Power BI Cost: Comprehensive Guide to Pricing Plans

3. Power BI Premium Per User: Features and Cost

Power BI Premium Per User (PPU) is an attempt to meet the needs of small teams or companies in advanced features typically found in the full Premium license, such as larger data models and expanded Dataflow functionality, without requiring the higher cost of a full Premium license.

Meaning, reports created under a PPU license can only be shared with others with a PPU license. Users with just a Pro license won’t be able to access them, which limits the audience.

This licensing type is not popular for this reason. Eventually, the need to share reports with a broader audience often arises, potentially doubling the cost of Power BI licensing for the organization.

Features

• Access to features typically reserved for enterprise-level Power BI Premium capacities, such as the ability to host reports in Power BI Service with greater scalability.
• Share reports with other users who also have a PPU license.
• Share larger datasets with premium performance and capacity.
• Supports larger data models (up to 100 GB per dataset) for handling complex and large-scale data analysis.
• 100 TB of storage capacity in the cloud for storing datasets and reports.
• Faster performance and higher refresh rates (up to 48 times per day).
• Access to AI-powered features, including AutoML (automated machine learning) and cognitive services, for more advanced data insights and predictive analytics.
• Ability to create, share, and export paginated reports, which are pixel-perfect and ideal for printing or creating detailed layouts.
• Use dataflows to ingest, transform, and manage data at scale, improving data quality and consistency across reports.
• BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) encryption and advanced governance features provide control over data security.
• Manage report development with deployment pipelines for promotion of reports and datasets from development to production environments.

Cost:

• US$24 per user/month (as of 2025).
• Requires a PPU license for each user who needs access to the premium features and reports.

4. Power BI Premium and Standard memberships

Companies can choose between two types of subscriptions: Standard and Premium. The Standard option requires a Power BI Pro license. With this subscription, users work within what is known as “shared capacity.” 

A Power BI Pro license user can collaborate with other users of the same licensing type.

However, reports published in a shared capacity can only be shared with others with a Power BI Pro license.Non-Power BI Pro license users cannot view reports. 

Power BI Standard (Pro)

Features:

• Share dashboards and reports with other Pro users within the organisation.
• Work in shared workspaces with team members to build and view reports.
• Schedule up to 8 data refreshes per day for real-time insights.
• Supports datasets up to 1 GB in size.
• Export reports to formats like Excel, PDF, and PowerPoint.
• Publish reports to the Power BI Service for web and mobile access.
• Integrate with Excel, Teams, and SharePoint for seamless collaboration.
• Restrict access to specific data within reports for different users.

Cost: 

• US$10 per user per month (as of 2024).

Power BI Premium

Features:

• Includes all features of Power BI Pro.
• Supports datasets up to 100 GB.
• Create pixel-perfect reports for print or detailed layouts.
• Access advanced AI and machine learning tools, like AutoML and cognitive services.
• Schedule up to 48 refreshes per day for real-time data.
• Manage larger datasets and complex data flows at scale.
• Faster query processing and premium performance for larger datasets.

Cost:

• US$20 per user per month (as of 2024).

Microsoft Fabric Bundling: What It Means for Power BI Costs

With the introduction of Microsoft Fabric, Power BI is now part of a unified analytics platform that combines data engineering, data science, real-time analytics, and business intelligence into a single SaaS offering. This integration has significant implications for Power BI Premium users—especially in terms of value and cost-efficiency.

Previously, organizations had to manage separate tools and infrastructure for BI, data lakes, and ML workflows. Now, Power BI Premium capacity includes Microsoft Fabric features by default, allowing teams to streamline analytics operations under one roof.

Key Benefits of Microsoft Fabric Bundling with Power BI:

• Unified Capacity Management
  Power BI shares capacity with other Fabric workloads (e.g., Synapse Data Engineering, Data Factory), allowing flexible allocation of compute and storage resources.
  
• Lower Total Cost of Ownership
  Instead of paying separately for multiple analytics tools, teams can now operate under a single, consolidated Microsoft Fabric SKU—resulting in potentially lower overhead.
  
• Enhanced Collaboration Across Teams
  Developers, data scientists, and business analysts can work within a shared environment, reducing friction between departments and speeding up insight generation.
  
• Seamless Data Integration
  Leverage a single OneLake data foundation to integrate structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data without constant duplication across tools.
  

What This Means for You

If you’re considering Power BI Premium, you’re no longer investing in just a reporting solution—you’re gaining access to a broader analytics platform. This makes Premium capacity even more attractive for enterprises looking to scale beyond dashboards into real-time analytics, machine learning, and unified data operations.

Power BI Licensing Cost Comparison

Even though the purpose of the different Power BI licensing options provided by Microsoft is for versatility, the downside is that they can be confusing when buying.

The following table provides a side-by-side comparison of the Power BI cost to clarify this confusion and help you make a better choice.

Also read: Power BI Consultant Hourly Rates

Which Power BI License Should You Choose?

Your choice of Power BI license depends on your data complexity, operational scale, pricing considerations, and business needs. Here are our recommendations:

For Small Businesses

A Power BI Pro subscription is ideal for small teams with limited data. At just $14 per month, it offers data sharing, collaboration, and reporting features—perfect for creating and sharing insights without advanced capabilities.

For Medium Businesses

Consider Power BI Premium Per User for medium-sized businesses needing advanced analytics and larger datasets. At $24 per month, it unlocks premium features like paginated reports and AI-driven insights, making it a great fit for teams seeking higher capacity without enterprise-level costs.

For Large Businesses

Power BI Premium (Capacity-Based) is best for large enterprises with extensive data needs and high-volume usage. This option allows unlimited sharing, supports massive datasets, and provides dedicated cloud resources, ensuring top-tier performance and full organizational control.

Also Read: Power BI Best Practices

Conclusion

The decision to have either Power BI Free, Pro, Premium, or both will depend on several factors, with the cost of Power BI being a key consideration for many organizations. For larger organisations with more users than developers, Power BI Premium is ideal.

As your self-service analytics needs grow, Premium offers the scalability and flexibility required, especially with the addition of Microsoft Fabric. Take the time to assess each tier available and determine the best fit for your business and its goals.

As an expert Power BI development company, ScaleupAlly is passionate about enabling organisations to develop, share, and utilise the full potential of Power BI.

We help organisations of all sizes build Power Platform solutions in weeks, enabling you to go from data to insights in as little time as possible.  

To learn more about what the Microsoft Power Platform can do for you and how to plan your Power BI deployment, connect with us for a free consultation today.