The short version: Power BI Pro caps a semantic model at 1 GB, allows 8 scheduled refreshes a day and 10 GB of storage a user, as at 22 September 2026. Free can build reports for personal use only and cannot share them with anyone or view anyone else's, unless the workspace sits on Premium or Fabric F64-or-larger capacity. For most firms under 20 staff, Pro at NZ$22.60 a user a month is the entry point that actually lets a team collaborate.
1 GB models, 8 refreshes, 10 GB storage
| Limit | Power BI Pro | Premium Per User |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic model size | 1 GB | 100 GB |
| Scheduled refreshes a day | 8 | 48 |
| Storage | 10 GB a user | 100 TB |
| Share and collaborate | Yes, with other Pro or PPU users | Yes, with other PPU users |
Power BI Pro caps a single semantic model at 1 GB and allows 8 scheduled refreshes a day, as at 22 September 2026, on Microsoft's own service description. Premium Per User raises both by a wide margin, to a 100 GB model and 48 refreshes a day, roughly a 30-minute refresh cycle instead of a fixed daily schedule. For a small firm's job-costing or finance model built directly on operational data, the 1 GB Pro ceiling rarely bites; it starts to matter once a model imports several years of transaction-level history rather than a rolled-up summary. Where a model on Dataverse is heading toward that size, Power BI on Dataverse for a small business covers the modelling choices that keep it under the ceiling for longer.
There's a second 10 GB number worth not confusing with the storage limit: on shared (Pro) capacity, a single refresh is also capped at processing 10 GB of uncompressed data, regardless of how much of your 10 GB-a-user storage allowance is free. A model that imports a lot of columns or high-cardinality text can hit that refresh ceiling well before it hits the 1 GB compressed model size limit.
What Free can't do
A Power BI Free licence runs on different rules to Pro, not just smaller limits. A Free user can connect to data, build reports and dashboards, and use them in their own Power BI My workspace, for personal use. What Free cannot do is the thing most firms want from Power BI in the first place: a standalone Free user can't share their own content with anyone else, or view content anyone else has shared with them, at all. The one exception is a workspace hosted on Premium or Fabric F64-or-larger capacity, where free-licensed viewers can consume content that a Pro or PPU user shared into it. Outside that specific setup, every person who needs to see a shared report needs a paid licence.
What this means under 20 staff
For a firm this size, the practical decision is rarely Free versus Pro; it's how many people actually need to publish or view shared content versus how many only ever look at one exported file. Pro, at NZ$22.60 a user a month, is the licence that lets a small team share dashboards and collaborate in a workspace without a capacity purchase behind it. Premium Per User earns its higher price only once a specific model or refresh need outgrows Pro's 1 GB and 8-a-day ceilings; buying it tenant-wide on the assumption that "more headroom is safer" usually licenses capability nobody in a 20-person firm is close to using. If Excel is still doing the job costing, that's the more common gap to close before licence tier is the constraint.
Common questions
What can't a Power BI Free licence do?
A Free licence can create and view content only in the user's own My workspace, for personal use. It can't share content with anyone else, can't view content anyone else has shared with it, and can't collaborate in a shared workspace at all, unless that workspace sits on Premium or Fabric F64-or-larger capacity.
How much bigger is a Power BI Pro semantic model allowed to be than Premium Per User?
A Power BI Pro semantic model is capped at 1 GB. Premium Per User raises that to 100 GB, a 100 times increase, along with more scheduled refreshes a day and a much larger per-user storage allowance.
How many times a day can a Power BI Pro report refresh?
8 scheduled refreshes a day on Pro's shared capacity, resetting at 12:01am in the semantic model's local time zone. Premium Per User and Premium capacity raise that to 48 a day, roughly a 30-minute refresh cycle instead of a 3-hourly one.
Not sure which licence your team actually needs?
Free 30-minute call. Tell me who needs to see what, and I'll tell you whether Free, Pro or PPU actually fits.