Automated Export to PDF - Is there any option to do this without premium capacity and Gen 2

[PAPutzback2]

I am working for a small company that intends use Power BI Pro licenses for the few people that will access the apps. But they have a many people that handle calls and they want to be able to automate the export and email steps for a report in a PDF or image format to those people who don't need to run the report. Is this possible with a premium capacity and a gen 2 workspace? 

[v-yiruan-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @PAPutzback2 ,

There are the following prerequisites need to be fulfilled when export and email a Power BI report with Power Automate, you can find the details in this official documentation.

Automate export PowerBI report to pdf and send email without premium license

There is no workaround really, you've got to have a Premium licence to send full PDF's of reports. You could purchase a third-party solution - for example ChristianSteven software have solutions, but you've still got to spend.

If you only want to send a PDF to users, probably the cheapest way is to have just one Premium Per User licence (PPU) and set up subscriptions from there to your Pro users. The problem with this is that's all they get, a PDF. They won't be able to access the Report, even though they have a Pro licence, as the Report will need to be on a PPU workspace and Pro can't access PPU workspaces. But what the hey - they get the PDF ! The next step up before a full Premium Capacity licence would be to get PPU licenses for the people you send the subscription to, then they would be able to access the Report, not just the PDF. Depending on your users numbers this may be considerably cheaper than full Premium Capacity.

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You can use email subscription feature to get it, please find the details in the following link.

Email subscriptions for reports and dashboards in the Power BI service

Best Regards

[KiranHosakote · Accepted solution]

Hi @PAPutzback2 

Yes there is a way to do this. To automate the export of your Power BI report to PDF with filters and slicers applied (needs a Power BI Pro license), see https://medium.com/bi-helper/automated-distribution-of-power-bi-reports-and-dashboards-25fde6c68af0.

BI Helper is a third-party SaaS tool that automates the generation and emailing of PDF / PPTX reports from Power BI, within and outside your organization. 

[v-yiruan-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @PAPutzback2 ,

There are the following prerequisites need to be fulfilled when export and email a Power BI report with Power Automate, you can find the details in this official documentation.

Automate export PowerBI report to pdf and send email without premium license

There is no workaround really, you've got to have a Premium licence to send full PDF's of reports. You could purchase a third-party solution - for example ChristianSteven software have solutions, but you've still got to spend.

If you only want to send a PDF to users, probably the cheapest way is to have just one Premium Per User licence (PPU) and set up subscriptions from there to your Pro users. The problem with this is that's all they get, a PDF. They won't be able to access the Report, even though they have a Pro licence, as the Report will need to be on a PPU workspace and Pro can't access PPU workspaces. But what the hey - they get the PDF ! The next step up before a full Premium Capacity licence would be to get PPU licenses for the people you send the subscription to, then they would be able to access the Report, not just the PDF. Depending on your users numbers this may be considerably cheaper than full Premium Capacity.

---

You can use email subscription feature to get it, please find the details in the following link.

Email subscriptions for reports and dashboards in the Power BI service

Best Regards

[PAPutzback2]

So it looks like we would need a 20$ PPU Power BI license and a 15PU automate license.
Thank You.