Understand the Microsoft Fabric/ Power BI licences model?

[dd88]

Does anyone understand the Microsoft Fabric/ Power BI licences model?

I have been tasked with creating estimate costs for Microsoft Fabric/ Power BI service.

From the 1st MS article if I understand correctly

Subscription types

Power BI Premium capacity.

Organisational subscription to store content (OneLake) in a virtual container.

Paid
We will purchase capacity

Power BI service for business users
Reading view. To view reports and dashboards, and access apps online service
Free license

Power BI service for designers & developer
Editing View. create reports and release to users .includes build and deploy pipelines, build apps, maintain workspaces (Fabric capacity administrator)
Power BI Premium

However if the organisation has purchsed Power BI Premium capacity. then the designer/developer/administrators license is included.
Which means no cost

Power BI Desktop
Used by designers and developers of reports
Free

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/consumer/end-user-license

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-au/pricing/#features-compare-charts

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/microsoft-fabric/#pricing

Therefore the real cost only includes Power BI Premium capacity.

Is that right?

Or are there other 'hidden'costs. For example the above is a service subscription, and another cost is to add a software subscription?

The Microsoft Fabric/ capacity is pay-as-you-go.

The MS video here mentions Microsoft Fabric/ capacity reserved price in USD and to be available soon. the video is 8 months old. Does anyone know if the reserved price is available yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AAeV3bSMso

Thanks

[v-binbinyu-msft]

Hi @dd88 ,

First of all, thank you @RossEdwards  very much for explaining, I'd just like to add a note below.

Power BI is SSAS product, Power Bi Desktop and Service is free, so there is no cost for software, but to use it need license.

For Power BI, there are two types of license:

• For User: Free, Pro, PPU
• For Capacity: Premium Capacity(include three types of sku, P sku, A sku, EM sku)

Fabric also need license, Free license, F sku, P sku.

Free license needn't payment, free use only could cpnsume the Power BI content that when the workspace is hosted in P sku or quivalent or higher than a F64 sku.

For more details, you could read related document: Microsoft Fabric concepts - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn , Types of licenses for Power BI business users - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Best regards,
Community Support Team_Binbin Yu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[RossEdwards · Accepted solution]

You are pretty close.  The premium license is the purchasing of the capacity to host your reporting.  Think of it like paying for the server costs.  It covers the load your models put on the resources (storage and processing) and covers your users with free licenses.

For individuals, they will either have a free license or a pro license.  A pro license lets you do all the deployment work within the service itself.

Most common will be that you will have a premium capacity and some pro licenses for your admin/developers.  Everyone else will have free licenses.

There are some other types but likely not what you care about here.

[kwatson1]

Where does the Fabric license come into play with this?

[RossEdwards]

Think of the Fabric license as the new Premium license.  As of next year, the premium license won't be offered and the Fabric license will cover all needs.

[dd88]

Many thanks @RossEdwards  that is clear ..