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What is Power BI Embedded? Features,
Benefits and Scalability

Power BI Embedded is an innovative Microsoft Azure service designed to integrate Power BI's powerful analytics directly into custom applications or websites. This service enables developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) to embed interactive Power BI content such as dashboards, charts, and reports into their own software environments, enhancing application functionality with advanced data visualization.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Power BI Embedded and how
you can use it effectively.

Power BI is a platform useful for data visualization and reporting. It is designed and used by both business analysts
and newer users, making it accessible to a wide range of people.
Brain

Brian DeLuca

  • 15 min read
  • Oct 1, 2024

What is Power BI Embedded?

Unlike Power BI Pro or Premium, which provide environments for accessing organizational reports, Power BI Embedded focuses on integrating analytics into external applications via APIs. This makes it exceptionally flexible for developers looking to create custom reporting features or integrate Power BI functionalities into their apps.

Now, unlike Power BI Pro or Power BI Premium, Power BI Embedded doesn’t come with its own environment for accessing all your corporate reports. Instead, it relies on external APIs, making it super flexible for developers who want to add custom reports or program Power BI features into their apps.

In short, Power BI Embedded is a go-to for integrating sleek dashboards and business intelligence into specific applications or programming environments. Just remember, it's not designed for managing all your organization's reports, tracking business performance, or handling data governance. It's all about bringing those powerful insights directly where you need them.

Power BI Embedded

How does Power BI Embedded work?


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Start by diving into a few tutorials and poring over the detailed developer documentation. Brace yourself for a steep learning curve that might take weeks just to master the basics. Thanks to the intricate weave of Microsoft’s ecosystem, even creating your first dashboard can feel like a daunting puzzle.

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You’ll likely need a seasoned Power BI developer to help you navigate this initial phase. Once you have that expert on board, embedding dashboards becomes a breeze—at least for embedding into a simple HTML page. Just a few lines of iframe code, and you’re set.

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However, if you’re an independent software vendor (ISV) aiming to offer these dashboards to end-users outside your workspace, things get trickier. It’s more complex than just wielding basic SQL. Roll up your sleeves, because setting up the necessary permissions and ensuring smooth dashboard loading in an app environment can take weeks of effort.

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In Azure, Power BI Embedded resources are provisioned through the Azure Resource Manager APIs. Here, the key resource is a Power BI workspace collection.

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The adaptable structure of workspaces lets you organize your content in a way that best fits your application's design. Whether you prefer a streamlined setup or a more segmented approach, the choice is yours.

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A workspace is a container for Power BI content, such as datasets and reports. Initially, these workspaces are empty. Content creation is possible through Power BI Desktop or programmatically. You can create a dataset programmatically and then build reports within your application, bypassing Power BI Desktop altogether. This flexibility allows you to modify existing reports or create new ones directly within your app, provided you have a dataset in the workspace.

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A workspace collection is the top-tier Azure container for resources, housing zero or more workspaces. It comes with the standard Azure features:
· Access keys: Secure keys for calling Power BI APIs.
· Users: Azure Active Directory (AAD) users with administrative rights to manage the workspace collection via the Azure portal or the Azure Resource Manager API.
· Region: Choose from 34 worldwide regions to provision your workspace collection, which supports better performance and meets data localization preferences.

What features does Power BI Embedded offer?

While it lacks a dedicated report visualization environment, one standout feature of Power BI Embedded is its cost-effectiveness compared to Power BI Pro. Power BI Embedded operates on an hourly rate with no user limits, making it accessible to all company members within its space constraints. The cost of a Power BI Embedded license depends on usage hours and required capacity.

For companies with at least 24 users, opting for a Power BI Embedded license proves more economical than buying individual Power BI Pro licenses. Of course, it's important to remember that Power BI Embedded and Power BI Pro serve different functions and offer unique capabilities. Although Power BI Embedded is more affordable, it lacks a dedicated environment for viewing, accessing, or managing reports, functioning purely as an Azure service.

Power BI Embedded

Why Use Power BI Embedded?

Benefits of using Power BI Embedded

Power BI Viewer is a real game-changer for sharing Power BI content both internally and externally. It eliminates the need for your customers to get extra Power BI Pro licenses, making it a budget-friendly option for businesses.

Plus, you can tailor and manage the user experience for different audiences, whether they're different companies or individual users, ensuring everyone gets the specific data they need.

One powerful feature is the ability to enable row level security (RLS), which allows filtering of relevant data based on user identity. This means each user only sees the data they need to see, increasing security and privacy.

Additionally, Power BI Viewer provides a stable, consistent experience for end-users, sparing them from the monthly changes and retraining sessions typically required due to Power BI's frequent updates.

It's also worth noting that Power BI Embedded Gen2 is currently in preview. This new version promises significant improvements, including better scaling tools, enhanced performance, and easier access to paginated reports and AI features. This means you can look forward to even more powerful and efficient tools in the near future.

