This article explains how individuals within an organization can sign up for Power BI or purchase Power BI for themselves.
These self-service methods include upgrading to a paid license, starting individual trials, and getting free licenses if your organization allows self-service. If the term self-service is new to you, or if you're an administrator who manages self-service, visit these admin articles What is self-service? and Self-service for Microsoft 365 products and services..
If you're unable to sign up for Power BI or to purchase a Power BI individual license, it might be because your Microsoft 365 Billing administrator disabled self-service options. Ask them to enable self-service sign-up and self-service-purchase.
Important
Signing up for the Power BI service requires a work or school email account. Consumer email accounts such as gmail or hotmail can't be used with the Power BI service.
Look up your current license or trial
You might already have a Power BI license or trial. To look up your license type, see licenses and trials.
For example, your organization might provide you with Microsoft 365. Some versions of Office 365 include Power BI Pro licenses.
Your organization purchased a Power BI subscription that includes licenses. Self-service is enabled. Sign up by:
Opening Power BI in a browser (app.powerbi.com).
Selecting a Try for free type of button.
Selecting a Power BI link in an email. Colleagues share Power BI items in email. If you never opened Power BI before, selecting one of these links initiates signing up for a license.
All of these actions sign you up for a per-user license and open the Power BI service in a browser. The type of license assigned to you depends on your organization's subscription and self-service settings. To learn more about the types of licenses, see Power BI license types.
If the Power BI service doesn't open or if you receive an error message, it's possible that your organization doesn't have a Power BI subscription. See Email validation to learn what steps to take to get a per-user license.
Email validation
The first time you attempt to sign up for a license, Microsoft asks for your email address.
If your organization didn't purchase Power BI, you're redirected to a sign-up process. This alternate sign-up process creates an account and possibly even creates a new tenant.
Microsoft offers a few different trials that assign you a Power BI license. You can sign up for a trial of the paid version of Power BI, sign up for a trial of Microsoft 365, or sign up for a trial of a Fabric capacity.
Start a Power BI individual user trial
If you already have a Fabric (Free) license and try to use a feature that requires a paid license, Power BI displays upgrade prompts. Depending on your organization's subscription and self-service settings, you might receive prompts to join a trial or to make an upgrade purchase, or both.
Start a trial of a Fabric capacity
Another way to start a trial of a paid Power BI license is to start a trial of a Fabric capacity. The trial includes a license similar to Power BI Premium Per User (PPU). Open your Account manager and select Start trial.
Start a Microsoft 365 trial of Pro
If you don't have a work or school email account, you can still start a trial of Power BI Pro or Fabric (Free). Sign up for a trial of Microsoft Office 365 E5 and create an onmicrosoft email account and a new tenant. The Microsoft 365 trial includes up to 25 licenses and you become the admin for the new tenant. The E5 version of Microsoft Office 365 includes a Pro license. A credit card is required to sign up, so be sure to cancel the trial before 30 days if you aren't ready to purchase.
There are many ways for an individual to buy a license. Three are described here. Use in-product prompts, your Account manager, or the Microsoft Power BI pricing site.
Buy a license using an in-product prompt
If you already have a license and try to use a Power BI feature that requires a paid license, Power BI displays upgrade prompts. Depending on the self-service options that your organization enabled, you might receive prompts to join a trial, or to make an upgrade purchase, or both.
Buy a license from the Account manager
Open your Account manager from the upper right corner. Select Buy now. You have access to your Account manager if you already have a Microsoft Fabric or Power BI license.
Close your account, cancel your subscription, end your trial
You can always cancel your free subscription, cancel a purchase, or end your trial. Each of these actions has a different set of procedures and considerations. For more information, see Close your account, cancel your subscription, end your trial.
Considerations and limitations
There are many considerations and limitations associated with licenses. To help you identify and figure out issues you might encounter, we've put together a Troubleshooting guide. Use the troubleshooting guide to help you get a license or upgrade a license.
