Sign up or purchase Power BI and Fabric as an individual

This article explains how individuals can get a license for Microsoft Fabric.

There are two ways for individuals to get a license. You can sign up for or purchase a license for yourself. This self-service method includes getting a free or paid license that an admin makes available for users in an organization. The other method is for an admin to assign you a license. This article explains the first option, which is called self-service. If the term self-service is new to you, visit Self-service for Microsoft 365 products and services or What is self-service.

If you're unable to sign up or to purchase Fabric, your admin might've disabled self-service options. Contact your administrator and ask them to enable self-service sign-up and self-service-purchase.

Prerequisites

This quickstart expects that you know the following information:

• The difference between Microsoft Fabric and the Power BI service
• The licenses and capacities for Fabric and Power BI.
• The license and trials you already have.
• The definitions of self-service sign-up and self-service purchase.
• How self-service setting work with the Users can try Microsoft Fabric paid features setting.
• The type of email account that you have. It must be a work or school account.

Licenses and capacities

Both the Power BI service and Fabric require all users to have access to a Fabric or Power BI capacity and to have a per-user license. The license options are Fabric (Free), Power BI Pro, or Premium Per User (PPU).

Fabric licensing and capacities

A Fabric (Free) license is the minimum license that you need to work in all of the Fabric workloads. However, you do also need a capacity to save your Fabric items. Use self-service to get the licenses and capacities that you need. To learn about subscriptions, visit Buy subscriptions.

Free sign-ups and trials

Activate a license for an organizational subscription

Your organization purchased a Fabric or Power BI subscription that includes capacities and licenses. Self-service is enabled. Open Fabric in a browser (app.fabric.microsoft.com) to activate a license for yourself. The license you're assigned depends on the organizational subscription and self-service settings.

If you haven't used Fabric, you can activate your license by selecting an email link. Colleagues share Fabric items in email, and selecting a Fabric link initiates signing up for a Fabric license.

Another way to activate your license is to select a Try free or Buy now button.

Sign up for a free Fabric license

Some organizations don't have Fabric (Free) licenses available for your use or have self-service disabled. Sign up for a free Fabric account on the Pricing site.

Start a trial

Microsoft offers trials of licenses, capacities, and subscriptions.

Start a trial of a Fabric capacity

Start a trial of a Fabric capacity. The trial includes a capacity and advanced permissions similar to a PPU license. The trial gives you access to all Fabric workloads and features and 1 TB of storage.

Sign up at (app.fabric.microsoft.com) The individual who starts the trial becomes the Capacity administrator. The Capacity administrator can share the trial by adding workspaces to the Trial capacity. Users with access to the workspaces are now part of the Fabric trial too.

Open your Account manager from the upper right corner. Select Start trial. You have access to your Account manager if you already have a Fabric license.

Start a Power BI individual user trial

If you already have a free license and try to use an advanced Power BI feature, Fabric displays upgrade prompts. Depending on your configuration, you might receive prompts to join a trial or to make an upgrade purchase, or both.

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. To start a trial, sign up for a trial of Microsoft 365 E5. This version of Microsoft 365 includes a Pro license. The Microsoft 365 trial includes up to 25 licenses. Your Microsoft 365 trial lasts for 30 days. After the trial ends, your credit card is charged. You become the admin for the new domain.

For more information about the Microsoft 365 trial, see sign up for Power BI with a Microsoft 365 trial.

Purchase

Buy a license

There are many ways to buy a license. Three are described here. Use in-product prompts, your Account manager, or the Microsoft pricing site.

Buy a license using an in-product prompt

If you already have a license and try to use an advanced Power BI feature, Fabric displays upgrade prompts. Depending on your configuration, you might receive prompts to join a trial or to make an upgrade purchase, or both.

Buy a license using your Account manager

Open your Account manager from the upper right corner. Select Buy Pro now. You have access to your Account manager if you already have a Fabric license.

Buy a license from a commercial site

You can also purchase Pro or PPU licenses from the Microsoft pricing site, through Microsoft 365, or through a Microsoft partner.

Buy a Fabric capacity

Purchase capacities from the Microsoft pricing site or from your Account manager. Open your Account manager from the upper right corner. Select Buy Fabric now. You have access to your Account manager if you already have a Fabric license.

Buy a subscription

A Fabric capacity subscription includes a capacity and per-user licenses. There are a range of options available split into Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). Buying subscriptions is an admin function.

Close your account, cancel your subscription, end your trial

You can always close your account, cancel your subscription, 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 troubleshooting

• If you have a subscription for Microsoft 365 E5, you have a Pro license.

• You can sign up for or purchase Power BI with .gov or .mil addresses, but this approach requires a different process. For more information, see Enroll your US Government organization in the Power BI service.

• If you're unable to use self-service to get your own Power BI license, check to see if your administrator disabled this option. The admins who manage the domain can disable self-service sign-ups, self-service purchases, upgrades, and free trials. For help when you can't use self-service, go to Self-service sign up and purchase help.

• If you're an admin, learn how to enable and disable self-service.

• Direct purchase or an upgrade to Pro or Premium Per User isn't available to educational organizations or organizations deployed to Azure Government or Azure China 21Vianet clouds.

• This article describes the self-service process for the Power BI service and Fabric. If you're looking for help with downloading Power BI Desktop or with installing the mobile apps, refer to these articles:

  • Power BI Desktop (free download)
  • Power BI mobile apps (free download)

• If you're part of an organization and used self-service to purchase Power BI, the Global or Billing admin for your organization can take over ownership of your subscription, and then assign or unassign licenses.

Related content

• For step-by-step instructions for using self-service sign-up and self-service purchase to get your own Power BI free or trial license, go to Power BI self-service for individuals.

• If you're a Global administrator or Billing administrator, licensing and subscription information is available in Power BI licensing for your organization.

• If you're a Global administrator or Billing administrator, you might not want users in your organization to use self-service sign-up. To learn how to disable self-service, visit Enable or disable self-service.