Forum Discussion
Power BI Options for non M365 users
Hi,
I've been asked to investigate using the Power BI service for a client who doesn't use M365. I have done a bit of searching and found a few posts that are a few years old and can't get a clear answer, so I have a few questions:
- To be able to use the Power BI service, is the mimum requirement an Azure AD tenancy?
- If the client was to investigate using Premium Per User, can they still do thsi without M365?
If anyone could give me some insite into this, link me some documents or tutorials, that would be great.
Thanks
Hi. It is mandatory to have office account to use Power Bi Service. The only way to user Power Bi without any microsoft licence would be developing a web app with Power Bi Embed (azure resource with capacity) owning the login.
You should also consider that you can create office accounts for free and just pay for the Power Bi Pro licence. You don't need to pay for anything else rather than PBI if you don't want.
I hope that helps,
5 Replies
- ibarrau
Super User
Hi. It is mandatory to have office account to use Power Bi Service. The only way to user Power Bi without any microsoft licence would be developing a web app with Power Bi Embed (azure resource with capacity) owning the login.
You should also consider that you can create office accounts for free and just pay for the Power Bi Pro licence. You don't need to pay for anything else rather than PBI if you don't want.
I hope that helps,
Thanks for your response. Yes, it does help. At least I have some info to go back to the client. They are very much resisting the M365 route...
What are the requirements if they desire to use Premium Per User or Premium Capacity?
Did you have any links to any documentation that highlights this?
Thanks
- ibarrau
I'm not sure what you mean with requirements. You just need a professional account in Microsoft portal. You can create it for free. After that you may be able to purchase products/licences. You can create users and asign licences. That works for licence per user like PRO or PremiumPerUser.
If you want Premium capacity, you also need PRO for developers and an admin in order to create workspaces to turn capacity on.
You can compare or check licences here:
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/I hope that helps, I'm not sure if there is a doc guiding the creation of the professional account and purchase of the licence, there might be youtube videos from people in the community.