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Sign up for Power BI with a new Microsoft 365 Trial

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This article describes an alternative way to sign up for the Power BI service if you don't already have a work or school email account.

If you're having problems signing up for Power BI with your email address, first make sure it's an email address that can be used with Power BI. If that's not successful, sign up for a Microsoft 365 trial and create a work account. Then, use that new work account to sign up for the Power BI service. You can use Power BI even after the Microsoft 365 trial expires.

Sign up for a Microsoft 365 trial of Office

Sign up for a Microsoft 365 trial on the Microsoft 365 web site. If you don't already have an account, Microsoft walks you through the steps to create one. Since commercial email accounts, such as Hotmail and Gmail don't work with Microsoft 365, you'll create a new Microsoft account. That email account looks something like zalan@onmicrosoft.com.

Screenshot showing available Microsoft Office 365 options. Try for free is highlighted.

  • If you select Office 365 E5, your trial includes Power BI Pro. The Power BI Pro 30-day trial expires at the same time as your Office 365 E5 trial.
  • If you select Office 365 E3, you can sign up for Power BI as a free user and upgrade to Premium Per User for a 30-day trial. For more information about Premium Per User (PPU), see Power BI Premium Per User.

  1. On one of the Office 365 options, select Try for free.

  2. Enter your email address, and then select Next.
    Screenshot showing the getting started page with an input box for email address. The email input box is highlighted.

    If you need a new email address, select Set up account. Screenshot showing the message that the email address won't work. Set up account is highlighted.

  3. Enter details about the new account and then select Next. Screenshot of the account detail page for entering personal and company information. Next is highlighted.

  4. Enter a phone number to which you can receive a verification code, and select Send verification code Screenshot of the verification page for entering a phone number where you can receive a call or text message. Send verification code is highlighted.

  5. After the code is validated, the dialog shows your new user name and domain, for example, you@yourcompany.onmicrosoft.com. Create a password, and then select Next. Screenshot showing the newly created user name and domain name with input boxes for entering and confirming a password. Next is highlighted.

  6. Select the number of licenses you want and select Update to calculate your subtotal. Select Add payment method. Screenshot of the quantity and payment page, you can select the number of licenses needed. Update is highlighted.

  7. Enter your payment information, and then select Save. Screenshot of the credit card payment information page. Save is highlighted.

You now have an email address that you can use to sign up for Power BI. To sign up, go to Sign up for the Power BI service as an individual.

Important considerations

If you have any issues when you sign in with the new account credentials, try using a private browser session.

When you use this sign-up method, you create a new organizational tenant, and you become the User administrator of the tenant. For more information, see What is Power BI administration. You can add new users to your tenant, then share with them, as described in the Microsoft 365 admin documentation.

Next steps

What is Power BI administration?
Power BI licensing in your organization
Signing up for Power BI as an individual

More questions? Ask the Power BI Community