License problem: Power BI Pro license and customer has premium capacity

[elaj]

Hi,

I think I dont understand the licensing from Power BI. Tried to read the articles, but I dont get it.

I work in a growing company which is producing Power BI reports for our customers.

As far as I know there are three types of License Models.. either

• Power BI Pro (per User) ~ 10$ p.m.
• Power BI Premium (per User) ~ 20$ p.m.
• Power BI Premium Capacity (per Organisation/Company) ~ 5000$ p.m.

Since 5000$ per month is a lot of money and also the funcionality of the Premium Capacity is not needed, we decided that all our Report developers get Power BI Pro Licenses. This is completely enough functionality for us and we are able to produce and share.

Our customers on the other hand are bigger companies with Power BI Premium Capacity. So just their developers need Power BI Pro, and their users do not need any License (when I got this right).

When they (-> customer with Power BI Premium Capacity but no Pro account) now want to use our produced reports/apps in our Power BI Pro Workspace, they are not allowed to see this? Even though they pay 5000$ per month?

Are the only two solutions for us either to

• give every guest (-> customer with Power BI Premium Capacity but no Pro account) a pro license from our side? which is a lot, because this company has a lot of employees who want to see our App? or
• buying a Power BI Premium Capacity by ourselves to upgrade the workspace to Premium Capacity to be able to share with users without a Pro account?

If so.. these two options are extremely expensive... and there should be another option to do so.. not every company (especially when they start with Power BI) can afford 5000$ per month just for being able to share content with the customer.

Is there a cheaper approach? Did i get this wrong?

Thanks for your help

greetings

[ibarrau · Accepted solution]

Hi. I'll add to this amazing answer that you have one more approach. You can pay for capacity with Power Bi Embed (azure resource with capacity features). This approach starts with 700 USD (monthly). It will allow you to develop a Web App in which you can own a custom login. The problem is that you need developers to make it. 

The embed approach can be helpfull when you need to share with clients that won't have a license or a tenant.

Regards,

[collinq]

HI @elaj 

You mostly have that right about access.  The key is that the user license is based on the company that is providing the license.  An user having premium can access items and can be given a Pro license as part of their premium license.  BUT, just because a user has Premium access that does not mean they can access YOUR system.  

This is where external sharing comes in.  If you share with their userid that has the license, then you are ok.  To do this, you have to have external sharing turned on by the admin and you have to share with the exact userid that has the license.  From your perspective it is kind of irrelevant if an external user is PPU, Premium or PRO - if they have a license and you share from your system to that userid then your data can be accessed by them (from a LICENSING perspective).  What permissions for workspaces, reports, data, RLS, etc. is a different aspect to this.

[elaj]

Hi @collinq 

This sounds interesting. So there is a possibility to have my app in the workspace of my company and manage and maintain it, while i share this with the userid from my customer to take advantage of their premium capacity? i didnt find any tutorial or so in the internet for that. can you send me a link where this is explained?

[ibarrau · Accepted solution]

Hi. I'll add to this amazing answer that you have one more approach. You can pay for capacity with Power Bi Embed (azure resource with capacity features). This approach starts with 700 USD (monthly). It will allow you to develop a Web App in which you can own a custom login. The problem is that you need developers to make it. 

The embed approach can be helpfull when you need to share with clients that won't have a license or a tenant.

Regards,

[elaj]

So how can i do this? My Admin is not shure how to realize this.

[collinq]

HI @elaj ,

In the Admin Portal for Power BI , in the Export and Sharing Settings, you will need to turn on "Invite external users to your organization"

[elaj]

Yes this is already activated. Thats why I am able to share it with the customer. But my company has no premium capacity so the customer needs power bi pro licenses.

Now the question: How can I share with their user ID so I can take advantage of their premium capacity? So that they dont have to purchase a pro license for every viewer?

[v-jayw-msft]

Hi @elaj ,

If you want to share contents with extenal users, both you and extenal users will need Pro licence. Or you will need premiumn license then extenal users will not need Pro license.

Best Regards,

Jay

[elaj]

Yes i have pro... So there is no way for me (like collinq mentioned) to share with the userid of my customer who has premium capacity? so that all the users dont have to buy pro?

[v-jayw-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @elaj ,

Either you and your customer both have Pro license, or the content you want to share with your customer is in Premium Capacity (which means your organization will need Premium license).

Best Regards,

Jay