microsoft Fabric is built on the existing Power BI platform and provides an all-in-one data platform with AI-powered services to accomplish any data project. Microsoft Fabric is a superset of Power BI Premium; meaning it has all the capabilities of Power BI Premium plus a range of additional workloads. To make the transition as easy as possible, we have ensured customers can access Fabric capabilities on their existing Power BI Premium per capacity.

However, with reservation SKUs now available for Microsoft Fabric, we are announcing the end of life for the Power BI Premium capacity SKUs. Depending on your existing agreement, the retirement will impact you differently:

• New customers will not be able to purchase Power BI Premium per capacity after July 1, 2024.
• Existing customers without an Enterprise Agreement (EA) will be able to renew their Power BI Premium capacity subscriptions until February 1, 2025. Customers who have a renewal date after February 1, 2025 will need to replace their Power BI Premium capacity subscription purchase with the purchase of Fabric capacity at the end of their agreement.
• Customers with an existing EA agreement can continue to renew their Power BI Premium capacity purchase annually until the end of their EA agreement. If the end of the existing EA agreement is after February 1st, 2025, they will have to transition to Fabric capacity once the agreement has ended to continue using Microsoft Fabric.
• Customers on a sovereign cloud will not be impacted by this retirement as they do not currently have access to Microsoft Fabric. We will provide additional information as soon as it’s available.

All existing customers will be able to purchase more Power BI Premium capacity on their current agreement until its end date.

The benefits of Microsoft Fabric capacity

Customers that migrate their purchase to Fabric capacity will enjoy a range of additional benefits. Fabric capacity is eligible for MACC which means Fabric customers can apply their Fabric spend against their MACC commitment.

Additionally, Fabric capacity customers will get access to Azure-only features like  trusted workspace access for OneLake shortcuts and Managed Private Endpoints for Spark,  which are critical components for supporting secure and private data access. These features are native to Azure and not available to Power BI Premium capacity customers.  

See all Microsoft Fabric SKUs available in your Azure region on the Microsoft Fabric pricing page.   

Migrating to Microsoft Fabric capacity

As part of this retirement, you will need to migrate from your existing Power BI Premium capacity to a new Fabric capacity. The migration itself is simple—all you need to do is reassign your workspaces to the new Fabric capacity. For customers with thousands or even hundreds of thousands of workspaces, we’ve created an automated migration tool to help accelerate the process. Learn more about the manual and automated ways to migrate your workspaces here. You can also reach out to your Microsoft account team if you would like assistance from Microsoft in this transition.

As you transition, we want to help ensure you keep access to all your data and can continue your existing work. That’s why we previously announced that you have 90 days to access your data in Power BI while you transition. Based on your feedback, we are also providing free Power BI Premium capacity for the first 30 days after the end of your previous subscription. The amount of free capacity will match the amount offered by your previously purchased P-SKU. This should reduce the need to pay for two capacities at the same time.

Impact on other Power BI licensing

Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium per user (PPU) are not impacted by this retirement. For Power BI Embedded, Microsoft Fabric capacity is compatible with Power BI Embedded and can be used to run all of your embedded activities. Read the blog “Power BI Embedded with Microsoft Fabric” for more information.

Power BI Report Server is now included with F64+ Reserved Instance purchases. You can get the PBIRS key in the “Fabric Capacity” tab under “Capacity Settings” in the admin portal. It’s also available with SQL Server Enterprise core licenses with software assurance. Learn more about ways to get the Power BI report server key here.

Next steps

Please contact your Microsoft Sales Representative to learn when you need to switch to a Microsoft Fabric SKU and how we can support your smooth transition. You can also view your Fabric capacity pricing options on the Microsoft Fabric pricing page.