Forum Discussion
Setting Alerts in Power BI reports
Hi,
I have a Power BI Pro workspace where I give direct access to external clients (guest users) for my reports.
Earlier, these guest users could not set alerts directly on visuals in reports. To work around this, I created a dashboard, pinned card and gauge visuals there, and then asked clients to set alerts on the dashboard—which worked fine.
Now, something seems to have changed.
Screenshot 1: When trying earlier, the client would get the "One-time setup for alerts" message, which failed because they were a guest user and could not create a free Fabric trial capacity.
Screenshot 2: Recently, the same client is able to create and manage alerts directly within the report (without needing the dashboard).
One more point of confusion: Even though I have not assigned any Premium Per User (PPU) license or access on my workspace to this client, they still see a PPU trial banner on their side while setting up alerts.
This raises a few questions:
Has there been a recent Power BI Service / Fabric update that now allows guest users to set alerts directly on reports?
Why does the client see a PPU trial prompt when I haven’t given them PPU access from my workspace?
What is the official behavior for guest users regarding alerts on report visuals vs dashboards?
Screenshot1Screenshot 2
Any guidance or confirmation from Microsoft or the community would be appreciated.
Hello Aarush9885,
Thanks for your question.
Yes, report-level alerts are now powered by Fabric Data Activator, which means they require Fabric capacity or a PPU license behind the scenes. That’s why guest users previously hit a Fabric trial error—they couldn't create a trial for Activator.
Recently Microsoft has expanded this feature: guest users may now see a PPU trial prompt even without having explicit PPU access. To reliably enable alerts on report visuals (without guests hitting access errors), you’ll need either:
A Premium Fabric capacity (like F64 or above), or
Assign PPU licenses to those users.
You can find more information in this documentation : https://learn.microsoft.com/fr-fr/power-bi/create-reports/service-set-data-alerts
Hope it can help you !
Best regards,
Antoine
3 Replies
- AntoineW
Super User
Hello Aarush9885,
Thanks for your question.
Yes, report-level alerts are now powered by Fabric Data Activator, which means they require Fabric capacity or a PPU license behind the scenes. That’s why guest users previously hit a Fabric trial error—they couldn't create a trial for Activator.
Recently Microsoft has expanded this feature: guest users may now see a PPU trial prompt even without having explicit PPU access. To reliably enable alerts on report visuals (without guests hitting access errors), you’ll need either:
A Premium Fabric capacity (like F64 or above), or
Assign PPU licenses to those users.
You can find more information in this documentation : https://learn.microsoft.com/fr-fr/power-bi/create-reports/service-set-data-alerts
Hope it can help you !
Best regards,
Antoine
Thanks for clarifying that, Antoine.
I do have one follow-up question: I’m currently on a Power BI Pro license, but I’ve noticed something strange. Some of my clients are automatically being shown PPU access, while others still see only the Power BI Pro trial. How is it possible that for the same report, different users are experiencing two different license prompts?
Additionally, I’ve observed that the trial period sometimes seems to extend automatically. Could you explain why this happens?
- djurecic
Hi Aarush9885 ,
There are 2 types of alerts- the traditional alerts require a dashboard and are described here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/service-set-data-alerts
Alerts on reports use Fabric Activator and do require a Fabric capacity- here is more information about alerts on reports:
