We would like to inform you of an important update coming soon regarding Power BI Premium licensing. With the release of Microsoft Fabric and the Fabric Capacity SKUs last year, Microsoft is consolidating purchasing options and retiring the Power BI Premium per Capacity SKUs. There will be no change to Power BI Premium functionality and no immediate action is required. You can continue to use your existing Power BI Premium Capacity until your next renewal date.

After January 1, 2025, existing Power BI Premium per Capacity customers will be required to move to an appropriate Fabric Capacity and pricing plan at the time of their next renewal. This provides greater SKU size flexibility, usage-based billing, access to Azure-only features, and eligibility for the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC).

Power BI Premium Per Capacity Pricing Options Deprecation

Last year, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Fabric – which combines the best of Microsoft Power BI, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure Data Factory to create a single, unified software as a service (SaaS) platform. Microsoft Fabric is a superset of Power BI Premium, meaning it has all the capabilities of Power BI Premium plus six additional core workloads. To make the transition as easy as possible, Microsoft has made it possible for customers to access Fabric capabilities on top of their existing Power BI Premium on a per Capacity basis.

With both pay-as-you-go and reservation options now available for Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft is announcing the eventual end of life for the Power BI Premium Capacity SKUs.

Depending on your existing agreement, the termination will affect you differently:

  • New customers will no longer be able to purchase Power BI Premium per Capacity after July 1, 2024.
  • Existing customers without an Enterprise Agreement (EA) can renew their Power BI Premium Capacity subscriptions until January 1, 2025.
  • Customers with a renewal date after January 1, 2025 must replace their purchase of Power BI Premium Capacity with the purchase of Fabric Capacity at the end of their agreement.

All existing customers can purchase more Power BI Premium Capacity on their current agreement until its end date.

The Benefits of Microsoft Fabric Capacity

Customers who migrate their purchase to Fabric-Capacity will enjoy a range of additional benefits. Fabric-Capacity is MACC eligible, meaning Fabric customers can apply their Fabric spend toward their MACC commitment. There is also a pay-as-you-go option for Fabric, which allows you to dynamically scale capacity up or down and pause it as needed. Fabric-Capacity customers can also take advantage of smaller compute SKUs that start well below the entry-level Power BI Premium SKU.

Additionally, Fabric Capacity customers get access to Azure-only features like trusted workspace access for OneLake shortcuts and Managed Private Endpoints for Spark. These features are native to Azure and not available to Power BI Premium Capacity customers.

Migrating to Microsoft Fabric Capacity

To migrate your Power BI and Fabric artifacts, you can easily reassign your workspaces to the new Fabric Capacity. Admins can even assign workspaces in bulk to speed up the process. You will have access to your Power BI and Fabric artifacts for a minimum of 90 days after your Power BI Premium Capacity subscription ends. During this 90 day period, you can migrate workspaces to your new Fabric Capacity without fear of losing access to your existing work. For more information about managing and reassigning your workspaces, see the Microsoft Fabric documentation.

Impact on other Power BI licenses

Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium per user (PPU) are not affected by this discontinuation. For Power BI Embedded, Microsoft Fabric Capacity is compatible with Power BI Embedded and can be used to run all of your embedded activities.

However, Microsoft Fabric Capacity is not compatible with Power BI Report Server. To continue access to Power BI Report Server, you can instead obtain it through SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance. This option is the most popular way to acquire Power BI Report Server.

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