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Querri vs Power BI

Power BI is the BI tool everyone knows. Querri answers the questions nobody built a report for.

Same goal: trusted answers. A different starting point.

Power BI is mature, everywhere and priced low per seat, and every report still starts with someone modeling the data and writing DAX in Power BI Desktop. Querri is the question-first data platform. It starts from the questions your business asks and builds what's needed to answer them, on one predictable bill.

Start free Bring your hardest question

Time, cost and control

Answers this quarter, a bill that doesn't grow with every viewer, and no Power BI hire

Power BI is a tool for the people who build reports. Querri is the finished path from your systems to an answer for everyone else. Here's what that difference means for the business.

  1. Answers in days, not after the model

    A new Power BI report waits on a data model and someone who writes DAX. With Querri, you connect a system or upload a file and ask the same day.

  2. A price that doesn't grow with every viewer

    Below F64, everyone who views shared Power BI content needs a license, and Copilot needs capacity on top. Querri is one predictable bill: a monthly credit allowance tied to the work your team does, alerts before you reach it, and no automatic overage charges.

  3. No Power BI developer required

    Power BI works best with someone who models the data and keeps it current. In Querri, the people who already know the business decide what the numbers mean, in plain language.

  4. Secure, auditable, nothing to rip out

    SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and ISO 27001:2022, and your data never trains a model. Every number shows its query, and Excel, Power BI and Microsoft 365 stay where they are.

Where each one fits

Pick by the team and the timeline you have

We'd rather you pick the right tool than pick us for the wrong reason. Here's where each one fits.

Choose Power BI when

  • You have someone who builds and maintains Power BI models, or you're ready to hire one.
  • You need pixel-level control over report design, custom visuals or paginated reports for print and regulators.
  • Your company runs on Microsoft 365, and Entra ID, Purview labels and Teams must cover your reports too.
  • Only a few people need to see reports, so $14 a seat is hard to beat, or you're large enough that F64 makes viewing free.
  • Your people already know Power BI and Excel (Power BI has more than 425,000 customers), and the reports they rely on work.

Choose Querri when

  • You want business answers in days, without a modeling project or a Power BI hire first.
  • Your data lives in business systems (CRM, accounting, ERP, payments, spreadsheets), much of it outside Microsoft.
  • The people who know what the numbers mean aren't report builders, and shouldn't have to write DAX to say so.
  • You want dashboards everyone can see and ask questions of, with no viewer licenses and AI included in the plan.
  • Your team works on Macs, in a browser, or in Claude and ChatGPT, not in a Windows desktop app.

Feature by feature

The detailed comparison

Every row says where each one is stronger. Where Power BI wins, we say so. Facts are current as of October 2026 and linked in the sources.

