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peternguyen2's avatar
peternguyen2
Frequent Visitor
2 months ago
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One dataset exceeds 1GB

Hi,   All of our company's Power BI users are on a Power BI Pro license. Recently, we have encountered a dataset that exceeds 1 GB in size, which surpasses the storage limit included with the Pro l...
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  • Parchitect's avatar
    Parchitect
    2 months ago

     

    If only one semantic model exceeds 1 GB, the most cost-effective first option is usually Power BI Premium Per User (PPU), not a Fabric/Premium capacity.

     

    With Pro, the semantic model limit is 1 GB. PPU supports larger semantic models, up to 100 GB, and also gives you Premium features such as XMLA endpoint, deployment pipelines, 48 refreshes per day, etc.
     
    However, there is one important licensing point:
    If you put the report/model in a PPU workspace, then users who view that content also need PPU. Pro users alone cannot consume PPU workspace content.

     

    So the decision is usually:
    1. First try to optimize the model
       - Remove unused columns
       - Reduce high-cardinality columns
       - Disable Auto date/time
       - Use aggregations
       - Use incremental refresh
       - Review model size with VertiPaq Analyzer / DAX Studio

     

    2. If only a small group needs this large model
       → Use PPU for those users.

     

    3. If many users need to consume it
       → Compare PPU for all consumers vs Fabric/Premium capacity.

     

    4. If you need free-user consumption at scale 
       → Fabric F64 or higher / Premium capacity is usually the capacity route.

     

    I would also add one practical warning:

    The 1 GB number is model size in the Service, not necessarily the PBIX file size. Always check the actual semantic model size and optimize before changing licensing.
     

    🔍Parchitect
    Solutions Architect · Microsoft Fabric Specialist

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GilbertQ's avatar
GilbertQ
Icon for Super User rankSuper User
2 months ago

Hi peternguyen2 

 

Your next option is to go to premium per user, where you will get 100 gigabytes in size. The only caveat or potential issue is that all your users who then view any report with premium per user will all need a premium per user license. The cost is effectively double from your Power BI Pro license, but with the additional size it is really cost effective.