Difference between one P2 sku and two P1 skus

[twilliams98103]

Is there a difference between buying two Power BI Premium P1 skus and one Power BI Premium P2 sku? My understanding is that both of these would cost $10,000 a month. Is that correct?

Further, am I correct that the two P1 sku approach would mean that you have two capacities with 8 v-cores each, and that a given workload could only run against one of those capacities, not both, while a P2 sku would give you a single capacity with 16 v-cores?

If the above is correct, is there any advantage to buying two P1 skus? If, for example, I dedicated one P1 to Finance and one to Operations, am I accomplishing anything different from having a single P2 and separating Finance from Operations using workgroups?

[jean-louis]

Is this answer is still accurate in 2023 ? we are using 2 x SKU P1 merged in a single P2, and we got all P2 memory and CPU with our 2xP1 configuration.

Then what could be the benefit to buy a single P2 rather than 2xP1 ?

[v-lili6-msft · Accepted solution]

hi, @twilliams98103 

Both of these would cost $10,000 a month, But one P2 sku is better.

You should know that Max memory settings are not cumulative. please refer to this document:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-admin-premium-workloads

You could split P2 into two capacities, they could apply to P2 Workload, but two P1 skus could only apply to P1 Workload.

Best Regards,

Lin