Report viewer in Power BI Free license cannot view shared report

[stevencheung_bm]

our company paid some power BI pro licenses for report maker, and most staffs were in Power BI Free license which they are just as viewer to view the shared report.   However, recently all viewers cannot see the shared report, Power BI is asking for paying pro services...  it impacts our business operation, and it is so annoying for the different type of subscriptions required.

Is there anyway to allow viewer (with free license) to see the shared report from powerBI online service?

[focusGTN]

Hi Poojara_D12, we have the same problem. it's disappointing from Microsoft that they have NO answer for Users who are only a viewer.

I now licensed Power BI Premium Test Environment for checking. It comes with a Premium Capacity for the Premium User and it is documented, that Power BI Free Licenses should have access to the "Premium Workspace". By now it is not working, can you help ? Possibly wait for hours or days until Azure has updated this license stuff ?

best regards,

[v-aatheeque · Accepted solution]

Hi @focusGTN ,

• Free Power BI licenses have limitations when accessing Premium workspaces. Users with free licenses might need specific roles, like Viewer  assigned to them within the workspace to gain access.

• Capacity provisioning can take up to an some time after you first activate the Premium trial.

  If the issue persists, consider reaching out to How to create a Fabric and Power BI Support ticket - Power BI | Microsoft Learn for direct assistance.

hope this helps !!

[v-aatheeque]

Hi @stevencheung_bm ,

Just checking in again regarding the issue you raised.

If you're still facing the same problem despite the initial steps, the best way forward would be to raise a support ticket with Microsoft. This allows the support team to review tenant-specific configurations and provide more in-depth assistance.

In case you’ve already raised a support request, feel free to update us here.

If we don’t hear back soon, we may close this thread as per our community guidelines — but you're always welcome to open a new post if needed.

Thank you again for being a part of the Microsoft Fabric Community! Let us know if you need any help creating the support ticket.

[stevencheung_bm]

@Poojara_D12 
Thanks so much for your reply, now I got more understanding on it.
I was so surprised that Power BI's licensing models are so complicated, the objective is not provide efficient & easy for organization.  

Free report viewer can only view the report that I;ve put in my own workspace without connecting to datasource, but once the semantic data model is connecting to datasource, they becomes unable to view this kind of reports.
I'm not sure if this is related to Fabric, actually I don't expect to use Fabic, but it automatically used Fabric Trail service which I'm not sure what data/reports/service used in Fabic.  I would like to cancel Fabric service, but it promopts me some contents will be deleted.   However, I cannot find what is kept is Fabric...

So annoying, and strongly feel Power BI is not a user friendly tool !

[v-aatheeque]

Hi @stevencheung_bm ,
Thanks for your update, apologize for the issue you’re experiencing with Power BI’s licensing and the unexpected Fabric trialI ,completely understand how the licensing structure and Fabric integration can feel confusing and frustrating, especially when it impacts your business operations.

• Regarding the Fabric trial: Microsoft automatically enables Fabric trial features for users so they can try advanced capabilities like real-time analytics, dataflows, or semantic models. If you're seeing prompts about content being deleted upon cancellation, it likely means some artifacts (like a Lakehouse, Eventstream, or Dataflow Gen2) were created under Fabric capacity
• Free users can only view content in workspaces backed by Premium or Fabric capacity. Without it, they’ll be prompted to upgrade to Pro.
• Check workspace settings (under Premium tab) to see if any content is using Fabric. Move any important items to a standard (non-Fabric) workspace before canceling.
• For long-term flexibility and to avoid needing Pro licenses for every viewer, consider Power BI Premium per Capacity this allows unlimited Free users to view reports in Premium workspaces.

Hope this helps!!

If this post was helpful, please consider marking Accept as solution to assist other members in finding it more easily.

If you continue to face issues, feel free to reach out to us for further assistance!

[stevencheung_bm]

thank you.

do you think we can download the reports to user to view in their own power BI desktop, with connecting to the online datasource?   Althought this method is very stupid, but a short term solution for us.

[v-aatheeque]

Hi @stevencheung_bm ,

Yes, Power BI reports can be downloaded for viewing in Power BI Desktop, but only if the download option is enabled and the dataset supports it. Users may need to reconfigure or reauthenticate the online data source after opening the file.

Hope this helps !!

[Poojara_D12]

Hi @stevencheung_bm 
In Power BI, users with a Free license can only view content that is hosted in a workspace backed by Power BI Premium capacity—this is a key limitation of Microsoft's licensing model. If your organization has only paid for Power BI Pro licenses (for report creators), but not for Premium capacity, then only Pro users can view shared reports in the Power BI Service. This means that Free users will be blocked from accessing shared reports unless those reports are published to a workspace that is assigned to a Premium capacity (via a P-SKU or Fabric capacity like F64+). This is why your viewers are now being prompted to upgrade to Pro—they are trying to access Pro content without the necessary license or Premium-backed workspace. To resolve this issue and avoid buying individual Pro licenses for every viewer, your company should consider purchasing a Power BI Premium per Capacity license, which allows unlimited Free users to view shared content in Premium workspaces. While it involves an additional cost, it simplifies user access and supports larger-scale deployments, especially when the viewer base is large.

[focusGTN]

Hi Poojara_D12,

you are mentioning to enable Power BI Premium capacity with P-SKU for access with a Free License. Whats about the license Power BI Premium PPU (this is Premium capacity per User) ?

Thank you for clarifying. Best.

[focusGTN]

Hi Poojara_D12, we have the same problem. it's disappointing from Microsoft that they have NO answer for Users who are only a viewer.

I now licensed Power BI Premium Test Environment for checking. It comes with a Premium Capacity for the Premium User and it is documented, that Power BI Free Licenses should have access to the "Premium Workspace". By now it is not working, can you help ? Possibly wait for hours or days until Azure has updated this license stuff ?

best regards,