What matters Querri Power BI Stronger
Cost and people
How you pay One predictable plan for the whole organization, with a shared monthly credit allowance. A credit is a unit of business work, like a question answered, so usage is easy to plan. AI and unlimited dashboard viewers are included. See plans. Per user: Pro at $14 and Premium Per User at $24 a month, paid yearly, up from $10 and $20 in April 2025. Simple, and very low per seat. Even
When more people need answers Unlimited dashboard viewers on every plan, usage alerts at 80% and over the plan, and no automatic overage charges. Below F64, every person who views shared content needs a Pro or PPU license. AI adds capacity or Microsoft 365 Copilot seats. Querri
Who builds it A data owner who knows the business, like an ops, RevOps or finance lead. A Power BI developer or analyst who knows Power Query, data modeling and DAX. Querri
Time to the first answer Connect a source or upload a file and ask the same day. Days to weeks for a new report, depending on the data model it needs. Existing reports answer right away. Querri
Getting your data in
Business systems 125+ connectors, including HubSpot, Salesforce, QuickBooks, NetSuite, Stripe and Shopify, synced into one place. The Connector Agent sets up new REST sources. Power Query connects to a very wide range of sources. Joining them into one model is the builder's job, and local sources need a gateway. Even
Spreadsheets and files Drop in CSV, Excel, JSON or Parquet up to 2 GB. Querri finds the table inside a messy Excel sheet and remembers where it was next month. Power Query reads Excel and CSV well, and the cleanup steps are built by hand in Power BI Desktop. Querri
How fresh the data is Scheduled syncs from hourly to monthly. Querri doesn't query sources live. Up to 8 scheduled refreshes a day on Pro and 48 on PPU or capacity, plus DirectQuery for live queries against a source. Power BI
Data quality and meaning
Data cleaning Automatic data cleaning: the Data Audit runs more than 180 checks on every table as it arrives, and the Janitor cleans a table with you. Every fix is a view you can inspect. Someone writes the cleanup steps in Power Query and keeps them working as sources change. Querri
Business definitions The Library: say what a number means once, in plain language, and every answer, dashboard and AI assistant uses it. KPIs are defined once. A semantic model with DAX measures. Powerful and proven, and a skill: SQLBI, the best-known DAX trainers, say newcomers struggle with "row context, filter context, iteration." Querri
When a question is ambiguous Querri tells you when a question has more than one reasonable reading, and which one it used. Copilot answers from the model it's given. Microsoft: without preparation, it "can misinterpret the data and return generic or inaccurate results." Querri
AI and answers
Ask in plain language Included on every plan, from Free. Forecasts and statistics when the question needs them. Copilot needs paid capacity of F2 or above; Pro alone "isn't sufficient." Microsoft 365 Copilot answers from Power BI models at $30 a user. Q&A retires by the end of December 2026. Querri
Checking its work Checks the data for gaps and duplicates before it queries, works the answer out two independent ways, and shows the query behind every number. Copilot shows the DAX it wrote, and app authors can add verified answers. When a question isn't about the model, it answers from general knowledge. Querri
Proactive insights Nightly insights in your Inbox, and Monitors that show which store, rep or region moved. Nothing changes without your OK. Subscriptions with Copilot summaries, and data alerts on thresholds someone sets. Querri
Rebuild a dashboard from a screenshot Paste a screenshot or a sketch and get it back on your own data, in the browser, then change it by asking. Agent Skills for Power BI, in preview since June 2026: describe a report "even from a screenshot" and an agent builds the model and report pages from your Fabric data. Querri
Claude, ChatGPT and MCP Connect Claude or ChatGPT on any plan. Dashboards and charts appear inside the chat, under each person's own access. The Power BI Authoring MCP lets agents build models (one developer called it "magical"), and Fabric IQ MCP answers questions from them. Even
Dashboards and reports
Report design and visuals Build or change a dashboard by asking, with charts chosen for the question. Less fine-grained layout control than a dedicated report designer. Deep, mature report design: a huge range of visuals, custom visuals, drill-through and precise layout. Microsoft has been a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for 19 years in a row. Power BI
Who can view Unlimited dashboard viewers on every plan, including Free, and viewers can ask questions of the dashboard. Pro or PPU for every viewer below F64. Free viewing starts at F64, about $8,400 a month at list. Querri
Excel Excel in and out: upload workbooks, and send formatted Excel workbooks on a schedule. Analyze in Excel gives live PivotTables on the semantic model, and finance teams already know it. Hard to beat. Power BI
Scheduled reports and decks Scheduled projects, formatted Excel workbooks and slide decks, delivered on a schedule. Email subscriptions and paginated reports for pixel-perfect, printable output. Even
Analytics in your own product White label and embed on Scale. Each customer sees only their rows. Power BI Embedded, mature and widely used, priced by capacity and built by developers. Even
Where people work
Computers and browsers Any modern browser on Mac, Windows or Linux, plus Claude and ChatGPT. Power BI Desktop, where reports and models are built, needs Windows 10 or later. Viewing works in a browser and on mobile. Querri
Microsoft 365 Works next to Microsoft 365 through Excel files, exports and Claude or ChatGPT. No Teams or Microsoft 365 Copilot integration. Reports in Teams, PowerPoint and Outlook, and answers from Power BI models inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, on by default. Power BI
Security and governance
Certifications SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and ISO 27001:2022. Your data is never used to train any model. Microsoft's very broad compliance portfolio, including government clouds. Power BI
Identity and access Workspaces, roles and an audit log, with SSO and row-level access policies on Scale, applying in chat, dashboards and MCP alike. Entra ID, row-level security in the model, and Purview sensitivity labels that follow data into Excel and PowerPoint. Power BI

