What does Power BI cost in India?
There are two bills: Microsoft licences for the people who build and view reports, and the one-time work to connect data and build the dashboards. Microsoft’s Indian pricing page showed these licence prices in November 2026:
| Licence | Price (per user / month, billed yearly) | What it allows |
|---|---|---|
| Power BI (free) | ₹0 | Build reports in Power BI Desktop for yourself; no sharing with colleagues |
| Power BI Pro | ₹1,165 | Publish, share and collaborate on reports in the Power BI service |
| Premium Per User (PPU) | ₹1,995 | Everything in Pro plus larger models, more frequent refresh and advanced features |
| Fabric capacity | Variable; reserved or pay-as-you-go | Organisation-wide capacity; large capacities let free-licence users view content |
GST is extra on all of these. Microsoft notes its displayed prices can differ from what you see at checkout, so confirm in the Microsoft 365 admin centre or with a Microsoft partner before budgeting.
How many licences do you really need?
This is where budgets go wrong. Sharing in Power BI is licence-based: in a standard Pro workspace, the person who publishes and the people who view shared reports generally each need a Pro or PPU licence. A team of 20 managers who all want to open the dashboard is 20 Pro licences.
| Scenario | Licences | Cost per year (before GST) |
|---|---|---|
| Owner + 1 analyst | 2 × Pro | ₹27,960 |
| Analyst + 10 managers viewing | 11 × Pro | ₹1,53,780 |
| Analyst + 30 store or clinic managers | 31 × Pro | ₹4,33,380 |
| Same 31 users needing PPU features | 31 × PPU | ₹7,42,140 |
Ways to keep this down: send managers scheduled PDF or email snapshots instead of live access, use row-level security so one report serves everyone, and check whether a Fabric capacity makes sense once viewer numbers grow. For larger viewer counts, Microsoft’s capacity licensing lets free users view content on bigger capacities; ask a partner to model it against your user count.
How much does it cost to build a Power BI dashboard?
Consultant and agency prices vary a lot, and most of the variation comes from the data, not the charts. Connecting a clean Google Sheet is quick. Pulling from Tally, a billing system and a CRM, matching customer IDs across them and fixing dates is most of the work. A useful way to scope it:
| Build | Typical scope | Silvane band |
|---|---|---|
| Single dashboard | 1 to 2 clean data sources, 1 report with 3 to 5 pages, scheduled refresh | Starter: from ₹50,000 |
| Business MIS | 3 to 5 sources (Tally, CRM, billing, ads), data model, KPIs agreed with owners, role-based views | Starter to Growth |
| Company-wide analytics | Data warehouse, many departments, row-level security, automated daily reports and alerts | Growth: from ₹1,20,000 + from ₹40,000/month |
The same logic applies to daily reporting. At Vetic, Silvane’s founder automated daily doctor performance reports across clinics; most of the effort was in getting billing and attendance data to line up, not in the visuals. If daily emailed reports matter more than an interactive dashboard, read how to automate MIS reports.
What does a Power BI consultant actually do?
- Agrees the 10 to 15 numbers the owners actually look at and how each is defined (is revenue with or without GST? on invoice date or payment date?).
- Connects data sources and sets up the gateway for on-premise data such as Tally or a local SQL server.
- Cleans and models the data so numbers match your books.
- Builds the pages: summary first, then drill-downs by branch, product, salesperson.
- Sets refresh schedules, access rights and alerts.
- Trains the person who will maintain it, and documents the measures.
Is Looker Studio a cheaper alternative?
Often, yes. Google’s Looker Studio is free to use, works naturally with Google Sheets, Google Ads, GA4 and BigQuery, and sharing works like Google Docs, with no per-viewer licence. For an SME already on Google Workspace, with most data in Sheets or ad platforms, it can deliver 80 percent of what a Power BI setup does for far less. Power BI is stronger for heavy data modelling, Excel-centric finance teams and Microsoft 365 companies. Our Looker Studio vs Power BI comparison goes through the trade-offs.
Hidden costs to plan for
- Viewer licences for every person who needs live access.
- A gateway machine that stays on if your data lives on a local server or Tally.
- Data clean-up and matching across systems, usually the largest single task.
- Refresh limits on Pro; frequent refreshes may push you to PPU or capacity.
- Changes after launch: new KPIs, new branches, new sources.
- Someone who owns definitions so two reports never show two different revenue numbers.
Power BI or Looker Studio: a cost comparison
| Power BI | Looker Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence to build | Desktop free; Pro ₹1,165/user/month to publish | Free |
| Licence to view | Pro or PPU per viewer in a Pro workspace, or capacity | Free; shared like a Google Doc |
| Best data sources | Excel, SQL Server, Tally exports, Dynamics, many connectors | Google Sheets, GA4, Google Ads, BigQuery, many partner connectors |
| Data modelling | Strong (Power Query, DAX) | Lighter; heavy lifting is usually done in BigQuery or Sheets first |
| Typical fit | Microsoft 365 companies, finance-led MIS, complex models | Google Workspace SMEs, marketing and sales dashboards |
For a 30-viewer business, licences alone are the difference between roughly ₹4.3 lakh a year on Power BI Pro and zero on Looker Studio. That gap pays for a lot of data preparation. It is still worth paying for Power BI when your finance team lives in Excel, your data model has many related tables, or you are already licensed through Microsoft 365.
What should an SME dashboard show first?
The cheapest dashboard is the one with fewer pages. Most owners check the same handful of numbers every morning, and every extra page is build time and maintenance. Start with one summary page that answers four questions, then add drill-downs only where someone will act on them.
- Are we on track? Revenue month to date against target and against the same period last month, by branch.
- Where is the money coming from? Revenue by product or service line, and the share from repeat customers.
- Who is performing? Sales or revenue per salesperson, doctor, store or agent, with a simple ranking.
- What needs attention today? Overdue collections, stock below reorder level, leads not followed up, branches below target.
- Is the data fresh? A visible “last refreshed” time, so nobody makes a decision on yesterday’s numbers by mistake.
Agree how each number is calculated before anything is built. A dashboard that shows a different revenue figure from the accountant’s report loses the owner’s trust in a week, and rebuilding that trust costs more than the dashboard did.
How long does a dashboard project take?
A single dashboard on clean data takes one to two weeks: a few days to agree KPIs, a few days to build, and a review round. A business MIS across Tally, CRM and billing usually takes three to six weeks, and most of that time goes into making the numbers match the books. Ask for a first version within the first two weeks, even if it covers only one data source, so owners can react to something real instead of a specification.
How Silvane can help
Silvane’s AI analytics team builds Power BI or Looker Studio dashboards and automated daily reports in your own accounts. If your data first needs pulling together into one place, see the AI data team. A discovery call and AI audit costs ₹199 for founding members (normally ₹15,000) and the fee is credited to the build. Starter builds start from ₹50,000 with a run plan from ₹15,000 a month; Growth from ₹1,20,000 plus from ₹40,000 a month; Scale is custom from ₹1,00,000 a month. Tools and usage are billed at cost, billing is 50/50, everything is built in your own accounts, you get 30 days of free fixes and 30 days’ notice to cancel. GST is extra.
Sources: Microsoft Power BI pricing (India)