Use Cases and applications

Power BI Embedded is making waves in industries by turning data into actionable insights. In retail, companies are harnessing its power to dissect sales data, better analyze consumer behavior and identify buying patterns, all of which are critical to optimizing inventory and creating flying marketing strategies effectiveness

Organizations in financial services rely on Power BI Embedded to manage financial performance. This data-driven approach empowers them to make informed decisions, maximizing risk management and profitability.

Healthcare organizations are using this tool to analyze key performance indicators related to service quality, productivity and patient satisfaction. By doing so, areas for patient experience improvement can be identified, ultimately leading to better healthcare outcomes.

The engineering department is no exception. Companies here use Power BI Embedded to monitor production efficiency and manage supply chains. By identifying bottlenecks and optimizing processes, productivity can be increased and costs reduced, which can drive overall operational efficiency.

How to Embed Power BI in a Website?

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To embed a report using the Power BI service, start by opening the desired report. Navigate to the File menu and choose Embed report > Website or portal. You'll see an option to generate a secure embed code. If you're embedding into a blog or website, select the HTML code provided. Bullet
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Users accessing the embedded report must authenticate, whether they follow a direct URL or view it within a web portal. If they haven't signed in to Power BI in their current browser session, they'll be prompted to do so. Ensure they check for pop-up blockers if the sign-in window doesn’t appear. Bullet
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Once signed in, the report will display, complete with data, page navigation, and filtering options. Only users with the appropriate view permissions can access the report. All row-level security (RLS) rules are enforced. Bullet
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Users must have a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license, or the report must reside in a workspace with Power BI Premium capacity. Note that users need to sign in each time they open a new browser window, but subsequent reports will load automatically once they’re authenticated.Bullet
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If you’re using an iframe for embedding, you might need to adjust the height and width values to fit your portal’s web page seamlessly. Bullet
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To grant report access, embedding alone isn’t sufficient. You must configure view permissions within the Power BI service. You can share embedded reports with necessary users, and if you utilize a Microsoft 365 Group, simply list the user as a workspace member. Bullet
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For licensing, users need either a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license. Alternatively, the content must be in a workspace with Power BI Premium capacity (EM or P SKU). Bullet
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How Does Scalability Work with Power BI Embedded?

Power BI Embedded offers powerful solutions for vertical scalability (SKU A), leveraging the Azure REST API to create, retrieve, upgrade, and delete dedicated Power BI capacities. While Embedded Premium capabilities don't come with built-in automatic vertical scalability, you can implement custom automatic scaling techniques to adjust capacity elastically.
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This ensures your memory and CPU needs are met, maintaining top-notch performance even during high-traffic periods. To maximize the benefits of Power BI Embedded, it’s important to analyze each company’s unique needs and choose the strategies that best suit their operational and efficiency needs

Additionally, Power BI REST APIs are invaluable for automating projects, gathering reports, and streamlining the development process, making your operations more efficient and effective.

Power BI Embedded vs. Power BI service: Key differences

There are a few key differences between Power BI and Power BI embedded. Both of them have many of the same features but Power BI Embedded is meant to be used to create custom solutions on websites and inside of applications. Some of the biggest key differences have been detailed in the sections below:

Key Differences

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User Interface and Access
  • Power BI: Designed with end-users in mind, offering an intuitive interface for data exploration, analysis, and report creation.
  • Power BI Embedded: Aimed at developers, enabling the seamless embedding of reports into custom applications so that end-users can access insights without needing a Power BI account.
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Deployment
  • Power BI: Reports are deployed within the Power BI service and accessed through the Power BI web portal or mobile app.
  • Power BI Embedded: Reports are embedded directly into custom applications, creating a more integrated experience within the app itself.
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Licensing
  • Power BI: Requires individual user licenses for access and usage.
  • Power BI Embedded: Operates on a capacity-based pricing model, where businesses purchase dedicated cloud resources to embed reports into their applications.
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Customization
  • Power BI: Offers customization options within the service, though with some limitations compared to Power BI Embedded.
  • Power BI Embedded: Provides extensive customization capabilities, allowing developers to align embedded reports with the application's aesthetics and branding.

Power BI Embedded Pricing

The overall cost of Power BI Embedded depends on the node kind selected and the range of nodes deployed. Node types differ based on number of V-cores and RAM as outlined in the table below:
Node Type
Virtual Cores
Memory
Price
A1
1
3 GB RAM
$1.0081/hour
A2
2
5 GB RAM
$2.0081/hour
A3
3
10 GB RAM
$4.0242/hour
A4
8
25 GB RAM
$8.0565/hour
A5
16
50 GB RAM
$16.121/hour
A6
32
100 GB RAM
$32.2506/hour