Power BI and Microsoft prices are US list from Microsoft's pricing pages and documentation as of October 15, 2026. Prices vary by region and agreement.

Pricing

Per-seat pricing is cheap until everyone needs a seat

Power BI Pro at $14 a user is a low price for a mature BI tool, and for a handful of report builders it's hard to beat. The bill grows with the people who view, AI sits on a separate capacity or a separate license, and the biggest cost isn't on Microsoft's price list at all: the person who builds and maintains the model.

How Power BI is billed

  • Pro is $14 and Premium Per User $24 a user a month, paid yearly, up from $10 and $20 on April 1, 2025.
  • Below F64, every person who views shared content needs Pro or PPU. Free viewing starts at F64, $8,409.60 a month at list.
  • Copilot in Power BI needs paid capacity of F2 or above ($262.80 a month at list). Microsoft: "A Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license alone isn't sufficient."
  • Copilot is billed by tokens against that capacity, and the DAX queries and refreshes it triggers are billed separately.
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot, at $30 a user a month (Copilot Business $21, up to 300 users), answers from Power BI models. People still need their Power BI license to see the content.
  • Q&A, the natural-language feature that came with Pro, retires by the end of December 2026. Microsoft points users to Copilot.

When per-user pricing is the better deal

If a few people build reports and a few people view them, Pro at $14 a seat is a very low price for a mature BI tool. If your Microsoft agreement already covers Pro, it's cheaper still. And if you're large enough for F64, viewing is free for everyone. With a Power BI developer who keeps a clean semantic model, Copilot has something good to answer from. If that's your team, the guides below are where to start.

Where Power BI projects get stuck

  • "We ended up having to hire a full time employee"

    A developer on giving clients their own Power BI dashboards: reports that did "a full table dump multiple times for the same table," until someone was hired "to fix the performance of client built reports."

    Hacker News, Oct 2026

  • "Then for months Power BI was wrong"

    A practitioner who automated a report from Excel to Power BI: it ran faster, but people "forgot about the how," and for non-technical people it was "a lot harder to deal with."

    Hacker News, Oct 2026

  • Premium Per User, and still no Copilot

    An admin on Microsoft Q&A set up a PPU workspace and a Fabric trial and found Copilot "still disabled and not available for use." It needs paid capacity.

    Microsoft Q&A, Mar 2026

  • Microsoft's own warning

    "Without preparation, Copilot can misinterpret the data and return generic or inaccurate results." Preparing the semantic model for AI is real, ongoing work.

    Microsoft Learn

  • "A confident wrong answer"

    A Power BI training firm: "Copilot is only as reliable as the Power BI model, metadata and prompts behind it," and "The risk is not just a wrong answer."

    Nexacu (sells Power BI and Copilot training)

  • Self-service at scale

    A Microsoft partner on why self-service Power BI struggles as it grows: "Reports break, logic is duplicated, and teams struggle to understand or update dashboards."

    AlphaBOLD (Microsoft partner), Apr 2026

Choosing Power BI? Set it up to last.

If Power BI is the right call for you, these are the practices that keep reports trustworthy and Copilot useful. Most are Microsoft's own documentation.

