Microsoft Power BI 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

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Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
Integrations
User Reviews

Overview

Microsoft Power BI

4.6

(1862)

Pricing

Starting at $10.00 per month

About Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is a comprehensive data visualization tool that forms part of the Power Platform suite of products. Power BI enables users to connect to and visualize data from various sources, seamlessly integrating visualizations into everyday applications. With a focus on uncovering valuable insights and translating them into actionable outcomes, Power BI offers a range of features and capabilities to support data-driven decision-making across organizations.

One of the key strengths of Power BI lies in its ability to leverage advanced data-analysis tools, artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, and a user-friendly report-creation interface. Users can easily turn their raw data into visually appealing charts, graphs, and reports to communicate insights effectively. The platform also facilitates the creation of datasets from diverse data sources, allowing organizations to establish a single source of truth within the OneLake data hub.

Power BI empowers users to make informed decisions by embedding insights directly into the applications they use daily, such as those within the Microsoft 365 suite. By activating Microsoft Fabric within the Power BI experience, organizations...

can reshape how they access, manage, and act on data. The platform offers enterprise-grade ingestion and semantic modeling to handle large datasets and scale across thousands of users seamlessly. Sharing insights generated through Power BI is effortless, as reports can be embedded and distributed within various Microsoft services like Teams, PowerPoint, Excel, and the Power Platform. Additionally, Power BI incorporates artificial intelligence features to find patterns in data, generate reports instantly, and deliver answers promptly, enhancing productivity and decision-making efficiency. To ensure data governance, security, and compliance, Power BI provides robust features that meet regulatory requirements and offer end-to-end visibility into data management. Using conversational language, users can create reports, generate DAX calculations, and derive answers swiftly, simplifying the data exploration process. The platform also allows open access for users without paid licenses to interact with reports and access Microsoft Fabric workloads. Power BI supports self-service analytics, enabling users to create and publish reports effortlessly, fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making within organizations. Users can license individual users with modern analytics capabilities for publishing reports and accessing content. By integrating Power BI Pro with other Microsoft 365 applications, users can leverage industry-leading security features at a competitive price point. For those interested in exploring the capabilities of Power BI, a free account option is available for creating interactive reports with visual analytics features. Additionally, Power BI Desktop offers a free application for connecting, modeling, and visualizing data through a user-friendly report canvas with a wide range of visuals. Users can also sign up for a free trial of the Microsoft Fabric suite to access the full range of services, including Power BI offerings. Power BI caters to a wide range of business needs, allowing organizations to establish a governed source of truth, combine enterprise-scale and self-service BI for insights, seamlessly embed data experiences within applications, empower users with data exploration capabilities, and kickstart their data journey with AI-generated reports and templates. The platform supports reducing time-to-market by customizing BI reports for embedding in applications and branding as your own. In terms of industry recognition, Microsoft Power BI has been lauded in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms for its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. Additionally, independent studies like The Total Economic ImpactTM showcase the cost savings and business benefits enabled by Microsoft Fabric, including a significant return on investment over a three-year period. Power BI serves as a valuable tool for organizations looking to extract meaningful insights from their data, foster a data-driven culture, and drive innovation across all levels. With its intuitive interface, advanced analytics capabilities, seamless integration with Microsoft applications, and robust security features, Power BI stands as a prominent solution for businesses seeking to leverage their data effectively for informed decision-making and business growth.

Microsoft Power BI Screenshots

Microsoft Power BI Pricing and Plans

Starting price: $10.00 per month

Free Trial

Free Version

Power BI in Microsoft Fabric free account

$0.00

per user, per month

Plan includes:

Create reports with Power BI Desktop5
Data security and encryption

Power BI Pro

$10.00

per user, per month

Plan includes:

1 GB Model Size Limit
AI Visuals
Create Reports and Visualizations
Data Security and Encryption
Embed Apis and Controls
Mobile App Access
Publish Reports
Refresh Rate - 8/Day
Create Power BI Pro workspaces
Share datasets, dashboards, and reports

Power BI Premium - Per User

$20.00

per user, per month

Plan includes:

100 GB Model Size Limit
Advanced AI
AI Visuals
Application Lifecycle Management
Create Reports and Visualizations
Dataflows
Data Security and Encryption
Embed Apis and Controls
Mobile App Access
Paginated (RDL) Reports

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Microsoft Power BI Features

Popular features found in Data Visualization
Data Connectors
Data Import/Export
Drag & Drop
Multiple Data Sources
Relational Display
Scheduled/Automated Reports
Search/Filter
Third-Party Integrations
Visual Analytics
More features of Microsoft Power BI
Activity Dashboard
Ad hoc Analysis
Ad hoc Query
Ad hoc Reporting
AI/Machine Learning
API
Collaboration Tools
Customizable Dashboard
Customizable Reports
Dashboard
Dashboard Creation
Data Blending
Data Cleansing
Data Discovery
Data Management
Data Synchronization
Data Transformation
Data Visualization
Geographic Maps
High Volume Processing
Integration into Third Party Applications
Interactive Reports
KPI Monitoring
Mobile Access
Natural Language Search
Real-Time Analytics
Real-Time Reporting
Real-Time Updates
Reporting/Analytics
Reporting & Statistics
Self-service Analytics
Self Service Data Preparation
Single Page View

Microsoft Power BI Integrations

Microsoft Excel

Integration rated 4.7 from 223 reviews

Microsoft 365

Integration rated 4.7 from 94 reviews

Microsoft SQL Server

Integration rated 4.6 from 37 reviews

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Integration rated 4.4 from 24 reviews

Microsoft SharePoint

Integration rated 4.5 from 18 reviews

Microsoft Teams

Integration rated 4.5 from 15 reviews

See all 11 integrations

Microsoft Power BI User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.6

Ratings Breakdown

63%

32%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.1

Value for money

4.4

Customer support

4.2

Functionality

4.5

Bill L.

