What will Power BI cost your team?
Enter how many people build reports and how many only read them. The calculator works out Pro, Premium Per User, and the mix most teams actually end up on.
Authors, analysts, anyone opening Power BI Desktop.
Sales, ops, managers reading dashboards in the browser.
Models over 1 GB, more than 8 refreshes a day, deployment pipelines, or AI features.
| Option | Per user / month | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|
US list prices, checked 2 November 2026. Confirm in the Microsoft 365 admin centre before budgeting.
How the numbers work
Power BI Free can't view shared reports. This is the part people miss. A Free account can open Power BI Desktop and build something locally, but the moment a report is published to the service, every viewer needs a licence — Pro, PPU, or a Fabric capacity. There is no "just share the link" option outside a capacity.
Pro is the default. At $14 per user per month it covers publishing, sharing, scheduled refresh and row-level security. Most teams under a few hundred people never need anything else.
PPU is for the two or three people who hit the ceiling. It includes everything in Pro plus larger models, more frequent refreshes and the premium-only features. Buying it for the whole team is usually waste.
Fabric capacity is a different purchase. A capacity (F64 and up) lets Free users view reports, but it is billed monthly at a level that only pays off past roughly 300 users. The exact price varies by region and SKU, so this calculator doesn't guess at it — get a quote from Microsoft or a partner before going down that road.
FAQ
Q: Why does the calculator ask for two headcounts?
Because the two groups can sit on different licences. Only people who publish need PPU when premium features are required; viewers can stay on Pro. Asking for one total hides that saving, which is usually the single biggest line item.
Q: Do viewers need Pro if the report is in a Premium workspace?
Not if the workspace is backed by a Fabric capacity (F64 or above). In that case Free users can view. That is the only scenario where Free works for viewers, and it is why large organisations buy capacity instead of licences.
Q: Are these list prices?
Yes — US list prices, checked against Microsoft's Power BI pricing page on 2 November 2026. Enterprise agreements, non-profit and education pricing all differ. Always confirm in the Microsoft 365 admin centre before committing to a budget.
Q: What about Power BI Embedded or Report Server?
Embedded is for putting reports inside your own application and is priced per capacity, not per user — out of scope here. Report Server is an on-premises product with its own licensing. Neither maps cleanly onto the Pro/PPU decision above.
Prices from Microsoft's Power BI pricing page, checked 2 November 2026. Not affiliated with Microsoft.