How Querri keeps the bill predictable

  • One bill, no surprises. One plan for the whole organization, with the AI, storage and unlimited dashboard viewers included. See plans and pricing.
  • One simple credit. A credit is a unit of business work, like answering a question or syncing a source, so usage is easy to understand and easy to plan for.
  • Unlimited dashboard viewers on every plan. Viewing, uploads, exports and the Library never cost credits.
  • Usage alerts at 80% of the plan, when it's over and on a spike, plus a monthly limit for any person.
  • No automatic overage charges. We tell you as you approach your limit, and you decide what happens next.
  • No capacity to buy for AI. Storage, the engine and the AI are in the plan.

Total cost

What it takes to get the first answer

Power BI's list price is the small part. Before a business user gets a trusted answer to a new question, someone prepares the data, builds the model and the report, and keeps it running. Here's the Power BI path for a company where about 100 people need to see reports, next to Querri.

Layer Power BI path Querri
Viewer licenses Power BI Pro for everyone who views shared content below F64: 100 people is about $16,800 a year Unlimited dashboard viewers included
AI Copilot on an F2 capacity, about $3,150 a year pay-as-you-go and more for heavy use, or Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30 a user a month AI agent, nightly insights and MCP included
Data prep Power Query steps for each source, built in Power BI Desktop on Windows 125+ connectors, file uploads and automatic data cleaning
Semantic model Relationships and DAX measures, prepared for Copilot and kept current The Library, taught in plain language
Local data An on-premises data gateway on a machine someone maintains Querri syncs a copy on your schedule
People A Power BI developer, about $92,000 to $111,000 a year on average in the US, before benefits A data owner who knows the business
Time Days to weeks for each new report The same day
Year one, roughly About $110,000 to $140,000, and the developer is most of it One predictable plan with AI, storage, dashboards and unlimited viewers included. See plans

The Power BI path is our arithmetic from Microsoft's US list prices and the salary averages in the linked sources, not a quote. If your Microsoft agreement already includes Pro, or you already have the developer, those lines are costs you've already chosen.

Built in, not assembled

Everything between your data and the answer, in one product

On the Power BI path, these are separate jobs: preparing data, modeling it, licensing viewers, adding AI. In Querri they're one chain: new data rebuilds the views on it, KPIs recompute and every dashboard refresh replays its saved query, so any number traces back to its source.

The Querri Library: collections of data with the questions asked of them and the views built to answer them
The Library: your data, what it means, and the questions it already answers.

125+ connectors

CRM, accounting, ERP, payments, ads and databases, plus spreadsheets and files.

Automatic data cleaning

More than 180 checks on every table, and the Janitor to fix what they find.

The Library

A business-first semantic layer: definitions, KPIs and rules, taught by saying them.

Dashboards

Built by asking or from a screenshot, shared with unlimited viewers.

Nightly insights and Monitors

Querri works through your data overnight and shows what changed.

MCP for Claude and ChatGPT

Every assistant answers from the same definitions, under each person's access.

Reports and Excel

Scheduled projects, formatted workbooks and decks, delivered for you.

White label and embed

Bring the same understanding inside your own product, under your brand.

Using both

How Power BI and Querri work together

Plenty of teams will run both, and that's a good setup. Keep Power BI for the reports your people rely on, and let Querri be where the business asks the questions nobody built a report for. Querri doesn't connect to Power BI itself; it works from the same sources and the same spreadsheets.

Keep in Power BI

  • The reports your board relies on
  • Pixel-perfect and paginated reports
  • Excel connected to your semantic models
  • Reports in Teams and Microsoft 365

Do in Querri

  • Questions nobody built a report for
  • Data that lives outside Microsoft
  • Dashboards for everyone, with no viewer licenses
  • AI answers in Querri, Claude and ChatGPT

How they fit together

  1. Querri doesn't read Power BI semantic models or reports. It connects to the sources they're built on, such as SQL Server, Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL and Snowflake, and to 125+ business systems.

  2. Excel works both ways. Drop in a workbook or a table exported from Power BI, up to 2 GB, and Querri finds the table inside it. Send formatted workbooks back out on a schedule.

  3. Paste a screenshot of a Power BI dashboard you rely on, and Querri rebuilds it on your own data, then you change it by asking. Your DAX doesn't come across: Querri works each number out from the source data and shows the query.

