Pro User upgrading for premium to use dataflow, does viewers need to upgrade too?

[sayed_]

I use a ton of data in my central dataset, a pbix file that links multiple folders that are updated on weekly/monthly basis, plus some static files & manual tables. Due to the the helper queries I reach 79 queries & the file crashed,

• So i tried using dataflows to prepare the data & keep the helper queries away from the file (keep them in dataflow & load only a single table), I realized I cannot append/merge while keeping the refreshing for new files added. I thought I would load the tables then merge/append them in the pbix file, no problem, however, upon loading the tables, I was getting empty tables when trying to import them, I read that I reached the RAM limit assigned to pro license for data load.
• Made me prepare the data in stranded excel based power query to be able to load the final tables in PBI, not really efficient as i have to update the excel files then update the central data set, but at least I'm getting much less tables now (18)

I want to upgrade to premium so I get the ability to prepare the data in PBI dataflows, set scheduled refresh, and import the least amount of final tables in my central dataset while keeping the refresh feature after I merge/append

My question is, if I upgrade to premium, would I still be able to create new reports & publish them in the workspace & add them the app that the viewers are using? without the need for them to upgrade to premium too?

we have +100 users so the cost would be too much.

What i understood from this post, 

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Power-BI-Premium-Per-User-Publish-Reports-Online/m-p/172350...

is that we'll need someone to prepare the data with premium lisence, and another to create the reports/publish them/create the app with a pro license

[v-luwang-msft · Accepted solution]

HI @sayed_ ,

You do not need to upgrade other users to premium users.If I need to access content in the Advanced Capacity space, I only need a Power BI Free license, while I need to access reports shared by Power BI Pro users, I need a Power BI Pro license, plus if I need to access content in the PPU space, I need a PPU license as well.

Power BI premium per user  is not the same as Power BI Premium.According to the description in the official article，

Users must have a Premium Per User (PPU) license to access content in a Premium Per User (PPU) workspace or app,but people for free could access  content in Power BI premium workspace.

And If you want to know about how to assign the exist workspace to Premium capacity, please refer to Managing Premium capacities article:

Workspaces can be assigned to a Premium capacity in the Power BI Admin portal or, for a workspace, in the Workspace pane.

A workspace can be added to a Premium capacity by using the Workspace pane providing the user is both a workspace admin and has assignment permissions.

And the following features are available only with Power BI Premium (PPU or a Premium capacity subscription):

• Enhanced compute engine
• Direct Query
• Computed entities
• Linked Entities
• Incremental refresh

to learn more details ,refer:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/dataflows/dataflows-premium-features 

Did I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution!

Best Regards

Lucien

[MikeJohnsonZA]

Hi

The licencing on Premium Per User (PPU) is different to Pro. you will need to upgrade the workspace that hosts the dataflow to a PPU workspace, this will give you the memory you need. However, any report that is revived from a dataset, data flow or a combination of those things will require the user accessing the report to also have a PPU licence. 

It might be beneficial to split your single model into smaller models and get licences for only users who need access to the larger model a PPU licence or work on optimising your power query so that is can load using a regular Pro workspace.