Power BI Sign in

[vandam2]

good morning everyone, i am new to Power BI and its a bit confusing with the desktop capabilities vs online, I want to publish a power bi report (using embed) to sharepoint online and also in Powerapps, but everytime my team tries to open the report they are stopped by teh power bi login screen, do we need a license to be able to veiw and interact with a Power BI report? (i assumed since Power BI is free, you would also be able to at least view a report)

[edhans · Accepted solution]

Correct, they need a license. If your report is published from a Power BI Pro workspace, they need a Pro license to see it, no matter where you subsequently host that report - SharePoint for example. If it is a Premium Per User workspace, they also need a PPU license to view it.

If you post it to a Premium Capacity, they still need a license but that is a Free license as now you are effectively renting a server to share the reports.

The free part is you can create whatever you want, and publish it to My Workspace if desired. But without a Pro or higher license, you cannot share it. That is the revenue model.

[vandam2]

thank you so much for your help on this, i will reach out to IT and see what our licensing options are, i know we also do have Power BI Report Server, maybe that is their way around this licensing thing? not sure if they can view on there without needing a license, 

thank you for your explanation

[edhans]

If you have Power BI Report Server then you also have a P1 Premium capacity. You cannot get RS without Premium. Your IT department just isn't using it or rolling it out. But a P1 Premium capacity will allow you to share with others with the Power BI Free license that works on any P1 - P5 capacity.