Power BI Pro is the standard paid Power BI licence: a per-user subscription, £10.80 a month, that lets you publish and share reports. Power BI Premium is the step up, in two forms. Premium Per User is a per-user licence that adds enterprise features; Premium (or Fabric) capacity is bought for the whole organisation.
Power BI Pro: the standard paid licence
Power BI Pro is the licence most business users have. It is a per-user subscription that unlocks the social half of Power BI: publishing reports to a shared workspace, handing them to colleagues and collaborating on them. Some organisations already have Pro through a Microsoft 365 E5 plan; our Is Power BI part of Office 365? entry explains when a subscription includes it.
Pro is enough for most teams. Its limits sit at the demanding end: very large datasets, very frequent data refreshes and a handful of enterprise features. If you never bump into those, Pro is all you need. When you do, Power BI Premium is the answer.
What "Power BI Premium" actually means
This is where people get confused, because "Power BI Premium" is really two different things:
- Premium Per User (PPU): a per-user licence, like Pro but a tier up. It gives one person everything Pro does, plus premium features such as larger datasets and more frequent refreshes.
- Premium capacity: not a per-user licence at all. It is dedicated capacity bought for the whole organisation. Microsoft now sells it as part of Microsoft Fabric, as Fabric capacity.
Microsoft's licensing documentation sets out the per-user tiers, Free, Pro and Premium Per User, alongside the capacity option. The short version: Premium Per User upgrades one person; Premium capacity upgrades the whole tenant.
Which one do you need?
For most teams, the answer is Power BI Pro. It covers publishing and sharing for everyone who needs it; nothing more is required until you hit a real limit.
Move to Premium Per User when a specific person needs the premium features, for example an analyst working with very large models. Move to Premium or Fabric capacity when a large audience needs to view reports. On capacity, the people who build reports still need Pro or PPU, but the people who only read them can be on the free tier. That is what makes capacity cost-effective once your viewer count is high.
What they cost
Microsoft's Power BI pricing page sets the per-user prices:
- Power BI Pro: £10.80 per user per month, billed annually.
- Power BI Premium Per User: £18.50 per user per month, billed annually.
Both exclude VAT. Premium and Fabric capacity are priced differently again, at the organisation level rather than per user, so the cost depends on the capacity size you buy. If you are still deciding whether to pay for Power BI at all, our Is Power BI free? entry covers the free tier first.
Licences are the easy part Choosing a licence takes an afternoon; getting genuine value out of Power BI takes skill. Our two-day, hands-on Power BI Masterclass turns a licence into reports your team will actually use. For a wider view of the training market, our Power BI training buyer's guide covers how to pick a UK course.