  4. Connect Claude or ChatGPT to Querri, and people can ask from the assistant they already use. Querri never writes back to your sources, and your data is never used to train any model.

See screenshot to dashboard

FAQ

Questions people ask when comparing Querri and Power BI

How much does Power BI cost in 2026?

At US list prices, Power BI Pro is $14 per user per month and Premium Per User is $24, paid yearly, up from $10 and $20 in April 2025. Below F64 capacity, everyone who views shared content needs one of those licenses. Copilot in Power BI needs paid Fabric capacity of F2 or above ($262.80 a month at list), and Microsoft 365 Copilot is $30 a user a month. Querri is one predictable plan with AI and unlimited dashboard viewers included; see current plans.

Do Power BI viewers need a license?

Yes, unless the content is in a workspace on F64 or larger capacity (or Premium P1 and above). Free users can't view content others share in Pro workspaces. F64 lists at about $8,400 a month, so most smaller companies license every viewer at $14 a month. Querri includes unlimited dashboard viewers on every plan, including Free.

Does Copilot in Power BI cost extra?

Copilot has no separate fee, but it needs paid Fabric capacity of F2 or above, or Premium P1 and above. Microsoft says a Pro or PPU license alone isn't sufficient, and trial capacities aren't supported. Copilot is billed by tokens against that capacity, so heavy use competes with your reports. In Querri, AI is included on every plan.

Can Microsoft 365 Copilot answer questions from Power BI?

Yes. Since late August 2026, Microsoft 365 Copilot can answer questions from Power BI reports and semantic models, on by default, with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license ($30 a user a month, or $21 on Copilot Business for up to 300 users). It answers from the semantic model, so it's only as good as that model, and people still need their Power BI license to see the content.

What happens to Power BI Q&A?

Microsoft is retiring Q&A, Power BI's original natural-language feature, and Q&A setup by the end of December 2026, and pointing users to Copilot. For a company on Pro licenses alone, that removes the built-in way to ask questions in plain language unless it adds capacity or Copilot licenses. Querri includes plain-language questions on every plan, including Free.

Does Power BI work on a Mac?

Power BI Desktop, where reports and models are built, needs Windows 10 or later, so Mac users run it on a Windows cloud PC, such as Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop. Viewing and light editing work in the Power BI service in a browser. Querri runs in any modern browser on Mac, Windows or Linux, and inside Claude and ChatGPT.

Do I need to learn DAX to use Power BI?

To view and filter reports, no. To build measures, time comparisons and custom calculations, yes: DAX is the language, and it takes real practice. Copilot can draft DAX, and someone still has to check it. In Querri, you say what a number means in plain language, and Querri shows the query it ran.

Is Power BI good for small business?

It can be, especially if someone on the team already knows it: Desktop is free and Pro is $14 a user. The harder part for a small team is the time it takes to model the data, learn DAX and keep reports running, and adding AI means capacity or Copilot licenses. Querri has a free plan, runs in any browser and answers plain-language questions from the first session.

What's the best Power BI alternative for a team without a Power BI developer?

One that doesn't need a data model and a report builder before the first answer. Querri connects your systems, cleans the data automatically, learns your definitions in plain language and builds dashboards by asking, on one predictable plan with unlimited viewers. If you have a Power BI developer and reports that work, keep them, and use Querri for everything else.

Can Querri connect to Power BI?

No. Querri doesn't read Power BI semantic models or reports. It connects to the same sources Power BI usually reads, such as SQL Server, Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, Snowflake and 125+ business systems, and it takes Excel and CSV files, including tables exported from Power BI.

Can Querri rebuild a Power BI dashboard?

Yes, from a screenshot. Paste a picture of a Power BI dashboard you use today, and Querri rebuilds it on your own data in the browser, then you change it by asking. Microsoft's Agent Skills for Power BI, in preview, can also build a report from a screenshot, creating the semantic model from your Fabric data.

