Use Power BI Embedded to test Paginated Report Features?

[equerystrian]

This recent Docs post summarizes purchasing a Power BI Embedded A4 SKU as a way to test Power BI Premium https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/admin/service-admin-premium-testing 

Does anyone have experience with this? I cannot quite tell if this is a cost-saving test approach or just an access workaround at the same $5k/month price point.

My org is evaluating where Power BI might replace their existing IBM Cognos implementation, so the interest in Power BI Premium is really an interested in Paginated Reports as a path to satisfy the existing "Send me the report as an Excel file on a schedule" appetite. Premium capacity might help with licensing costs as well, but we won't stand a chance migrating users to a platform where the only option is "email me a link and a screencap of the report", as long-established patterns & comfort with Excel can't be denied "just because". 

Thanks in advance for the help!

[nickyvv · Accepted solution]

Hi @equerystrian,

if it is Paginated Reports only that you want to test for now, you can even leverage the A1 SKUs, and shut them down while you don't use it. This was announced today because of the new Embedded Generation 2 (see the purple note on that page).

See the blog on Announcing Power BI Embedded Generation 2 (preview) here.