Is Power BI Free? What You Get Free and When You Need Pro (2026)
Gulab Chand Tejwani
PMP · PL-300 · Microsoft Certified Trainer
· 9 min read
Yes, partly. Power BI Desktop is free to download and use, with no time limit, and you can sign up for a free Power BI account with a work or school email. With those you can build complete reports and publish them to your own "My workspace". What isn't free is sharing and collaboration: to share reports with colleagues, work in shared workspaces or publish apps, you need a Power BI Pro licence ($14 per user per month, paid yearly) or Premium Per User ($24). A large enough capacity (Fabric F64 or bigger, or an existing Premium P capacity) lets people who only view reports use a free licence, but whoever builds and shares them still needs Pro or PPU. Prices were checked on Microsoft's pricing page on 4 November 2026.
I'm Gulab Chand Tejwani. I teach Power BI at TechNet Consultancy in Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand, and online, and I hold the PL-300 Power BI Data Analyst certification. "Do I have to pay to learn this?" is one of the first questions students ask. For learning, the answer is no.
What can you do with Power BI for free?
With Power BI Desktop (free, Windows only) you can do almost everything a report builder does:
- connect to Excel, CSV, databases and online sources
- clean and shape data in Power Query
- build a data model and write DAX measures
- design multi-page interactive reports
- save your work as a .pbix file
With a free Power BI account (Microsoft now calls it a Fabric free licence) you can also publish those reports to the Power BI service and use them in your own My workspace in a browser.
What the free licence can't do: share reports with other people, create or work in shared workspaces, or publish apps. If your organisation runs its reports on a Fabric capacity of size F64 or larger (or an older Premium P capacity), free users can view content shared with them through the Viewer role or an app, as long as the report and the semantic model it uses are both in workspaces on that capacity (if the model sits in another workspace on shared capacity, free viewers get an upgrade prompt). On smaller capacities, viewers need Pro or PPU too.
Power BI licences compared
| Licence | Price (per user/month, paid yearly) | Build reports | Share with others | View shared reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Yes (Desktop and My workspace) | No | Only on F64+ or P capacity |
| Pro | $14 | Yes | Yes | Yes, except content in PPU workspaces |
| Premium Per User | $24 | Yes | Yes, with other PPU users for PPU content | Yes |
| Fabric capacity | Bought per organisation, variable | Needs Pro or PPU to create in shared workspaces | Yes | Free users on F64 and above |
Microsoft raised Pro from $10 and PPU from $20 in April 2025, so older articles quoting $10 are out of date. Pro is also included in Microsoft 365 E5 and Office 365 E5, so check whether your company already pays for it before buying separately. Prices in rupees and other currencies depend on your country and how you buy (directly or through a partner), so check Microsoft's Power BI pricing page for your region.
When do you actually need Power BI Pro?
You need Pro (or PPU) when any of these is true:
- you want to share a report or dashboard with a colleague
- you want to work with others in a shared workspace
- you want to publish an app for a team to use
- your report readers are on shared capacity, where every viewer needs Pro too
A common surprise: if you build a report and share it with ten managers, all eleven of you need Pro unless the content sits on F64 or larger capacity (or an older Premium P capacity). That's the moment organisations compare the cost of Pro for everyone against a capacity.
What does Premium Per User add?
Premium Per User (PPU) includes everything in Pro, plus most Premium features on a per-person basis: up to 48 scheduled refreshes a day instead of 8, support for models larger than 1 GB, and the XMLA endpoint for advanced tools. The catch is that content in a PPU workspace can only be opened by people who also have PPU (or a trial). It suits small teams of heavy users; Microsoft suggests it is more cost-effective than a capacity for fewer than 250 users.
What about Microsoft Fabric capacity?
Large organisations often buy a Fabric capacity (F SKUs, billed through Azure) instead of giving every reader a licence. On F64 and above (and on existing Premium P capacities), people with free licences can view reports shared with them as Viewers. Builders still need Pro or PPU to create content in shared workspaces. Microsoft has stopped selling the older Power BI Premium P SKUs to new customers and recommends F SKUs instead. Capacity pricing varies by region and size, so there's no single number to quote. Microsoft Fabric for Power BI users explains what Fabric adds.
Is there a free trial of Power BI Pro?
Microsoft offers trials, but which one you see depends on your account and your organisation's settings:
- Individual trial: when a free user tries a paid feature, Power BI may offer "Start trial" if self-service is allowed in your organisation.
- Fabric trial: a 60-day trial capacity that includes a licence similar to Premium Per User.
- Microsoft 365 trial: if you don't have a work or school email, Microsoft suggests starting a Microsoft 365 trial, which creates one (ending in onmicrosoft.com). It needs a credit card, so cancel before the 30-day trial ends if you don't want to pay.
If you don't see any trial option, your administrator may have turned off self-service sign-up, or you may have used a trial already.
Can I use Power BI with a Gmail account?
Power BI Desktop: yes, you can download and use it without signing in. The Power BI service: not directly. Microsoft requires a work or school email to sign up; consumer addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail aren't accepted. Students can usually use their college email, if the college's Microsoft account allows it.
Is Power BI free for students?
Power BI Desktop is free for everyone, including students, and it's all you need to learn modelling, DAX and report design. Microsoft Learn also has free Power BI learning paths. Whether you get Pro through your college depends on the college's Microsoft licence, so ask your IT department.
My advice to students: don't let licensing stop you. Build three or four reports in Desktop on real-looking data, and show them as .pbix files or screenshots in your portfolio. Interviewers care far more about the model and DAX behind a report than about whether it was shared in the service. Power BI projects for beginners has ideas.
Is Power BI Desktop available on Mac?
No. Power BI Desktop runs on Windows only. Mac users either run Windows in a virtual machine, use a Windows PC or cloud desktop, or work in the Power BI service in a browser, which can create some reports but doesn't have all of Desktop's modelling features.
The cheapest way to learn Power BI
- Install Power BI Desktop: free.
- Use your own Excel files or free public datasets: free.
- Follow Microsoft Learn's free modules for the basics.
- Practise the questions in the PL-300 exam guide if you want certification later. The exam has a fee; learning doesn't.
If you'd like a trainer to review your reports and fix your mistakes early, our Power BI training runs in Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand, and online, and the Power BI Mastery course is the self-paced version. New to the tool? Start with what is Power BI.
FAQ
Is Power BI free?
Power BI Desktop is free, and a free Power BI account lets you publish to your own My workspace. Sharing with others always needs Power BI Pro or Premium Per User. A Fabric F64 or larger capacity (or a legacy Premium P capacity) only changes who can view: readers there can use a free licence.
How much does Power BI Pro cost?
$14 per user per month on annual billing, and Premium Per User is $24, according to Microsoft's pricing page on 4 November 2026. Local prices vary by country.
Can I share Power BI reports with a free licence?
No. A free licence can't share content. Free users can only view shared content when it's hosted on Fabric F64 or larger capacity (or a Premium P capacity) and they have the Viewer role or app access.
Is Power BI Desktop free forever?
Yes. Power BI Desktop is a free download with no trial period. You pay only for sharing and collaboration in the Power BI service.
Can I use Power BI without a work email?
You can use Power BI Desktop without signing in. Signing up for the Power BI service needs a work or school email; Microsoft suggests a Microsoft 365 trial if you don't have one.
Is Power BI free for students?
Power BI Desktop is free for students, and Microsoft Learn's Power BI modules are free. Whether you get Pro depends on your college's Microsoft licence.