Verified reviewer

Information Technology and Services

2-10 employees

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed December 2025

PowerBI - Dashboards Reports Made Easy

I use Power BI to analyze data and provide reports and dashboards to our ownerships team. It helps me track performance, identify trends.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

We like Power BI because it turns complex data into clear, interactive visuals that are easy to understand and share. It integrates seamlessly with Excel, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365, making it simple to connect and refresh all data to make better, data-driven decisions

Cons:

Small learning curves if you are trying to involve a lot of data modeling - may need some programing background or experience - cost also can add up for licensing

Verified

Reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

51-200 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2026

Powerful Visualization Tool

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Power BI is a powerful visualization app that is especially unlocked with knowledge of M and DAX. Some of its visualization options--like stacked charts--are especially useful for visualizing survey data. Its slicers and filters are also an easy way set up templates--which is especially useful for generating reports across different teams or clients.

Cons:

While it is primarily designed as an internal business intelligence tool, I wish that Power BI made it easier to share dashboards with users outside of your organization domain.

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Power BI

Power BI's slicer and filter features, along with its dashboards, made it easier for our team to set up report templates and update with new batches of data.

Joe C.

Verified reviewer

Warehousing

51-200 employees

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2023

Get Awesome Looking Dashboards and reports.

Previously 4

Overall its a great tool to use in your arsenal if you great at analytics and want to impress with dashboards and visuals. Takes some time to getting used to, but there's tons of community support online.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Previously 3

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Previously 3

Pros:

After using many other reporting tools, Power BI stands because it does a fantastic job of having powerful analytics from multiple data sources displayed using beautiful data visualization components.

Cons:

Great for more simple reports and data visualization but not designed for heavy data processing (dependent on data source). Also huge learning curve to make things look the way you want them to look.

Reasons for choosing Microsoft Power BI

I still use both, but I use Power BI mostly for dashboards and visuals

Raymond W.

Verified reviewer

Accounting

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2025

Kpis, dashboards and reporting, youll need Power BI

Its part of the Microsoft stack with a lot of connectors to different data sources. Its quite easy to use and for a lot of reports you dont need a development coding background

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Great tool that can plug into many different data sources, from api to sql to excel files or access databases.

Cons:

I dont like that you need to purchase the pro version to share documents, but as expected everything comes at a cost.

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Power BI

Excel and Access wasnt cutting it, even adding jet reports module made it better but not like power bi.

Matt B.

Verified reviewer

Computer Software

51-200 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2026

The End Justifies the Means... but the Means Require Patience

I've had the benefit of using PowerBI dashboards at a few different companies that influenced how we made decisions and interacted with customers at a level we simply could not without the tool. I've also had to link up data sources and create dashboards from scratch at my current company, and it required hours of online tutorials and patience on my part to finally get it done.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Functionality

Pros:

The final results of what PowerBI can do for your team/business are incredible. Empowering each team with their own interactive dashboards with data that's specific to their decision-making is absolute gold in business value.

Cons:

If you already have a seasoned PowerBI expert on your team, then you'll be positioned to start seeing the benefits a lot faster. However, if you or someone else is starting the setup with no prior experience, there is a pretty massive learning curve.

Alex T.

Verified reviewer

Computer Games

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2026

Power BI is a great way to create automated dashboard/reports

It has been great, we have set up many different dashboards that I check daily to analyze how marketing and A/B tests are going.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

To create custom dashboards that update automatically with our data pipeline. It's part of an automated process that saves me a lot of time.

Cons:

I don't really have anything negative to say about Power BI, it works great for our current use case.

Catheryn S.

Verified reviewer

Health, Wellness and Fitness

51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2026

Your one stop shop!

I love how power bi provides a one stop shop for all data analysis from clinical and operational stand points.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Powerbi give me the ability to track client’s progress, clinical progress, operational data all in one system.

Cons:

Sometimes it is confusing to remember which dash provides the information needed at the time but I love how we can also put certain dashes in the favorites.

Verified

Reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed January 2026

Powerful program before pulling data reports

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

It's definitely a very powerful program for creating just about any kind of data report. As a user, I find the reports very helpful, as we are able to pull information from them.

Cons:

Creating reports can be a little difficult to get the results that you want. Definitely takes a decent amount of time.

Verified

Reviewer

Higher Education

1001-5000 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2026

Best BI software available

Once you have learned the basics, you will continue to unlock more powerful and interesting ways to analyze your data and tell a story.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Flexibility; powerful data analysis and visualization capabilities. Powerful Queries and connections

Cons:

High learning curve for most users. Some capabilities, options features, etc. are hard to find and execute properly.

Sumit K.

Verified reviewer

Computer Software

51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed December 2025

Easy Tool for Turning Data into Clear Reports

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I like that Power BI is easy to use and works well with Excel and other Microsoft tools. It helps me turn raw data into clear charts and dashboards without much effort. The reports are interactive and make it easy to understand trends and performance.

Cons:

Some features are not easy to learn at first, especially for beginners. It can also become slow when working with very large data files. To use all features, you need a paid plan, which may not suit everyone.

Showing 1 - 10 of 1862 Reviews

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