There are three kinds of Power BI per-user licenses: Fabric free, Power BI Pro, and Power BI Premium Per User (PPU). Which type of license you need to use Fabric and to use Power BI is determined by where your content is stored, how you plan on interacting with that content, and if that content uses Premium features. The other type of license is a Premium capacity-based license. PPU and Pro users with access to a Power BI Premium, Fabric F64 or greater capacity-based license, can create content in workspaces that are assigned to Premium capacity. PPU and Pro users can then grant colleagues, including free users, access to those Premium workspaces.
There are licenses that apply to an individual (per-user) and a license (often also referred to as a subscription) that applies to the type of storage capacity that an organization purchases. Each of the three per-user licenses is unique, and each grants access to certain Power BI service features and capabilities. The combination of per-user license and capacity determines the features and capabilities available to you. Just a few of those capabilities are: sharing, collaborating, and editing.
Users with free licenses can use the Power BI service to connect to data and create reports and dashboards for their own use. They can’t use the Power BI sharing or collaborating features with others, or publish content to other people’s workspaces. However, Pro and PPU users can share content and collaborate with free users if the content is saved in workspaces hosted in Premium capacity or Fabric F64 or greater capacity. To learn more about workspaces, see Types of workspaces. To learn more about features available to users with a free license, see Power BI service feature list.
Power BI Pro is an individual per-user license that lets users create content and also read, and interact with content that others publish to the Power BI service. Users with this license type can share content and collaborate with other Power BI Pro users. Only Power BI Pro users can publish or share content with other Pro users or consume content that’s created by other Pro users, unless a Power BI Premium capacity hosts that content. If a Power BI Premium capacity hosts the content, then Pro users can share content and collaborate with free and PPU users too.
A PPU per-user license provides the license holder with all of the capabilities of Power BI Pro plus access to most Premium capacity-based features. A Power BI PPU license unlocks access to extra of features, capabilities, and types of content that are only available with a paid license. This access is limited to the PPU license holder and other colleagues who also have a PPU license. For example, in order to collaborate and share content in a PPU workspace, all users must have a PPU license.
When you use a PPU license, content created by you can only be shared with other users who also have a PPU license. The exception is when that content is saved in a workspace hosted in Premium capacity. The table summarizes the basic capabilities of each license type.
A capacity-based Premium license (often referred to as a Premium subscription) allows Pro or PPU users to create and save content in Premium capacity workspaces. They can then share that workspace with colleagues who have any license type. Only users with a Pro or PPU license can create and save content in Premium capacities, and only if their organization purchased Premium capacity.