If you build reports, or you're the person who has to approve buying a visual for them, this is the whole licensing setup for our paid visuals in one place. I'll keep the Microsoft jargon to a minimum and explain it when it shows up.
The short version
- Power BI Desktop (the app on your PC where you build reports) is free and fully unlocked. Every feature, no caps, no watermark, no time limit.
- Once the report is used in the Power BI Service (the online app where reports get shared), it needs a licence.
- Everyone who opens the report needs a seat. That includes the person who built it and every person who only reads it.
- There is one paid tier. Every paid plan unlocks everything; the plans only differ in how you buy.
- Seats are assigned to named people in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, so you pay for the people who actually open the report and not for your whole headcount.
- There is a free trial, started from the marketplace listing.
This applies to Zentrix Network Graph, Zentrix Sankey Pro and Zentrix Advanced Gantt. Zentrix Calendar Heatmap is free everywhere, so none of this applies to it.
Building in Desktop costs nothing
I wanted anyone to be able to build a complete report with these visuals before anyone asks them for money. So in Desktop the visual never checks for a licence at all. You can try every feature, build the whole report, and decide about buying later.
Sharing in the Service needs a licence
The money question starts when the report goes into the Service. The rule is simple: everyone who opens a report that contains the visual needs a seat. I don't distinguish between creators and viewers.
This is how Microsoft's own licensing for AppSource visuals works, too. Licences are named-user: each one is assigned to a Microsoft Entra user (your normal work account) or to a Microsoft Entra security group.
What someone without a licence sees
| Who | Where | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Anyone | Power BI Desktop | Everything works. No licence is checked. |
| Someone editing the report | Power BI Service | They get the free version of the visual plus a small icon in the corner that links to the upgrade. Free features are still there. |
| Someone just reading the report | Power BI Service | The visual doesn't draw. Power BI shows its own message with a button to get a licence or contact the report owner. |
The free version is a subset: some features are paid-only, and the free Network Graph also stops at 500 nodes and 2,000 edges. Each visual's page on this site says what's in the free and paid versions.
One practical thing from Microsoft's docs: after a licence is bought and assigned, it can take up to an hour to be recognised. If a person still sees the blocked message, wait, then refresh the browser (or restart Desktop).
One paid tier, two plans
Network Graph originally had separate Pro and Enterprise feature sets. I dropped that, because charging per person and also holding features back reads like billing twice. Now every paid plan unlocks everything.
There are two plans on the marketplace, one sized for a team and one for a wider rollout. I'm deliberately not putting plan sizes or prices in this post. The marketplace listing for each visual is the one place that always shows the current plans and prices, so check there.
Buy for the people who open the report
A seat is not a headcount. The licences live in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, next to your Office and Power BI subscriptions, and you assign them to the people (or groups) who use the report. The visual checks whoever is signed in.
A made-up example to show the arithmetic: a company with 700 employees where one finance team of 25 uses a report with the visual needs 25 seats, not 700. If more people get added to the report later, you assign more seats.
If you're working out what to ask your manager or IT team for:
- List the people who will open reports containing the visual. Authors and readers both count.
- Start the free trial from the marketplace listing and check that the report behaves the way you expect.
- Have whoever manages Microsoft 365 for you buy the seats and assign them to those people or to a security group.
- Give it up to an hour, then refresh.
Where Microsoft's licence check doesn't run
Microsoft's licence enforcement doesn't work in every place a Power BI report can live. Microsoft lists these as unsupported:
- Publish to web (the public link anyone can open)
- Embedding in your own app or website for customers
- Power BI Report Server (the version you install on your own servers)
- National and regional clouds, depending on Microsoft's general support there
- Exporting to PDF or PowerPoint through the REST API
In those environments the visual has no way to find out who is licensed. Our visuals draw normally there instead of showing a blocked message. The marketplace can't sell a licence for those setups, so if your reports live in one of those places, contact us through the support page on this site before you build on it and we'll work out the right arrangement with you.
Sources and where to check
The Microsoft side of this is documented in License models for Power BI AppSource visuals, Transactability and license enforcement and ISV app license management for Power BI visual offers. If Microsoft changes how any of it works, their pages win over mine.