💁 About this article
This article is part of Fugo’s Power BI knowledge base: a collection of resources answering common Power BI questions. We include notes throughout where Fugo’s integration may be helpful for displaying dashboards on digital signage.
Table of contents
Short answer
Yes, Power BI is free to use but only for individual, local work.
As soon as you want to share, secure, or distribute reports to other people, Power BI requires paid licensing.
This distinction is the source of most confusion.
What “free” actually means in Power BI
Power BI’s free offering is centered around Power BI Desktop, the Windows application used to build reports.
With the free version, you can:
Build full Power BI reports and dashboards
Connect to a wide range of data sources
Use all core visuals, filters, and interactions
Analyze data locally on your own machine
There are no artificial feature caps for learning or personal analysis. Microsoft intentionally keeps Desktop fully usable so individuals can learn Power BI without committing to a license.
What you can’t do for free
Where Power BI stops being free is distribution.
With only the free version, you cannot:
Share reports securely with other users
Give colleagues view-only access to dashboards
Publish reports for team or company-wide use
Control access, permissions, or data security
Use Power BI as a shared reporting platform
This applies even if recipients only need to view reports and not edit them. There is no free “viewer-only” license in Power BI.
The one exception: Publish to web
Power BI does include a free public sharing option called Publish to web.
This allows anyone with the link to view a report — but:
The report is publicly accessible
No authentication is required
Data can be discovered by anyone who finds the link
Because of this, Publish to web is generally unsuitable for internal reporting, business dashboards, or anything involving sensitive data. It’s technically free, but rarely appropriate.
When Power BI requires payment
Power BI becomes a paid product when you want to:
Share dashboards with coworkers or clients
Display reports on shared screens or TVs
Publish content securely via the Power BI Service
Manage access across teams or departments
At that point, organizations typically use Power BI Pro, Premium Per User, or Premium capacity, depending on scale and needs.
What people usually mean when they ask this
Many people asking “Is Power BI free?” are really asking:
Can I show Power BI dashboards to other people without paying?
That might mean:
Sharing dashboards with coworkers
Publishing reports for a wider audience
In all of these cases, the free version of Power BI isn’t enough. Secure viewing and distribution require paid licensing, regardless of whether viewers need editing access.
💡 Power BI on digital signage with Fugo
For teams using Power BI in shared environments, such as office dashboards or operational displays, digital signage can act as the delivery layer Power BI itself doesn’t provide.
Fugo’s Power BI app is designed for this use case. You can explore it directly on a free trial or book a demo to walk through a typical deployment.
Summary
Power BI is free for learning and personal use
Power BI is not free for sharing or distribution
Viewing Power BI reports almost always has a licensing cost
If you understand Power BI as a free authoring tool that becomes paid when it turns into a shared service, the model becomes much clearer.