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When embedding Power BI content by using the For your customer scenario, you need to ensure that content resides in a workspace that has one of the following license modes:

• Premium per capacity: This license mode is available with Power BI Premium.
• Embedded: This license mode is available with Power BI Embedded.

Each license-mode option requires the purchase of a billable product that is a capacity-based license. A capacity-based license allows you to create reserved capacities.

Capacities represent the computational resources that are required to process workloads, such as report rendering and data refresh. Reserved capacities are isolated from other customers' workloads, so they offer scale that can deliver dependable and consistent performance.

Power BI premium

Power BI Premium, often referred to as Premium, is a capacity-based license.

Premium offers many benefits, such as sharing content with anyone (even outside the organization), and it provides access to many features and capabilities. Of relevance to this module, one Premium feature allows you to embed content by using the For your customer scenario.

To embed Power BI content for your customers by using Premium, make sure that the content resides in a workspace and its license mode is set to Premium per capacity. When set to that mode, the workspace is assigned to a Premium capacity.

Premium is available from the Microsoft 365 admin center, and administrators manage it in the Power BI service.

For more information, see What is Power BI Premium?

Power BI embedded

Power BI Embedded is a capacity-based license. It's designed specifically for using the For your customer scenario, meaning that it's a PaaS product for embedding Power BI content. It doesn't include most Premium features, such as sharing content with Power BI free users or Power BI Report Server.

Compared with Premium, Power BI Embedded has other limitations. Specifically, its workspace content can't be:

• Consumed in the Power BI service.
• Consumed by Power BI free licensed users.
• Shared or embedded by using Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, or URL embedding, or Publish to web (sometimes known SaaS embedding).

To embed Power BI content for your customers by using Power BI Embedded, make sure that the content resides in a workspace and that its license mode is set to Embedded. When set to that mode, the workspace is assigned to a Power BI Embedded capacity.

Power BI Embedded is a Microsoft Azure resource and is available from the Microsoft Azure portal. Administrators manage it through the Azure portal or Windows PowerShell. Unlike Premium, which runs continuously, you can scale Power BI Embedded up or down, and you can pause or resume the service. When the service is paused, billing ceases.

Unique to Power BI Embedded is integration with Microsoft Azure Monitor. This service can collect, analyze, and act on telemetry data about Power BI Embedded (and other Azure services) to help explain root causes in relation to performance and availability.

For more information, see Power BI Embedded.

Product comparison

The following table compares characteristics of the two embedding products.

Characteristics	Premium	Embedded
Product	Power BI Premium	Power BI Embedded
Product SKU	P	A
Use cases	Embed content in apps for internal or external users. Share content with Power BI free users. SaaS embedding in Microsoft Teams or SharePoint.	Embed content in apps for external users only.
Purchase	Microsoft 365 admin center	Azure portal
Billing	Monthly	Hourly
Differences	You can combine embedding in apps and use the Power BI service within the same capacity. When enabled, the Autoscale feature can automatically add temporary compute capacity when needed. Includes a license for Power BI Report Server to support customer-managed reporting.	Support is available for full elasticity, with the ability to scale up or down or to pause or resume the service. You can use the Azure Resource Manager to deploy or manage the service.

Product selection guidance

Generally, enterprises buy Premium and ISVs buy Power BI Embedded. However, no restrictions are placed on which product a customer can buy.

For example, an enterprise might decide to use Power BI Embedded if they're only interested in developing line-of-business apps and embedding analytics in them. In this case, they're not interested in using the prepackaged Power BI service.

Conversely, an ISV might want to use Premium to get the extra benefits of the prepackaged Power BI service within their organization, in addition to the ability to embed content in their apps. For example, it makes sense when the ISV has numerous Power BI users who have Power BI free licenses yet need to access shared content.