Power BI Premium Sharing question

[arcmonkey127]

Hi I am working on power bi dashboard for my org
I have a question about sharing the dashboard.
I am currently pro account but I want to publish file with the size of 3gb which require premium account.

there is only 1 public place where i can publish which is My workspace as it is shown in Power BI App
my question is
1. Once i get my account premium license and i publish in my workspace, does my team member who wanted to access dashboard require any license or free account can view my dashboard once i publish it into my workspace?

2. Once i upgrade my account to premium account, does my workspace become premium as well?

[v-kpoloju-msft]

Hi @arcmonkey127, 

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum. Also, thanks @BhavinVyas3003, @Poojara_D12, for those insights on this thread. I have identified few alternative workarounds that may assist in resolving the thread.

No, even with a Premium license (either Premium Per User or Premium capacity), reports shared from My Workspace cannot be accessed by free users.

• My Workspace is a personal workspace and cannot be assigned to Premium capacity.
• Sharing content with free users is only supported via workspaces assigned to a Premium capacity (P SKUs). Understand Power BI Premium capacity and sharing

Upgrading to Premium Per User (PPU) enables advanced features only for your account. It does not convert My Workspace into a Premium capacity workspace. To host a 3 GB dataset and enable sharing, you will need to publish to a shared workspace that is:

• Assigned to Premium capacity (for sharing with free users), or
• Assigned to PPU (only if all viewers also have PPU licenses). Workspaces in Power BI
  
  

To share a 3 GB Power BI report with others especially if they have free accounts you will need to use a shared workspace backed by Premium capacity (P1 or higher). Upgrading your account to Premium Per User (PPU) will not make My Workspace premium-enabled, nor does it allow sharing with free users. Instead, ask your admin to assign a Premium capacity to a new shared workspace, publish your report there, and grant access. Only report in Premium capacity workspaces support sharing with free users and allow large dataset sizes beyond 1 GB.

If this post helps, then please give us ‘Kudos’ and consider Accept it as a solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

Thank you for using Microsoft Community Forum.

[BhavinVyas3003]

Q1: After upgrading to Premium, can team members with free accounts view dashboards in My workspace?

• No.
  Dashboards or reports you publish in My workspace remain in shared capacity. Even with your own Premium license (or PPU), anyone you share with must also have a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license—unless the content is moved into a workspace backed by Premium capacity
• But if you publish into a workspace that is in Premium capacity, free-license users can access it, provided they are assigned a Viewer (or higher) role in that workspace

To let free users view your dashboards without extra licenses, you must:

1. Publish into an app workspace (not My workspace),
2. Ensure that workspace is assigned to Premium capacity.

Q2: Does your “My Workspace” automatically become Premium once you get a Premium license?

• Yes, but only if your organization is on Premium capacity.
  According to Microsoft, “When you have Premium capacities… My Workspace can be assigned to Premium capacities. Capacity admins automatically have their My workspaces assigned to Premium”
• No, if your organization hasn’t purchased or assigned a Premium capacity, My workspace stays in shared capacity, even if you hold a Premium per-user or Pro license.

[arcmonkey127]

So if i bought power bi premium and i change the workspace to Premium Per User, that means i can publish my power bi which is larger than 1 GB file into that workspace but the user who wanted to see my dashboard will need premium account or pro to view my dashboard in the premium per user workspace. 

but If i wanted the user to see my dashboard without license, i will need to publish to web ( which is very risky for data leak) 

am i understand all these correct?

[BhavinVyas3003]

Yes, you're mostly correct. With Power BI Premium Per User (PPU), you can publish reports over 1 GB, but viewers also need a PPU license. “Publish to web” allows free access but is public and insecure. To share securely with free users, use a workspace backed by Premium Capacity (like F64). All users with access will see full data unless you apply Row-Level Security (RLS), which restricts data per user. If RLS is set and a user isn't in a role, they'll see no data or get blocked.

[Poojara_D12]

Hi @arcmonkey127 

You're working on a Power BI dashboard that exceeds 1 GB in size (3 GB), which indeed requires a Power BI Premium capacity—either through Premium per User (PPU) or Premium Capacity (Fabric/Premium workspace)—as Pro accounts alone don't support datasets that large. To clarify your two questions:

1. Licensing for viewers: If you upgrade to Power BI Premium per User (PPU) and publish the report to your personal "My Workspace", then only users who also have PPU licenses will be able to view the report. Free users cannot access content published to a PPU workspace. On the other hand, if your organization has Premium Capacity (which is different from PPU), and your report is published to a workspace assigned to Premium Capacity, then free users can view shared content from that workspace (e.g., via a Power BI app or shared link), assuming they have been granted appropriate permissions.

2. Effect of upgrading to Premium per User on "My Workspace": If you personally upgrade to a PPU license, your "My Workspace" does not automatically become a full Premium Capacity workspace. It remains a personal workspace, but you can publish PPU-enabled content to it. However, Premium Capacity (organizational level) is a separate setting applied to a workspace through the Power BI admin portal. Only workspaces explicitly assigned to a Premium capacity (like P1, P2 SKUs) can support access for free users.

In summary: PPU licenses do not enable free user sharing, and “My Workspace” is not a Premium workspace unless explicitly assigned to Premium Capacity by an admin. For broader sharing to users without Pro or PPU licenses, your report must reside in a workspace that is backed by Premium Capacity, not just a PPU license.