Power BI Desktop is ideal for those doing their own analysis who don’t need to distribute it to other users. The core functionality and features available in Power BI Desktop are also standard in Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium – cleaning and preparing data, connectors to data sources, custom reports, visualisations and exports to Microsoft apps. No support to analyse in Excel within Power BI Desktop.Cannot share created reports with other users without a Power BI Pro licence.Auto-detect finds and creates data relationships between tables and formatsĪs you would expect, there are limitations with the free version which provide incentives to upgrade:.Export your reports to CVS, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and PDF.Gain advanced insights into trends, patterns and more.The same visualisations and filters as in Power BI Pro – learn more about Power BI visualisations.Clean and prep data easily with modelling tools.Connect and import data from over 70 cloud-based and/or on-premise sources.Despite Microsoft Power BI Desktop being free, it includes a surprising amount of functionality and features: They can’t share content with others or publish content to other workspaces.

It is worth noting that a user with a free license can only use the Power BI service to connect to data and create reports and dashboards in ‘My Workspace’. The Power BI Desktop Application can be downloaded for free from Microsoft and can be used with any Power BI licence, including the free licence.

Power automate desktop licensing