💁 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 Desktop is completely free.
You can download it, build full reports, and use all core features without paying or subscribing to a license.
There is no time limit, feature cap, or trial period for Power BI Desktop itself.
What Power BI Desktop includes (for free)
Power BI Desktop is the report authoring tool. With it, you can:
Connect to a wide range of data sources, including databases, files, and APIs
Transform and model data using Power Query
Build full reports with interactive visuals, filters, and drilldowns
Work entirely on your local machine
For learning, experimentation, and individual analysis, Power BI Desktop is fully functional. Microsoft does not restrict features to push users into upgrading.
What Power BI Desktop does not include
Power BI Desktop is intentionally limited to authoring, not distribution.
It does not allow you to:
Share reports securely with other users
Give colleagues view-only access
Manage permissions or audiences
Schedule cloud-based refreshes for shared reports
Use Power BI as a shared reporting platform
Those capabilities live in the Power BI Service (the cloud component), which introduces licensing requirements.
Do you need an account to use Power BI Desktop?
You can download and use Power BI Desktop without paying, but some features prompt you to sign in.
In practice:
You can build reports locally without a paid license
Signing in is required if you want to publish reports to the Power BI Service
Publishing without a license is limited to your personal workspace and does not enable sharing
This sign-in step often causes confusion, but it doesn’t change the fact that Desktop itself is free.
Is Power BI Desktop enough on its own?
Power BI Desktop is sufficient if:
You’re learning Power BI
You’re analyzing data for personal use
You don’t need to share reports with others
It is not sufficient if your goal is to:
Distribute reports to a team
Display dashboards on shared screens or TVs
Keep reports automatically refreshed for multiple viewers
At that point, Power BI licensing and a delivery method for shared viewing become necessary.
💡 Power BI on digital signage with Fugo
Power BI Desktop is built for individual analysis, not shared viewing. If your reports are intended for office screens, team dashboards, or operational displays, digital signage provides the layer Power BI itself doesn’t cover.
Fugo’s Power BI app is designed for displaying dashboards on TVs and shared screens at scale. You can try it on a free trial or book a demo to see how teams typically deploy it.
Summary
Power BI Desktop is free and fully featured
It’s designed for building, not sharing
You only need to pay when Power BI becomes a shared service