What a Power BI portal costs, all in
Three worked examples
In many cases cheaper than a Power BI Pro licence for every user.
Three typical portals, with everything Embedsy and Microsoft bill each month: the Embedsy plan, the capacity, Pro licences for the people who build reports, and the Azure resources.
25 users
about 150 USD
a month, all in
Power BI Pro for all 25 users: 350 USD
2.3× as much
100 users
about 485 USD
a month, all in
Power BI Pro for all 100 users: 1,400 USD
2.9× as much
250 users
about 1,350 USD
a month, all in
Power BI Pro for all 250 users: 3,500 USD
2.6× as much
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How these numbers work
- Viewers need no licence. People who open reports in the portal, inside or outside your company, need no Power BI Pro or Premium Per User licence, on any capacity size. Only the people who build reports do.
- The capacity is billed only while it runs. The portal starts it when someone opens a report and pauses it when nobody has for a while.
- Microsoft bills its part directly. Embedsy bills only the plan. Prices are US list prices from Microsoft's pages for Fabric capacity, Power BI licences, App Service and SQL Database, last checked on 10 October 2026; they vary by region.
Example 1: 25 users, about 150 USD a month
A company gives 25 customers and colleagues their own figures. Reports refresh overnight. In practice the capacity runs about one and a half hours a day while people look at reports, plus half an hour for background work. Capacity: an F2.
Embedsy Standard plan
100 USD
Embedsy · 25 users at 4 USD per user
Fabric capacity F2
17 USD
Microsoft · about 50 running hours a month (1.5 h viewing on weekdays, 0.5 h background daily) at 0.36 USD an hour
Power BI Pro for report authors
14 USD
Microsoft · 1 author at 14 USD
Azure resources for the portal
under 20 USD
Microsoft · App Service B1 Linux, SQL Database Basic, a storage account
Total
about 150 USD
Power BI Pro for all 25 users
350 USD
About 6 USD per user per month, against 14 USD per user for a Power BI Pro licence. Giving all 25 users a Power BI Pro licence instead would cost 350 USD a month, about 2.3 times as much. And that still buys no branded portal.
Example 2: 100 users, about 485 USD a month
The most an F2 comfortably serves. One hundred portal users, mixed internal and external, viewing for about four hours a day in total, plus the half hour of background work. Capacity: an F2.
Embedsy Standard plan
400 USD
Embedsy · 100 users at 4 USD per user
Fabric capacity F2
37 USD
Microsoft · about 100 running hours a month (4 h viewing on weekdays, 0.5 h background daily) at 0.36 USD an hour
Power BI Pro for report authors
28 USD
Microsoft · 2 authors at 14 USD
Azure resources for the portal
under 20 USD
Microsoft · smallest tiers, as above
Total
about 485 USD
Power BI Pro for all 100 users
1,400 USD
Under 5 USD per user per month, against 14 USD per user for a Power BI Pro licence. Giving all 100 users a Power BI Pro licence instead would cost 1,400 USD a month, about 2.9 times as much. The external users would also need guest accounts in your directory.
Example 3: 250 users, about 1,350 USD a month
A partner portal with 250 users across several time zones and larger semantic models, busy about eight hours a day, pausing overnight and at weekends. Between 100 and 250 users an F4 usually does; at 250 with heavier models an F8 is a sensible size. Capacity: an F8.
Embedsy Standard plan
1,000 USD
Embedsy · 250 users at 4 USD per user
Fabric capacity F8
275 USD
Microsoft · about 190 running hours a month (8 h viewing on weekdays, 0.5 h background daily) at 1.44 USD an hour
Power BI Pro for report authors
56 USD
Microsoft · 4 authors at 14 USD
Azure resources for the portal
under 20 USD
Microsoft · smallest tiers, as above
Total
about 1,350 USD
Power BI Pro for all 250 users
3,500 USD
About 5.4 USD per user per month, against 14 USD per user for a Power BI Pro licence. Giving all 250 users a Power BI Pro licence instead would cost 3,500 USD a month, about 2.6 times as much. Above 250 users the Enterprise plan applies, with a custom quote. If this portal needed Report Scheduling or Public Embed, the premium add-ons are one flat 99 USD on top.
What moves the number most
- Running hours. The F2 in example 1 costs 17 USD because it runs about 50 hours a month. Left running all month it would cost about 263 USD. Auto-pause is the biggest lever at every size below the point where a portal is busy around the clock.
- Capacity size. Each step doubles the hourly rate. Most “we need a bigger capacity” cases turn out to be model problems; see capacity optimisation before you upgrade.
- Reserve only if it never pauses. A one-year reservation is billed whether the capacity runs or not, so reserving and pausing cancel out. For the F8 above, pay-as-you-go at about 190 hours (275 USD) beats a reservation (about 625 USD) by a wide margin.
- User count moves only the Embedsy line, 4 USD per user. Viewers never add Microsoft cost.
How the capacity sizes, per-second billing, reservations and the A SKUs fit together is in Power BI Embedded pricing in 2026.
Not in these numbers
Other Fabric workloads on the same capacity (pipelines, warehouses, Copilot), which consume the same capacity units; large volumes of data in OneLake; and your own network or backup choices in Azure. If you already run a Fabric capacity for other work, the portal can share it and the capacity line may be zero.
Questions
- Can I start even smaller than 25 users?
- Yes. The Standard plan starts at 20 users for 80 USD a month, and an F2 capacity that pauses outside use is the smallest Microsoft setup. The free trial runs on exactly this.
- Do internal users cost extra?
- No. Internal and external users count the same on the Embedsy plan.
- What about Premium Per User?
- Premium Per User is 24 USD per user per month and is a per-user licence for the Power BI service. It does not replace the capacity and does not cover portal viewers.
Want the numbers for your own setup?
Tell us how many users you have and how they use reports, and we will walk through the lines above with your figures, including the capacity size we would actually recommend. Or start the free trial and see it on your own reports.
Prefer a live walkthrough? Book a free demo