Business Intelligence Software
Microsoft Power BI review
Microsoft's BI platform with a free authoring tier, $14 per-user sharing licence and capacity options through Fabric.
Microsoft Power BI at a glance
- Category
- Business Intelligence Software
- Starting price
- Free; Pro $14 per user/month (billed yearly)
- Pricing model
- per user
- Public pricing
- Yes
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free trial
- Yes
- Contract
- annual billing for listed per-user prices
- G2 rating
- 4.5 (1,646 reviews)
- Headquarters
- Redmond, US (Microsoft)
- Funding or owner
- Part of Microsoft (public)
- Integrations
- Microsoft 365, Azure, Microsoft Fabric
Who Microsoft Power BI is for
Choose Microsoft Power BI if
- Microsoft 365 and Azure shops.
- Teams wanting low per-user cost for dashboard sharing.
Look elsewhere if
- Buyers wanting predictable capacity pricing without Fabric complexity.
- Teams mostly on non-Microsoft stacks (reviewers cite learning curve and large-data slowness)
Microsoft Power BI pricing
| Plan | Price | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Create reports; sharing requires Pro or Premium | |
| Pro | $14.00 | per user/month billed yearly | Publish and share; included in Microsoft 365 E5 |
| Premium Per User | $24.00 | per user/month billed yearly | Larger models, more frequent refresh |
| Embedded | Variable | Contact sales | |
| Fabric capacity | Variable | reserved or pay-as-you-go | Reservation saves 40.5% vs pay-as-you-go per Microsoft |
Microsoft says page prices are marketing prices and may vary by region.
What Microsoft Power BI really costs
- Per seat per month
- $14 (Pro, billed yearly)
- Billing
- Annual billing for per-user prices; capacity monthly or reserved.
- 20 users per year
- 20 x $14 x 12 = $3,360/year on Pro (Premium Per User: 20 x $24 x 12 = $5,760)
- Add-ons
- Fabric capacity (needed for broad free-viewer distribution at scale); Embedded.
- Recent price change
- Pro $10 to $14 and PPU $20 to $24 effective 2025-04-01 (theregister.com, erp.today)
Cheaper per seat than Microsoft Power BI
Looker Studio$0 free; Pro about $9 per user per project.
MetabaseStarter: $6/mo per extra user after first 5 ($65/yr); Pro: $12/mo after first 10 ($130/yr)
Microsoft Power BI features by buying criteria
| Criterion | What we found |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per user (Pro, PPU) or capacity (Fabric/Embedded) |
| Target company size | SMB to enterprise. |
| Data modeling and governance | Larger models and more refreshes on Premium Per User. |
| Embedded analytics | Power BI Embedded, variable pricing via sales. |
What reviewers say about Microsoft Power BI
Praised for
- Interactive dashboards from raw data.
- Row-level security.
- Strong Microsoft integrations.
Common complaints
- Steep learning curve.
- Slow on large datasets.
- Limited customization.
Themes paraphrased from public reviews on G2 and similar sites, not quotes.
What most Microsoft Power BI reviews leave out
- Pro rose from about $10 to $14 and PPU from $20 to $24 on April 1, 2025, announced Nov 12, 2024; existing contracts kept old price until renewal.
- Free users can build but cannot share without Pro or Premium.
- Pro is bundled in Microsoft 365 E5.
- Fabric reservation is MACC-eligible and some activities still need per-user licences.
Microsoft Power BI alternatives
TableauAnalyst-led teams doing deep visual exploration.$15 per Viewer/month (Standard, billed annually)
LookerData teams that want a central semantic layer (LookML)Contact sales- Looker StudioMarketers reporting from Google Analytics 4 and Search Console.Free; Pro about $9 per user per project per month (third-party)
Qlik SenseMid-size and large teams that want many users on one fixed annual fee (Standard onward adds users at no cost)$300/mo (Starter, billed annually)- MetabaseSmall teams wanting a free self-hosted start.Free (open source); Starter $100/mo or $1,080/yr
DataboxSmall teams and agencies that want KPI dashboards from SaaS data sources without a data team.$0 (Free); paid from $71/mo billed annually (Analyst)
Microsoft Power BI compared
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from Microsoft Power BI's own pricing, product or documentation pages, G2 and company records, checked on October 24, 2026. Unknown values are left out instead of estimated.