Embed report, publish to web (public)

[markusv]

Hello

We want to have very flexible system for measuring KPI-s for our workers. We want to share workers progress through a report where they can see where they stand.
I thought that the best way to create good looking visuals is PowerBI. We have developed a web application in our company to which the workers can log in and view different data and do various tasks.
I was thinking about embedding the PowerBI report to our web application. Seems that after I create a report which measured the KPI I can do: Embed Report -> Publish to web (public) and add the iframe to our web app.

What I am confused about is licenses and visibility.  I was told by the company who sold me PowerBI licence that after generating public embedded code basically anyone can stumble upon my report on the web. Also I was told that anyone who wants to view the embedded report must have Pro license.

First point I kind of understand. Anyone who has the link to the embedded report can view it. But in order to get the link I have to give it to someone or someone has to copy it from the iframe I put on our internal website. Right? It is not like someone will go browsing on app.powerbi.com and accidentially finds it?
License part I do not want to believe. If anyone can view the report without even signing in to PowerBI how is it that they have to have a Pro license?

If anyone can shed light on the publicity and licenses topic or shed light how the public report is meant to be used, I would be grateful.

[v-zhangti · Accepted solution]

Hi, @markusv 

Regarding the visibility of your report, you are correct that anyone who has the link to the embedded report can view it. However, it is unlikely that someone would stumble upon your report accidentally, as it will not be indexed by search engines and is not discoverable through the Power BI service.

As for the licensing requirements, if you embed a report using the "Publish to web" feature, anyone with the link can view the report without needing a Power BI license. However, this feature is intended for public-facing websites and should not be used for internal company use. If you are embedding the report on an internal website that only your company's employees have access to, then you should use the Power BI Embedded feature instead. This requires a Power BI Premium license, but allows you to embed reports securely within your own applications without requiring individual user licenses.

Embed a report in a secure portal or website - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Best Regards,

Community Support Team _Charlotte

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[swebb]

Is this correct? Only Power BI Premium Per User licenses are allowed to create content to share to the public internet? Also, you're a bit confusing when you say use "Embed" for internal and "Publish" for external. They're both under Embed report, one option is Website or portal the other says Publish to web (public)

[IBE]

Hi v-zhangti, you mentioned that the Power BI Embedded feature requires a Power BI Premium license, which allows you to embed reports securely within your own applications without requiring individual user licenses. I just want to confirm that you are saying it's only available in a Power BI Premium (per user) license, and that it is not available in the Power BI Pro (per user) license. I'm considering signing up for Pro, but only if it has the ability to embed reports to my company portal. Thanks.