Forum Discussion
Publish Report
Hi victoremega,
Pro and PPU users can share content and collaborate with free users if the content is saved in workspaces hosted in Premium capacity, Fabric F64, or greater capacity.
With Premium capacity, anyone with permissions,whether inside or outside your organization, can use content stored in that capacity. This includes users with free licenses. The person who creates content uses a paid (Pro) license; everyone else can view without one.
So yes, you being the only one with a Pro license is enough to publish. Your 400 colleagues need zero paid licenses to view, as long as the workspace is on F64+ capacity.
Which Specific License to Get ? So if you're buying new today → get Fabric F64 (~$5,000/month reserved. Microsoft's current strategic direction).
Is It Cost-Effective for 400 Users?
Yes, very much so. At $14/user/month Pro pricing, it only takes ~357 users to reach $5,000/month, which equals the cost of a P1/F64 capacity. But in the Premium capacity scenario, your content creators still need Pro licenses. (Folio3)
Your math: 400 users × $14/month = $5,600/month in Pro licenses vs. ~$5,000/month for F64 + your single Pro license. F64 wins, and scales to any number of viewers beyond 400 at no extra cost.
Can You Use Fabric Instead of the Power BI Service?
A Power BI Pro license is required to publish Power BI content to Microsoft Fabric. You already have that. Fabric is the platform, Power BI workspaces now live inside Microsoft Fabric. So publishing to a Fabric workspace is the solution, not an alternative to it.
Where to See Official Prices
Go directly to: microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-bi/pricing
For Fabric F-SKU pricing via Azure: azure.microsoft.com
To sum up:
Share with 400 unlicensed users requires Fabric F64+ capacity
Can you be the only one with Pro?
✅ Yes, you publish, they just view
Best license to buy: Fabric F64 (reserved, ~$5,000/mo)
Use Fabric instead of Power BI app? They're the same platform now, publish to a Fabric workspace backed by F64
Current Pro license needed?
✅ Keep it, it's required to publish
Hope yhis helps! Don't forget to mark as solution and thumbs up in order to keep helping 🙂
Best regards,
Oussama (Data Consultant - Expert Fabric & Power BI)
Hi victoremega,
DO you have any on prem servers? If you have SQL Server licenses, you can install the on prem Power BI Report Service along side them for no additional costs.
THe on prem report server doesn't have any license requirements for viewing reports.
If on prem is not an option, then each user either needs a pro license, or you need an F64 or higher fabric capacity. Please note that premium capacities are no longer available.
With a Pro license, you can only share reports with other Pro-licensed users. There is no way around this licensing requirement in a Pro workspace.
For 400 internal viewers, Fabric F64 is the most practical option. Compare the monthly cost of F64 against 400 x Pro license cost. At that user count, capacity is almost always cheaper. This is the minimum Fabric SKU that allows free-license users to view reports. You publish the report to a workspace assigned to this capacity, create a Power BI App, and all 400 users can view it with their free Microsoft 365 accounts.
Hi victoremega
If you want 400 people without individual licenses to view your report, your best option is to move your workspace onto a dedicated cloud capacity rather than relying on your personal license. In the Power BI ecosystem, if you are the only one with a Premium Per User (PPU) license, free users still cannot see your reports because PPU strictly requires every single viewer to also have a PPU license. To allow unlicensed coworkers to view your content, you need to purchase a capacity-based subscription—specifically a Power BI Premium P64 or an equivalent Microsoft Fabric F64 capacity (or higher)—and assign your workspace to it. Once your report is hosted in an F64 or P64 workspace, your Pro license is all you need to publish and manage it, and all 400 coworkers can view the report or app using their free Microsoft accounts without needing to buy any licenses of their own.
In terms of cost and flexibility, your best route is to provision a Microsoft Fabric F64 capacity directly through the Azure Portal. An F64 capacity costs roughly $10.08 per hour, which translates to a standard monthly cost of about $7,358 if left running continuously; however, because Fabric capacities are managed via Azure, you can pause the capacity overnight or on weekends when coworkers aren't using the reports, which can slash your actual monthly bill by 30% to 50%. You can view and calculate the exact, up-to-date pricing by visiting the official Microsoft Fabric Pricing page or the Azure Pricing Calculator website under the Fabric section, where you can also explore smaller capacities if you choose to test the environment before committing to production.