Microsoft Power BI review

Power BI is the most practical first BI tool for a company without a data team, mainly because of its price and its reach. Microsoft lists Pro at $14 per user per month, paid yearly, and anyone can build reports in the free Power BI Desktop app before paying to share them. Pro covers publishing and collaboration, with a 1 GB model size limit, 8 dataset refreshes a day and 10 GB of storage per licence. Premium Per User, at $24, raises the model limit to 100 GB and refreshes to 48 a day and adds advanced dataflows, datamarts and XMLA endpoint access. Copilot in Microsoft Fabric lets users ask questions in natural language and describe the report they want. The main trade-offs are licensing rules: every viewer of shared content needs a paid licence unless you move to Fabric capacity, and Fabric pricing is variable, so larger rollouts need careful sizing.

Who it is for

Analysts and operations teams in companies that run on Microsoft 365 and want a low published per-user price.

Price

Free account; Pro $14 per user per month, paid yearly; Premium Per User $24.

Power BI Pro $14.00 user/month, paid yearly
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 6, 2026.

Key features

• Create reports in the free Power BI Desktop app
• Publish and share reports with Pro or Premium Per User licences
• Connects to cloud and on-premises sources, unified in OneLake
• Copilot in Microsoft Fabric for natural-language questions and report drafts
• Power BI Embedded for putting reports inside other apps

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Pro costs $14 per user per month, among the lowest per-seat prices for a full BI suite
• Strength: Building reports in Power BI Desktop needs no paid licence
• Strength: Upgrade path to Premium Per User and Fabric capacity without changing tools
• Weakness: Sharing reports requires a paid licence for both the author and the viewers
• Weakness: Pro limits models to 1 GB and dataset refreshes to 8 a day
• Weakness: Fabric capacity pricing is a separate, variable model

Key facts

• Plans: Free account, Pro $14, Premium Per User $24 per user per month, paid yearly
• Pro limits: 1 GB model size, 8 dataset refreshes a day, 10 GB storage per licence
• Premium Per User limits: 100 GB model size, 48 refreshes a day

Where it ranks

Microsoft Power BI is No. 1 in our Best Business Intelligence Tools verdict.