What licenses do you need to use dataflows?
Dataflows can be created in different portals, such as Power BI and the Power Apps, and can be of either analytical or standard type. In addition, some dataflow features are only available as Premium features. Considering the wide range of products that can use dataflows, and feature availability in each product or dataflow type, it's important to know what licensing options you need to use dataflows.
Creating dataflows in Power BI workspaces
If you want to create dataflows in Power BI workspaces, you need to have a paid Power BI Pro license. A Power BI free license won't give you the ability to create dataflows. Depending on the features you use, a Power BI Premium or embedded capacity is required.
A Power BI Pro account is available on a user-monthly basis. Multiple options are available for premium or embedded capacities.
Creating dataflows in Microsoft Power Platform environments
If you want to create dataflows in the Microsoft Power Platform environment a Power Apps (per-user or per-app) license is required.
If you want to create analytical dataflows that store data in your organization's Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 account, you or your administrator will need access to an Azure subscription and an Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 account.
Premium features
Some of the dataflow features are limited to premium licenses. If you want to use the enhanced compute engine to speed up your dataflow queries' performance over computed entities, or have the DirectQuery connection option to the dataflow, you need to have Power BI P1 or A3 or higher capacities.
AI capabilities in Power BI, linked entity, and computed entity are all premium functions that aren't available with a Power BI Pro account.
Features
The following table contains a list of features and the license needed for them to be available.
| Feature | Power BI | Power Apps |
|---|---|---|
| Store data in Dataverse tables (standard dataflow) | N/A | Per app plan Per user plan |
| Store data in Azure Data Lake Storage (analytical dataflow) | Power BI Pro Power BI Premium |
Yes, using analytical dataflows |
| Store data in customer provided Azure Data Lake Storage (analytical dataflow; bring your own Azure Data Lake Storage) | Power BI Pro Power BI Premium |
Per app plan Per user plan |
| The enhanced compute engine (running on Power BI Premium capacity / parallel execution of transforms) | Power BI Premium | N/A |
| DirectQuery connection to dataflow | Power BI Premium | N/A |
| AI capabilities in Power BI | Power BI Premium | N/A |
| Linked entities | Power BI Premium | Yes, using analytical dataflows |
| Computed entities (in-storage transformations using M) | Power BI premium | Yes, using analytical dataflows |
| Schedule refresh | Yes | Yes |
| Dataflow authoring with Power Query Online | Yes | Yes |
| Dataflow management | Power BI | Power Apps |
| New connectors | Yes | Yes |
| Standardized schema, built-in support for Common Data Model | Yes | Yes |
| Dataflows data connector in Power BI Desktop | Yes | Yes, using analytical dataflows |
| Dataflow incremental refresh | Power BI Premium | Yes, using analytical dataflows with Per user Plan |
Limitations on each license
The preceding table shows what features each license will give you. The following sections provide details about some of the limitations of each license.
Power Apps licenses
If you use a Power Apps license to create dataflows, there's no limitation on the number of dataflows and entities you can create. However, there's a limitation on the size of Dataverse service you can use.
The Power Apps per-app plan covers up to a 50-MB database capacity. The Power Apps per-user plan allows you to have a database of 250-MB capacity.
Power BI Pro
Power BI Pro gives you the ability to create analytical dataflows, but not use any of the premium features. With a Power BI Pro account, you can't use linked or computed entities, you can't use AI capabilities in Power BI, and you can't use DirectQuery to connect to the dataflow. The storage for your dataflows is limited to the space left under your Power BI Pro account, which is a subset of 10-GB storage for all Power BI content.
Power BI Premium
If you use Power BI Premium (capacity-based licensing), you can use all the AI capabilities in Power BI, computed entities and linked entities, with the ability to have a DirectQuery connection to the dataflow, and you can use the enhanced compute engine. However, the dataflow created under a premium capacity license uses only the internal Azure Data Lake Storage, and won't be accessible by other platforms except Power BI itself. You can't create external dataflows just by having a Power BI Premium license; you need to have an Azure subscription for Azure Data Lake Storage as well.
Using your organization's Azure Data Lake Storage account for dataflow storage
To create dataflows that store data in your organization's Azure Data Lake Storage account, in addition to the product licenses above, you must have an Azure subscription. The amount of storage that can be used isn't limited by the dataflow or the product it was created in.
Next step
If you want to read more details about the concepts discussed in this article, follow any of the links below.