Tableau vs Power BI
Tableau and Power BI side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.
At a glance
| Tableau | Power BI | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Data & Analytics | Data & Analytics |
| Starting price | Free; paid plans from $15/mo (checked October 2026) | Free; paid plans from $14/mo (checked October 2026) |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Profile | Read profile | Read profile |
Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Key differences
Both list a free tier, so you can try each before paying.
Power BI has the lower starting price ($14/mo against $15/mo for Tableau). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.
Both are in our Data & Analytics category.
About each tool
Tableau
Analytics and visualization platform with Pulse and Tableau Agent. A free Desktop edition exists; Cloud Standard starts at $15 per user a month billed annually (Viewer license).
Who it is for
Teams that build, share and govern dashboards and want role-based licenses (Creator, Explorer, Viewer), plus individuals who want a free local Desktop edition. Tableau Next is offered standalone and does not require being a Salesforce CRM customer, according to Tableau.
Strengths
- Tableau lists Tableau Cloud Standard as including Tableau Pulse, Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep Builder, Cloud Manager (up to 3 sites) and Tableau MCP.
- Tableau lists three role-based license types in Tableau Cloud: Creator, Explorer and Viewer, with a separate capacity-based option (Creator and Explorer licenses plus Viewer Blocks) priced through sales.
- Tableau lists Enterprise as adding Data Management, Advanced Management, eLearning and up to 10 sites; Cloud+ lists up to 50 sites, Tableau Knowledge and Premier Success.
- Tableau says Desktop Free Edition has no row limit, saves visualizations locally and can connect to sources beyond those in the Public Edition, apart from published data sources on Cloud or Server.
- Tableau lists Tableau Next as including Tableau Agent, Tableau Semantics, proactive alerts for metrics and anomalies, and native Slack integration, with two license types (Consumer and Creator).
- Tableau says that in Tableau Cloud its generative AI features run with zero data retention at its third-party LLM providers, and customer data is not used to train any global model.
Limitations
- Tableau says all plans require an annual contract billed annually; monthly plans are not available. Every deployment needs at least one Creator license, and the 'from $15' Standard price is the Viewer license (Creator is $75, Explorer $42).
- Tableau Agent in Pulse, Authoring, Prep and Catalog is listed under Cloud+ and the Bundle, not Standard or Enterprise. Tableau Next pricing says query, transform and agentic-analytics charges do not apply, but Data Services Credits or Flex Credits may still apply.
Power BI
Microsoft's BI platform with a free Windows Desktop app; Copilot needs paid Fabric or Premium capacity. Pro is $14 per user a month billed annually.
Who it is for
Microsoft's overview describes business users who view reports, report creators who build and publish them, administrators and developers who embed or extend it. Copilot in Power BI is aimed at organizations with paid Fabric or Premium capacity.
Strengths
- Microsoft says Power BI Desktop is free, runs on Windows 10 or later, and connects to more than 100 data sources.
- Microsoft lists a free account for creating reports; Pro adds publishing and sharing, and Pro and Premium Per User are sold self-service or through the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- The Power BI service lists workspaces, apps, scheduled refresh, email subscriptions, alerts, embedding, row-level security and sensitivity labels.
- Microsoft says viewers can read reports without per-user licenses on Premium P1 and above, and Fabric F64 and above.
- Microsoft's privacy page says Copilot data stays within the organization's tenant boundary, is not used to train foundation models, and prompts and responses are not stored after the session ends.
- Microsoft says tenant administrators can enable or disable Copilot in the admin portal, and lists separate tools for paginated reports and an on-premises Report Server.
Limitations
- Copilot in Desktop requires access to a workspace on paid Fabric capacity (F2 or higher), Premium capacity (P1 or higher) with Copilot enabled, or a Fabric Copilot capacity. Microsoft shows Copilot in Fabric under the Fabric capacity plans, not the free account.
- Pro lists a 1 GB model size, 8 refreshes a day and 10 GB native storage per license. Premium Per User lists a 100 GB model, 48 refreshes a day and 100 TB storage.
- Fabric capacity (pay-as-you-go or reservation) is priced separately and was not listed on the Power BI pricing page. A Pro license is still needed to publish Power BI content to Fabric, and Microsoft's page says prices may differ by currency, country and region.
