Premium vs Pro Workspaces - And Apps For Viewing By Free Users - Insight Appreciated

[pbix1]

Hello

This is a general question for some guidance, which would be much appreciated. After trawling Google, I have been unable to come to a clear position on whether there is any way Power BI users with free licences can simply view an app.

We have two Power BI workspaces. One is in Premium Capacity, which was set up by a colleague who has since moved on. This is used to publish reports, (which we do with our Pro licences), with end users only needing to view the published app. From the app though, they may/would need to be able to download data from table visuals to Excel/CSV, which they can do currently. Many of these are likely to be users with free licences. There is no need for anyone to connect to, build from, or share anything directly from within the workspace.

The other workspace is a Pro workspace, which is used for internal team reporting, development, testing etc. Within this, a need has arisen to use and refresh a dataflow. Unfortunately, this cannot be done without a Premium licence..

So, what we would like to do is transfer the Premium licence from the main publishing workspace to the internal one. However, I don't want to do this and then leave people unable to access the app in the main workspace. It is a big organisation, so we don't know what licence people have that we grant access to. They request it and we approve it or otherwise. It would be up to the viewers to organise any licence they needed. So basically, licences are handled by a corporate IT department.

What I have read implies that either all viewers would either need a Pro licence, or the Premium capacity would need to be retained for any colleague to view the app, regardless of licence. Also, as far as I'm aware, we don't have the 365 licence that includes Power BI Pro for all users.

However, there are apps within the company that sit on Pro workspaces, that are available for access company wide. As a note, this is also potentially to more than 500 users. It's possible that these workspaces may in turn be backed or supported by ANother workspaces with Premium capacity, but I'm a bit confused as to what the situation is around this with regards to any user viewing these apps, and I can't properly determine how this works or is working.

As above, I don't want to remove the Premium capacity from the main workspace and then find that people can't access the app, but what is an option, (if it is an option), is to utlise the Premium capacity across these two workspaces. In terms of funding an additional Premium Capacity licence for the second workspace, this is not on the table, but transferring or repurposing the existing licence is fine. I'm aware of the Premium Capacity switchover to Fabric, but we have had Power BI for years so are not currently affected.

If anyone has any insight on this, or knows definitively and can suggest a solution I would really appreciate it. We need to maintain setup directly through Power BI as it's designed to be used though, so cannot be looking at embedding in other applications, circumventing, or low level work arounds - (eg. e-mailing PBIX files and that sort of thing).

Thanks...

[v-sgandrathi · Accepted solution]

Hi @pbix1,

Thank you for your detailed explanation. Your understanding is mostly accurate, and it's wise to be cautious before making changes.
In Power BI, Free users can only access content such as apps if hosted in a workspace with Premium Capacity. Removing Premium from your current publishing workspace will cause all users without a Pro license to lose access to the app, even if they’re just viewing or exporting data.
Premium Capacity can support multiple workspaces simultaneously, so there's no need to move it from one workspace to another. As long as the workspaces are assigned to the same capacity, they can both use Premium features without extra cost.
The issue you're experiencing, where the option is greyed out, is likely due to internal IT controls. Your IT department manages Premium workspace assignments, so you'll need to request them to assign your internal development workspace to the same Premium Capacity.
This will maintain app access for your large user base in the publishing workspace and enable Premium features like dataflows in your internal workspace. This setup avoids licensing issues and keeps both workspaces functional within your current subscription.

Please find the official Microsoft link below for your reference:

Power BI service features by license type - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Workspaces in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Manage your Fabric capacity - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn
Deploying and Managing Power BI Premium Capacities - Power BI | Microsoft Learn


If this solution worked for you, kindly mark it as Accept as Solution and feel free to give a Kudos, it would be much appreciated!

[pbix1]

Thanks to all have responded to this. I'll take this information away and try to find a suitable path forward.

[v-sgandrathi]

HI @pbix1,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum!

We're happy to assist you, and we appreciate your follow-up. If you’ve reviewed the responses and found a solution helpful, please consider marking it as the accepted answer. This helps other users who may be searching for the same information to find it more easily.

Thank you,
Sahasra.

[Poojara_D12]

Hi @pbix1 

In your scenario, the key point is that Power BI Free users can only view content—such as apps—if that content is published in a workspace that is backed by Premium Capacity. If you remove the Premium Capacity from your main publishing workspace and move it to your internal development workspace, then any users without a Power BI Pro license will immediately lose access to the app published from the main workspace. This is because, without Premium, viewing shared content (even just viewing, let alone exporting) requires the user to have a Pro license themselves. Your understanding is correct: either everyone viewing an app must have Pro, or the workspace must be in Premium (or Premium per user—PPU—but that's not practical for 500+ users).

Regarding your observation of other apps within your company being widely available from Pro workspaces: those may appear to be in Pro workspaces, but in reality, their capacity might be Premium, or the users accessing them might unknowingly have Pro licenses provisioned by IT (especially if licensed via Microsoft 365 E5 or via individual assignment). Unfortunately, there's no native way in Power BI to allow Free users to view apps from Pro workspaces—Premium capacity is the requirement.

The best path forward is to retain Premium capacity for the workspace hosting the public-facing app, since that’s essential for your broader user base with free licenses. If you need Premium features (like dataflows) in your internal workspace, you can simply assign the same Premium Capacity to that internal workspace as well—you are not restricted to using Premium on only one workspace. Premium capacity can be shared across multiple workspaces as long as they're assigned to it, so there is no need to "transfer" or "repurpose" the licence—just go into the internal workspace's settings and switch its capacity to the same Premium one already being used.

In summary: keep the main publishing workspace under Premium to preserve free user access, and add the internal workspace to the same Premium capacity to use dataflows. This way, both needs are met using the existing licence.

[collinq]

HI @pbix1 ,

The issue is fairly easy to resolve.  If you have premium capacity (as you state you do) then you only need to go into the other workspace and make it a premium workspace.  You do not need to "move" or "transfer" it from one to the other.  You can have multiple workspaces in a premium capacity.  (I just looked it up if there is a limit and technically there is not but it is recommended to stay at 2500 or fewer workspaces per premium capacity.

This does not affect the current one if you add a second one.  The affect overall is how much processing is going against your Premium Capacity overall.  So, technically, it is not the number of workspaces that matter but the number of reports and how much capacity they use in total.

And, I am thinking based on your comments that you are aware that sharing in teh app only with minimal permissions will keep the workarounds of getting the report out by some sort of circumvention to a minimin.

[pbix1]

Hi Collinq

Thanks for your reply. It would be great if we could but unfortunately we can't do that. The option is greyed out. I understand what you're saying, but this capacity is purchased by corporate IT. I am merely in one of numerous departments that can request for workspaces to be given 'the diamond'. There is then an internal cost payable for this to be doled out to workspaces by IT etc. It is also definitely Capacity and not Per User. So, I'm not sure exactly how this is working at that level, and it's not something I will have any influence over, just that if we already have a licence then it shouldn't cost any more to re-assign it.