Does Power BI work with Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes, through MCP. The Power BI Authoring MCP server lets agents create and change semantic models, and Fabric IQ MCP answers questions from them. Querri's MCP connection works on every plan, and dashboards and charts appear right inside Claude or ChatGPT, under each person's own access.

Is Querri a replacement for Power BI?

You don't have to choose. Power BI keeps serving the reports your team relies on, especially pixel-perfect and paginated ones. Querri answers the questions nobody built a report for, across data inside and outside Microsoft, with dashboards anyone can see. Some teams later move their everyday dashboards to Querri; that's a choice you can make once you've seen it on your own data.

Can I try Querri on my own data first?

Yes. You can start on the free plan with no credit card, connect a source and ask. See plans for what each includes. Or bring your hardest question to a 20-minute walkthrough.

Sources

Where these facts come from

Checked October 15, 2026. Microsoft updates Power BI and its licensing often; if something here is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.

  1. Power BI pricing (Pro, Premium Per User, viewing at F64 and above) Microsoft
  2. Microsoft ups the price for Power BI Pro by 40 percent The Register, Apr 2025
  3. Power BI license types and features (sharing with free users) Microsoft Learn
  4. Microsoft Fabric licenses (viewers below F64) Microsoft Learn
  5. Microsoft Fabric pricing (F2 and F64) Microsoft Azure
  6. Copilot for Power BI overview (requirements, data preparation, compute usage) Microsoft Learn
  7. Fabric Copilot capacity for usage billing Microsoft Learn
  8. Prepare your data for AI Microsoft Learn
  9. Microsoft 365 Copilot enterprise pricing Microsoft
  10. Microsoft 365 Copilot business plans and pricing Microsoft
  11. Power BI integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot (MC1323266) Microsoft 365 Message Center
  12. Retirement of Power BI Q&A (MC1218421) Microsoft 365 Message Center, Jan 2026
  13. Overview of the Power BI MCP servers Microsoft Learn
  14. "It was magical": a developer on the Power BI Authoring MCP Hacker News, Sep 2026
  15. Power BI Agent Skills at Build 2026 (from a screenshot, in preview) Enterprise DNA (sells Power BI training), Jun 2026
  16. FabCon and SQLCon 2026 (425,000+ Power BI customers, apps in Power BI) Microsoft Azure blog, Sep 2026
  17. Microsoft named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI Platforms (repost of Microsoft's announcement) Modern Workspace Pro, Jul 2026
  18. Download Power BI Desktop (minimum requirements: Windows) Microsoft Learn
  19. Data refresh in Power BI (8 or 48 scheduled refreshes a day, gateways) Microsoft Learn
  20. Power BI data sources Microsoft Learn
  21. Analyze in Excel Microsoft Learn
  22. Paginated reports in Power BI Microsoft Learn
  23. Subscribe to reports Microsoft Learn
  24. Power BI embedded analytics Microsoft Learn
  25. Sensitivity labels in Power BI Microsoft Learn
  26. Row-level security with Power BI Microsoft Learn
  27. Understand star schema and its importance for Power BI Microsoft Learn
  28. Power BI implementation planning Microsoft Learn
  29. A proposal for visual calculations in DAX (newcomers and the running total) SQLBI (sells DAX training), Aug 2020
  30. "We ended up having to hire a full time employee" Hacker News, Oct 2026
  31. "Then for months Power BI was wrong" Hacker News, Oct 2026
  32. Power BI Copilot not enabled on PPU and Fabric trial Microsoft Q&A, Mar 2026
  33. Why Copilot gets Power BI answers wrong Nexacu (sells Power BI and Copilot training)
  34. Why self-service Power BI fails at scale AlphaBOLD (Microsoft partner), Apr 2026
  35. Power BI developer salary (US average) ZipRecruiter, Aug 2026
  36. Power BI developer salaries DataCamp, Apr 2025
  37. Querri pricing Querri
  38. Predictable credit use Querri docs

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