The Power BI Embedded API is still a hot topic.
Organizations are considering self-service reporting models. Executives want to get the most out of their technology investments. Product teams want to deliver best-in-class analytics. Not all (but many) paths lead back to Power BI Embedded as a method to bring in-context analytics to a wide range of use cases.
We have to mention that there are different ways to embed and share Power BI reports in Sharepoint—or publish a report publicly—but for now, we’re focusing on the Power BI Embedded analytics offering.
1 Power BI Overview
Power BI is a business analytics service which allows you to visualize data and share insights. It combines business analytics, data visualization, and best practices to assist businesses in making data-driven decisions. It transforms data from various sources to create interactive dashboards and Business Intelligence reports. Power BI allows you to create various charts and graphs to visualize data. Now that you understand Power BI, let’s take a look at Power BI Embedded.
2 Power BI Embedded Overview
Power BI Premium is a SaaS (software as a service) product which allows users to consume content via mobile apps, internally developed apps, or the Power BI portal. Power BI Embedded is designed for ISVs who want to incorporate visuals into their applications.
Power BI Embedded is an Azure product service that enables businesses to embed Power BI’s analytical capabilities in other applications. Power BI Embedded, in other words, enables businesses to make reports and analyze datasets through their own applications, portals, or websites.
Power BI Embedded is dependent on external APIs and, unlike Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium, lacks a dedicated environment for accessing corporate reports. Developers can add reports or even program Power BI functionalities to their applications by enabling Power BI Embedded.
3 Benefits of Power BI Embedded Technology
Power BI Embedded is thus helpful in integrating dashboards and business intelligence capabilities into specific applications or programming environments. Still, it is only suitable for accessing and controlling some of your organization’s reports or dashboards, tracking business performance, or implementing data governance.
IN A WEB APPLICATION OR WEBSITE, Power BI embedded analytics enables you to embed Power BI items like tiles, reports, and dashboards.
You can use Power BI embedded analytics to:
- Provide compelling data experiences for end users, allowing them to act on insights from your solution data.
- By branding and using Power BI, you can easily and quickly provide exceptional analytics, customer-facing reports, and dashboards in your apps.
- Reduce developer resources by automating analytics monitoring, management, and deployment while gaining complete control over Power BI features and intelligent analytics.
Secure embed
Secure embed is the most basic no-code method for embedding a report into any portal that accepts a URL or an iFrame. The report viewer must be appropriately licensed and cannot interact with it. The Power BI service supports secure embedding.
Power BI embedded analytics includes two options:
Embed for your customers
You can use the embed for your customer’s solution to create an app that uses non-interactive authentication against Power BI. Your customers are most likely not Power BI users and do not need to sign in to view the embedded content. This solution is typically used by independent software vendors (ISVs) who develop applications for third parties.
Embed for your organization
The embed for your organization solution enables you to create an app that requires you to sign in with your Power BI credentials. Users who have signed in can only consume embedded content from the Power BI service. This solution is intended for large organizations developing an app for internal users.
4 Limitation of Power BI Embedded Technology
Overall, Power BI Embedded is a well-rounded and helpful technology. There is only one notable limitation, though. Power BI Embedded capacity content cannot be shared using one-click publish to Web or one-click publish to SharePoint.
5 Power BI Licensing Cost
Power BI Pro
This licensing cost is based on per user. It is $13.70 per user/month.
Individual users can be licensed with self-service analytics. Those analytics can be used to visualize the data with live reports and dashboards and share insights throughout your organization.
- Microsoft 365 E5 includes Power BI Pro.
- Credit card purchases are now available.
Power BI Premium
The premium version has two categories.
Per User Cost
The cost is $27.50 Per user/month.
Individual users can license advanced AI to accelerate access to insights, enable self-service data preparation for big data, and then simplify data management and access at the enterprise scale.
- Includes all of the features found in Power BI Pro.
- Credit card purchases are now available.
Per Capacity Cost
The cost is $6,858.10 Per capacity/month.
License your organization with the ability to use advanced AI to accelerate access to insights, enable self-service data preparation for big data, and then simplify data management and access at the enterprise scale—without requiring per-user licenses for content consumers.
- Publishing content into Power BI Premium capacity necessitates a Power BI Pro license.
- Enable autoscale with your Azure subscription to automatically scale Power BI Premium capacity.
6 Power BI Embedded Cost
Microsoft Power BI Embedded charges an hourly rate based on the type of node(s) in usage. The rate varies from the region you are in. You can check all the variable costs here.
Even if there is no node usage, you will be billed as long as your resource is active. You can pause your resource to prevent billing and resume it when needed. So, actual usage is calculated to the second and billed hourly. For example, if an instance is active for 12 hours and 30 minutes a month, your bill will show 12.50 hours of usage. Your bill will show usage of 0.1 hours if your instance is only active for 6 minutes.
Use the pricing calculator to calculate your Power BI embedded cost-effectively.
7 FAQ
What is Power BI Embedded?
Microsoft Power BI Embedded (PBIE) enables application developers to embed fully interactive, stunning reports into their applications without creating their own data visualizations and controls.
What is the targeted audience for Power BI Embedded?
Applications are coded by developers and software companies, also known as independent software vendors (ISVs).
What is Power BI Embedded Generation 2?
Power BI Embedded recently received an update known as Embedded Gen2. Embedded Gen2 will simplify embedded capacity management and enhance the Power BI Embedded experience.
How can I monitor Power BI Embedded capacity consumption?
- You can use the Power BI Admin portal.
- You can download the metric app in Power BI.
- You can use the Azure diagnostic logging.
What does Power BI Rest APIs do?
The Power BI Rest APIs provide service endpoints for embedding, administration, governance, and user resources. You can do the following with Power BI REST APIs:
- Perform admin operations
- Manage Power BI content
- Embed Power BI Content
