Glossary
What is Power BI Embedded?
Power BI Embedded is the way to show Power BI reports and dashboards in your own application, website or portal. When embedding for customers, the application handles access and end users do not need their own Power BI licence.
Power BI Embedded explained
Microsoft distinguishes two scenarios. When embedding for your organisation, users sign in with their own Microsoft account and need their own licence. When embedding for your customers, also known as "app owns data", the application signs in to Power BI itself and requests an embed token for the signed-in user on every view.
In the second scenario the report runs on a paid capacity and responsibility for access lies with the application. It decides which report someone sees and uses row-level security to pass on which rows of data are visible. A mistake in the application therefore means someone could see the wrong data straight away.
Pay attention to three things: how the application manages users, how RLS is passed on, and what happens when a user has no role or filter. A secure set-up shows nothing in that case, rather than falling back to all data.
Example
Acme Groothandel wants each retail customer to see their own purchasing dashboard. With Power BI Embedded, a single report sits in a portal and the application passes a customer number filter for each signed-in customer, so nobody sees another customer's figures.
Power BI Embedded in ENABLE
The ENABLE dashboard portal uses Power BI Embedded through a Microsoft Entra service principal configured per customer, with its secret stored encrypted. Access runs through access profiles and, when RLS is switched on, through profiles or user tags linked to Power BI roles. Without a tag, a user sees no data.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Power BI Embedded and sharing in Power BI?
With ordinary sharing you give people access in the Power BI service, where they sign in with their own account and licence. With Power BI Embedded you show reports in your own application or portal, and that application decides who sees what. The latter suits customers and partners outside your organisation better.
Do end users need a Power BI licence with Power BI Embedded?
Not when embedding for your customers: the organisation has a capacity and the application signs in. When embedding for your own organisation, users do need their own licence.
Is Power BI Embedded secure?
It can be, but it depends on the application around it. That application must manage users properly, pass row-level security on correctly and show nothing rather than everything when in doubt.
Further reading
- ResourcesWhat is Power BI Embedded? Scenarios and optionsPower BI Embedded is the way to show Power BI reports and dashboards in your own application, website or portal, instead of in Microsoft's Power BI service. There are two variants: embedding for your organisation, where users sign in with their own Microsoft account, and embedding for your customers, where the application handles access through a service principal and end users do not need a Power BI licence. For that second variant, you need capacity in production.Read more
- SolutionPower BI dashboard portal: share dashboards securelyShare your Power BI dashboards securely in your own portal, with role-based access.Read more
- ResourcesShare Power BI dashboards securely: your optionsYou can share a Power BI dashboard in four ways: Publish to web, sharing in the Power BI service (directly or through an app), inviting external users as B2B guest users, or showing the reports in a portal with Power BI Embedded. For colleagues, the Power BI service is usually enough. To share Power BI dashboards securely with customers, suppliers and other external users, guest users or a customer portal are the right choice; Publish to web is public and never suitable for business data.Read more
- IntegrationPower BI embedded portal: share dashboards securelyPower BI reports embedded in your own portal, with access by role and RLS.Read more
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