Microsoft’s 40% increase on Power BI prices comes into effect
The increase comes at a time where several Microsoft services are upping their prices, including Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365.
Published on 4th April 2025
Microsoft’s Power BI price rises have arrived, with some tiers increasing by up to 40 percent.
The hikes were announced on November 12, 2024, and went live on April 1, 2025. Power BI Pro shot up from $10 per user per month to $14 – a 40 percent increase – and Power BI Premium Per Use (PPU) went from $20 to $24 per user per month, a 20 percent jump.
Existing customers will retain the previous pricing until their contract is up for renewal. New customers will receive the latest pricing upon sign-up.
Microsoft’s business intelligence tools, which are used for data visualisation in enterprises, have been around for some time. Microsoft defended the rises as the first in nearly a decade, also saying they were justified by the updates it has made to the service over the years.
Businesses have come to depend on the tools as enterprise data points proliferate – simply firing up Excel and hoping for the best hasn’t been sufficient for many for a while now.
Customers do have alternatives. One is a move to Microsoft Fabric, which is billed using a capacity-based licensing model and includes Power BI. Microsoft also pointed out: “There are no pricing changes for customers who purchase Power BI through Microsoft 365 E5 or Office 365 E5 annual term subscriptions with annual billing.”
E5, however, is a feature-rich plan and as such is relatively expensive.
Despite Microsoft’s claims of innovation in Power BI, some may interpret the price increases as an attempt to drive customers to Microsoft 365 or Fabric.
Some enterprises will be forced to absorb the higher cost, and it could drive others to reevaluate their use of Power BI, to consider whether it’s truly necessary, or to see whether a cheaper alternative from a rival tech biz could suffice.
Microsoft has increased the list price of many of its services in recent months, including Dynamics 365, and a subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal is also going up, which Microsoft said is partly due to the AI features on offer.
As the 40 percent price rise for some Power BI users becomes a reality, Microsoft risks pushing cost-conscious enterprises to explore alternatives.
