Options for Sharing Power BI Content Externally

[CoulterJames2]

With Microsoft Fabric, I am bit unclear on what Microsoft's offering is around external sharing in scenarios where someone wants to make a Power BI accessible to an external user without having to worry about PBI Pro licenses or setting up the users in Entra ID. I have worked on projects previously where I have used a Power BI Embedded capacity (A SKU) or with a custom web front-end to embed their reports using the "App Owns Data" approach - user management and report access is handled in the web application and you only need to assign a license to the Service Principal account that accesses the REST APIs and the workspace containing the reports. Is this still the only option we have today? 

I also have some further questions:

1. Can I embed a report that is published in a Fabric workspace instead of an embedded workspace? 

2. If the Fabric workspace is not F64 or higher, what implications does that have from a licensing perspective - does the "App Owns Data" approach described above still work? 

[CoulterJames2]

Thanks @GilbertQ - and it doesn't matter what F SKU this is? As long as the Service Principal has a Power BI Pro license I can do this on an F2?

[v-sgandrathi]

Hi @CoulterJames2,

Yes, as long as the Service Principal has a Power BI Pro license, you can use the F2 SKU for the "App Owns Data" approach, and it will function as expected. The specific F SKU version (e.g., F1, F2, etc.) is not important as long as the Service Principal has the appropriate Pro license.

Glad I could assist! If this answer helped resolve your issue, please mark it as Accept as Solution and give us Kudos to guide others facing the same concern.

Thankyou.

[lovishsood1]

Hi @v-sgandrathi 
how we can assign PPU or Pro license to Service Principal?

[v-sgandrathi]

Hi @lovishsood1,

A Service Principal cannot be directly assigned a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license like a standard user account. Instead, to enable a Service Principal to interact with Power BI (such as accessing datasets, refreshing data, or using the REST API), the recommended approach is to add the Service Principal to an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) security group. Then, within the Power BI Admin Portal, you can enable the appropriate tenant settings, specifically, “Allow service principals to use Power BI APIs” and, where applicable, grant access to this security group under the relevant API or service settings.
It’s important to note that the Service Principal itself does not consume a license, but the content it interacts with must reside in a workspace backed by either a Power BI Pro license (for shared Pro content) or a Premium capacity (for PPU or premium features). In essence, while you don’t assign a license directly to the Service Principal, its ability to access and manage Power BI resources depends on how the environment is licensed and configured. If you’re setting this up for automation, integration, or service-based reporting tasks, this method will work effectively once those configurations are in place.

Thank you.

[GilbertQ · Accepted solution]

Hi @CoulterJames2 

If you are still using the app owns data in approach for embedding power bi reports, you can use it as is today and you can use the F SKU instead of the A SKU it will work as it previously did.