Licensing for Premium User

[GoinOff]

I have a workspace that I would like PowerBi free users to see so I'm thinking about upgrading the workspace to Premium User so that PowerBi free users can see it.  Currently, I have a Pro License and a few free users just had the trial expire so they can no longer see the report.  So, my question is, if a workspace is upgraded to Premium User does that mean that I am upgraded to Premium or is it just the workspace?  Very confusing licensing here with horrible documentation that leaves no clear direction for orgs.  All I need is something simle where I would like to have PowerBi free users see my reports without having to be a pro user.  I love the product but the licensing is completely ridiculous.

[Burningsuit]

Hi @GoinOff 

OK, take a deep breath, you're not going to like this, but don't shoot the messenger OK?

Premium Per User PPU, does not enable Free access. To get access by users with a Free licence, you need Premium Capacity. Premium Capacity enables what Microsoft call "universal access" where a Report placed in a full Premium Workspace can be shared with users who only have a Free licence. PPU does not do this, with PPU you get a number of Premium features (Paginated Reports, bigger Datasets, more frequent Refreshes) but you don't get universal access. Probably your best bet if you only have a few users to share with is to get them all Pro licences. If you have more than around 450-500 users to share with it's cheaper to get a Premium Capacity licence.

I've blogged about licences for some time - the detail here may help..

Power BI Free vs Pro | What's The Difference | Burningsuit

What Is Premium Per User? | Power BI Licences | Burningsuit

$9.99 (or £7.50 for colonials) is really a minimal cost (I think it's the cheapest licence Microsoft do) for what you get, and you can always start with one or two and add more as takeup builds. 

Hope this helps

Stuart

[GoinOff]

Thanks for your explanation Stuart..  I've come to the same conclusion that buying Pro Licenses for everyone needing a report is the best way to go..  Not really sure why MS makes you pay 4,999.00 for Premiumn Capacity as the only way to share a report with someone outside the company..  It will be easier to give that person an email id for our company with a $10.00 pro license so they can view the report.

[Burningsuit · Accepted solution]

Premium Capacity is not the only way to share a report with someone outside the Company. You've actually got several other options. The easy way is to provide (sell to ?) the other users a Pro licence on your tenant, they can then use that to view the Report. Alternatively the other user can have their own Pro licence provided by their organisation in their tenant (or bought for themselves in their own ) - You have to be able to share outside your tenant in the share dialog, but that's enabled by default. The more complex way is to use Power BI Embedded, but that's probabaly beyond the scope of this answer. Think of a Pro licence as a licence to securely consume and you'll see that Premium Capacity has it's place, but is not a requirement for shareing "outside".

Hope this helps

Stuart

[GoinOff]

This is great information Stuart.  Since I'm relatively new to PowerBi, I want to understand all of our options before diving into the abyss.  You have my interest peaked with Power Bi Embedded but that might be a bit much for now..Baby steps...LoL

"You have to be able to share outside your tenant in the share dialog, but that's enabled by default. "

I'll have a look at our tenant and see where the share dialog is..  Thanks again for the options