How to reduce Power BI license costs for many users at a printing company
Why the Power BI bill explodes at a printing company
At a printing company, the people who need to see numbers are not just senior management. It is sales tracking the order backlog, planning watching lead times, the shift supervisor checking waste, finance reviewing margins. When each of them gets an individual license, the cost grows as fast as the team.
A Power BI Pro license costs US$ 14 per user/month, paid annually and excluding taxes, according to Microsoft's pricing page for the United States (prices vary by country and currency). Premium Per User (PPU) costs US$ 24.
Example: 60 people looking at KPIs
| Scenario | Pro users | Monthly cost (excl. taxes) | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everyone on Pro | 60 | US$ 840 | US$ 10,080 |
| Only report creators and publishers on Pro | 5 | US$ 70 | US$ 840 |
The difference is the number that matters. The problem is that, without another setup, the other 55 cannot open the reports. The options below solve this in different ways.
5 ways to cut the cost
1. Separate creators from viewers
People who build, publish and manage reports need a paid license. People who only read can get access another way. Map it out: authors, frequent viewers, occasional viewers and those who never open anything.
2. Remove idle licenses
Compare the license list with the Power BI activity log. It is common to find licenses for people who left the company, changed roles or opened a report once in six months.
3. Send the number, not the access
For people who only need a fixed number (today's target, late orders), a routine that sends the report as a PDF by email or Teams solves it with no license for the reader. The trade-off: the reader loses filters, drill-down and interaction.
4. F64 capacity or larger
On a Microsoft Fabric F64 or larger capacity, users with a free license can view shared content. On smaller capacities, viewers still need Pro or PPU, as Microsoft's documentation explains. F64 is a large, expensive setup: it usually only makes sense from hundreds of viewers up.
5. A shared-capacity portal from a provider
A specialized provider maintains the capacity and delivers reports in a web portal, with per-user access. The capacity cost is shared among several clients, and the printing company pays a per-user fee well below Pro. Before building something like this yourself, confirm the licensing rules for your scenario with a Microsoft partner.
How to choose
| Situation | Approach |
|---|---|
| Few viewers, occasional use | Pro only for those who use it + license cleanup |
| Viewers who only need a fixed number | Automatic delivery by email or Teams |
| Dozens of viewers who need to interact | Shared-capacity portal |
| Hundreds of viewers | Evaluate F64 |
Common mistakes
- Buying Pro for everyone by default, without checking who actually uses it.
- Counting only the license and forgetting who maintains the dashboards and how long data refreshes take.
- Reports that do not match the ERP. Making access cheaper is pointless if nobody trusts the number.
- Forgetting security: each department should see only its own data, with role-based access.
Where the ERP comes in
The value of BI lies in ERP data arriving correct and up to date: invoicing, backlog, production, waste, costs. A dashboard built by hand on top of an exported spreadsheet becomes yet another version of the truth.
SENSO IT's SensoDATA is a Power BI portal with the company's own branding, connected directly to the ERP. From the 6th user on, each seat costs up to 90% less than a Power BI Pro license, and the per-user price drops as the team grows. Explore SensoDATA.