Easy Tech TutsHow to Check Power BI License Type (Free, Pro or Premium) Easily 2026
By Impran M NLast checked against official docs
Your Power BI license decides whether you can share a report, publish to a team workspace, or even open something a colleague shared with you. It explains most of the confusing moments people hit, such as an upgrade prompt on a report that works fine for the person next to you.
The check takes under a minute. Power BI shows your license in the Account manager (the panel behind your profile picture), and the full list sits on your Microsoft account's Subscriptions page.
There's one trap. If you're on a trial, the Account manager can still say Free account, because Microsoft shows only your non-trial licenses there. The screens below show exactly that situation.
01Sign in and look for a trial countdown
Sign in to the Power BI service at app.powerbi.com. Before opening anything, glance at the top right of the menu bar.
If a trial is running, a countdown sits there. In the recording it reads Trials activated, 34 days left. Keep that in mind for the next step, because the license label won't mention it.
02Open the Account manager and read License type
Click your profile picture at the top right. The Profile panel (Microsoft calls it the Account manager) shows your name, the Tenant Name, and a License type line.
Here it says Free account. Directly under it is Fabric and Power BI trial status with the days remaining, plus a Cancel trials button.
Both lines are correct at once. Microsoft's documentation says the Account manager "still displays the nontrial licenses assigned to you".
So this user holds a free license, and a trial is currently giving them paid features on top. When the trial ends, the license falls back to whatever the label shows.
The links further down (Buy Pro now, Buy Fabric now) are how an individual upgrades. In a company, licenses are usually assigned by an admin instead.
03Open View account > Subscriptions
For the full picture, click View account in the same panel. It opens your Microsoft My account page in a new tab.
Choose Subscriptions in the left menu. This page lists every license assigned to your account, under the heading User unique identifier and license status. The identifier is useful to hand to an IT admin or Microsoft Support if something is missing.
04Find the card that includes Power BI
Each license shows as a card with the services it includes. Power BI is often bundled inside a larger plan, so read the service lines, not only the card titles.
In the recording, Power BI (free) appears inside a card called Microsoft Fabric (Free), which is the name Microsoft now gives the free license. A Pro user might see Power BI Pro on its own card, or no separate card at all if it comes bundled with Office 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5. Trials don't appear here, for the same reason they don't change the License type line.
05Check whether you can use Premium capacity
Premium isn't a per-user license. It's capacity your organization buys, and it lets people on free licenses view content stored there.
To see if you have any, open Workspaces in the left rail. Workspaces in Premium capacity carry a small diamond icon, as do apps saved there.
In the recording's Recent list, My workspace shows one. No diamonds usually just means nobody has shared Premium-capacity content with you.
Viewing is all a free license gets you, even inside Premium capacity. Publishing to team workspaces and sharing with others still needs Pro or PPU.
| Capability | Free | Pro | PPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create content in My workspace | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View content shared from Premium capacity | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View content shared from non-Premium workspaces | No | Yes | Yes |
| Publish to app workspaces | No | Yes | Yes |
| Share content with others | No | Yes | Yes |
| Use PPU-only features | No | No | Yes |
From Microsoft Learn's Licenses and subscriptions for business users, checked September 2026. Free users can only view Premium-capacity content on an F64 or larger Fabric capacity (or a Premium P capacity), and only if they have a role in the workspace.
When it doesn't work
License type says Free account even though you started a trial
Why: The Account manager only lists licenses that aren't trials. The trial appears separately as Fabric and Power BI trial status.
Fix: Read both lines. The trial gives you PPU-level features until the countdown ends, then you're back to the license shown.
A free user gets an upgrade prompt on a report shared from a Premium workspace
Why: Microsoft's documentation points to three causes: the report's semantic model sits in a workspace outside Premium capacity, the user has no role in the workspace, or the capacity is smaller than F64.
Fix: Ask the report owner to move the semantic model into Premium capacity too and give the user a workspace role such as Viewer. On a capacity below F64, viewers need Pro or PPU.
No Start trial or trial status appears in the Account manager
Why: Your Fabric administrator has turned trials off for the tenant, or the tenant has used up its trial capacity limit.
Fix: Contact your Fabric or Power BI administrator. They can enable trials or assign you a paid license.
Frequently asked questions
Where does Power BI show my license type?
Click your profile picture at the top right of the Power BI service. The License type line in that panel shows it. For every license on your account, go to View account > Subscriptions.
Why does it say Free account when I'm on a trial?
Microsoft shows only non-trial licenses there. Your trial is listed on its own line, Fabric and Power BI trial status, with the days left.
What happens when my trial ends?
Your license returns to what it was before, free or Pro, and paid features stop working. A Fabric trial lasts 60 days, and its workspaces are switched back to Pro workspaces at the end.
If my company has Premium, can I share reports on a free license?
No. Premium capacity lets free users view content they've been given a role for. Sharing and publishing still need Pro or PPU.
Sources and last check
The Home screen, Profile panel and Subscriptions page come from a screen recording of a free-license account with an active trial, made in July 2026. License capabilities, the Premium capacity rules, trial behaviour and what the Account manager displays were re-checked against Microsoft Learn documentation, and plan details against Microsoft's Power BI pricing page, in September 2026. That check corrected this guide's earlier claim that Fabric capacity gives free users Pro-equivalent sharing rights (it only lets them view content, and only on F64 or larger), and explains why the License type line doesn't reflect a trial.
About the author
Impran M N
I've been hooked on technology for as long as I can remember — especially the new tools and AI apps that seem to land every other week. Easy Tech Tuts is where I write up whatever I've just worked out: I do the task in the real product, record the screen, and turn it into the guide I wish I'd found first.
