Power BI Licensing and Setup
Written By: Austin Levine
Last Updated on September 23, 2026
A Power BI workspace is where a team builds, tests and manages reports and dashboards together. A Power BI app is the read-only, packaged version of that content, published for people who only need to view it. Workspaces are for building; apps are for distributing.
What is a Power BI workspace
A workspace is a shared container in the Power BI service where team members collaborate on reports, dashboards and dataflows, dataflows being reusable data transformations you build once and share across reports. It sits in the left-hand menu of the Power BI service. Workspaces are built for development, testing and content management, and each person in one has a role: Admin, Member, Contributor or Viewer.
What is a Power BI app
An app is a packaged, read-only version of a workspace's content, built for broader distribution to people who only need to view it. For example, a workspace might hold 5 separate reports; publishing them together as an app lets an executive open one link and see every report's KPIs without navigating to each one individually in the workspace.
Workspace vs app: the key differences
Power BI Workspace | Power BI App | |
|---|---|---|
Purpose | Collaboration | Distribution |
Typical users | Editors and creators | Viewers |
Editable | Yes | No |
Roles | Admin, Member, Contributor, Viewer | View-only |
Best suited for | Development | Final delivery |
How to create a workspace
Open the Power BI service at app.powerbi.com and sign in.
In the left sidebar, click Workspaces.
Click + New workspace to create one.
Enter a unique workspace name, and a description if you want one.
In Access, add teammates by email and assign each a role: Admin for full control including managing access and settings, Member to create, edit and publish content and update the app, Contributor to create, edit and publish content, or Viewer for read-only access.
Click Create. You land inside the new workspace.
Add content by publishing from Power BI Desktop (Home > Publish, then choose the workspace), uploading a .pbix file directly in the service, or building a new report, semantic model or dataflow inside the service.
Share reports, build dashboards, set permissions, and publish or update the app to distribute to a wider audience.
Workspace roles
Capability | Admin | Member | Contributor | Viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Update and delete the workspace | Yes | |||
Add or remove any user in a workspace role | Yes | |||
Allow Contributors to update the app | Yes | |||
Add Members or lower-permission roles | Yes | Yes | ||
Publish, unpublish and change app permissions | Yes | Yes | ||
Update an app | Yes | Yes | If allowed | |
Share items, including semantic models | Yes | Yes | ||
Manage semantic model permissions | Yes | Yes | ||
Create, edit and delete content, such as reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
View and interact with an item | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Read data stored in workspace dataflows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Create subscriptions to reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
For the full breakdown of what each role can do, see our dedicated guide to workspace access roles.
How to publish an app
Open the workspace that holds the reports and dashboards you want to distribute.
Click Publish app, at the top right of the workspace.
Choose which reports, dashboards or other content to include.
Set permissions, deciding whether specific people, groups, or the whole organization can see it.
Click Publish.
Copy the app link and share it with the people who need it.
Best practices for workspaces and apps
Restrict access carefully and give publishing rights only to people who need them. Use consistent naming across a workspace and the app it publishes, for example "Sales Dev Workspace" alongside "Sales App", so the relationship between the two is obvious to anyone browsing the tenant. For larger organizations, audit workspace access on a fixed schedule, such as quarterly, so permissions and content do not accumulate past what is actually in use.
FAQs
Do I need Power BI Pro to use workspaces or apps?
Yes, to build or publish. Creating a workspace and publishing content or an app both need Power BI Pro or PPU. Viewing an app is different: a viewer needs Pro or PPU too, unless the workspace sits on a Fabric capacity of F64 or larger, in which case a free-license user with the viewer role can open it with no paid license. See which license each role needs for the full picture.
Can I edit an app directly?
No. You edit the underlying report in the workspace, then republish the app to push the update out.
Can I have multiple apps from the same workspace?
No, each workspace publishes exactly one app. If you need separate audiences with separate content, create separate workspaces.
Who can access my Power BI workspace?
Only people explicitly added to the workspace, each with an assigned role: Admin, Member, Contributor or Viewer.
Sources
Roles in workspaces - Microsoft Learn
Create the new workspaces - Microsoft Learn
Distribute Power BI content by creating apps - Microsoft Learn
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