Power BI Report Server: Licensing Changes Offer Potential Cost Savings

• Power BI Report Server licensing rules changed with SQL Server 2025, offering potential cost savings.
• Existing customers should leverage the new rules if they can live with the trade-offs and limitations.
• Companies that previously rejected Power BI for cost reasons may want to reevaluate that decision.
• SQL Server Reporting customers using Standard edition licenses have the easiest analysis and decision process.

New licensing rules for Power BI Report Server (PBIRS), introduced in Nov. 2025, provide a less expensive option, although there are trade-offs and limitations. The new rules, which were introduced to accommodate changes in SQL Server 2025, allow customers to license PBIRS using lower-cost licenses for SQL Server Standard edition, and the change removes the requirement for active Software Assurance (SA). This rule change can help reduce costs significantly in the right scenario, but the limitations of Standard edition may not be acceptable or feasible for many deployments.