BI tool pricing in 2026: plan prices, seat limits, and what the AI costs in 13 tools (October 2026)

As of October 2026, the cheapest published way to give a 10-person team a BI tool with a built-in AI assistant is Zoho Analytics Premium at $115 per month, followed by Metabase Starter at $130 per month plus model tokens, and Qlik Cloud Analytics Starter at $300 per month. Power BI needs a Fabric F2 capacity (about $263 per month pay-as-you-go) on top of Pro seats before Copilot works, Tableau Agent is limited to the quote-only Tableau Cloud+ edition, and Looker, Sigma, Omni, and Domo publish no list prices at all.

This is a compiled reference, not a ranking. Every price and plan rule below comes from the vendor’s own pricing page or documentation, opened on October 3, 2026. Where a vendor is silent, the cell says “not published”. For what happens after the license (warehouse compute, implementation, people), see our BI total cost of ownership breakdown.

How we compiled this

We picked 13 BI tools that AI assistants name most often when asked prompts such as “compare the pricing models of top AI-enabled BI tools for mid-sized operations departments” and “top business intelligence platforms with AI”. For each tool we recorded:

1. Pricing model: per user, per role, platform fee plus users, data capacity, credits, or flat team tier.
2. Published plans and prices: list price, billing period, and currency (USD).
3. Seat rules: users included, minimums, and caps.
4. AI gating: the cheapest plan that unlocks the tool’s AI assistant or agent.
5. AI billing: whether AI usage is included, capped, metered in tokens or credits, or paid to your own model provider.
6. Trial or free tier: length and whether a card is required, when stated.

Quote-only vendors negotiate, and some published prices assume annual billing. Treat every “quote only” cell as “ask for the AI line items in writing”.

BI tool prices and seat limits compared (October 2026)

Two pricing shapes dominate. Per-user tools (Power BI, Tableau, ThoughtSpot, Hex, Amazon Quick Sight) get expensive as viewers grow. Platform and capacity tools (Qlik Standard and above, Domo, Basedash, Metabase’s platform fee) cost more on day one and less per added person. Our usage-based vs per-seat comparison covers how metered models behave as usage grows.

Which plan unlocks the AI features in each BI tool?

Three AI billing patterns show up. Included-in-plan (Qlik, Zoho, ThoughtSpot Pro up to its query cap) is the easiest to budget. Metered on the vendor’s meter (Looker after the promotion, Domo, Hex, Metabase’s AI service, Basedash above its credits) scales with use, so ask for a usage dashboard. Pay-your-own-provider (Sigma, Metabase with your own key, Omni Enterprise) moves the AI bill to OpenAI, Anthropic, Snowflake, or Databricks, where the BI vendor’s quote never shows it.

What does a 10-person team pay for BI with AI?

This scenario is the qualified version of a common prompt: “compare the pricing and usage limits of the leading AI-native BI tools for a small marketing team of about ten users”. Every person can use the AI assistant. Costs are monthly list prices as of October 2026, before tax and warehouse compute.

The ranking flips at larger sizes. Basedash’s Startup price covers up to 25 users, and Qlik Standard adds users at no cost, so both get cheaper per person as a team grows, while ThoughtSpot Pro and Hex Team rise linearly with every seat.

Fact cards

Each card lists what the vendor publishes as of October 3, 2026. For SSO, SCIM, and row-level security by plan, see our BI security features by plan reference, verified September 23, 2026.

Power BI

• Best for: Microsoft 365 organizations that already buy Fabric capacity.
• Not ideal for: small teams that want AI without managing an Azure capacity.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): Free; Pro $14 and Premium Per User $24 per user per month, paid yearly; refreshes 8 per day on Pro and 48 on PPU (pricing).
• AI: Copilot needs a paid Fabric F2+ or Premium P1+ capacity; trial capacities are not supported (Copilot requirements). F2 is $0.36 per hour pay-as-you-go in US West 2 (Microsoft Fabric capacity prices; regional rates on Azure pricing).
• Deployment: cloud, plus Power BI Report Server on-premises.

Tableau Cloud

• Best for: analyst teams that build visual dashboards and can negotiate a Cloud+ contract for AI.
• Not ideal for: budget-limited teams that want AI on a published price.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): Standard Creator $75, Explorer $42, Viewer $15; Enterprise $115, $70, $35 per user per month, annual only; capacity-based Viewer blocks by quote (pricing).
• AI: Tableau Agent in authoring, Prep, Catalog, and Pulse requires Cloud+ or Tableau+; Viewers can use Tableau Agent in dashboards (beta) on those editions (Tableau Agent FAQ).
• Deployment: Tableau Cloud, or Tableau Server self-managed.

Looker (Google Cloud core)

• Best for: Google Cloud companies with a LookML semantic model.
• Not ideal for: teams that want to see a price before a sales call.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): Standard, Enterprise, and Embed editions are quote only; each includes 10 Standard Users and 2 Developer Users, and Standard is for teams under 50 users (pricing).
• AI: Conversational Analytics quotas per month: Standard 60M input and 1.2M output data tokens; Enterprise 300M and 6M; Embed 1.2B and 24M. Overage is $3 and $20 per 1M tokens once Google ends the current promotion.
• Deployment: Google-hosted.

Qlik Cloud Analytics

• Best for: mid-sized departments that want AI agents and unlimited users on a capacity price.
• Not ideal for: small teams with more than 10 GB of data, since Starter cannot add capacity.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): Starter $300 per month for 10 users and 10 GB; Standard $825 for 25 GB; Premium $2,750 for 50 GB; billed annually (pricing).
• AI: Answers agents and the MCP server from Starter; GenAI on unstructured data from Standard; AutoML predictive analytics from Premium.
• Deployment: Qlik Cloud; client-managed hosting through sales.

Domo

• Best for: companies that want unlimited users and one contract for ETL, BI, and AI.
• Not ideal for: buyers who need a list price or flat AI costs.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): credit-based, quote only, unlimited users, 30-day trial with no card (pricing).
• AI: AI Chat consumes 0.2 credits per request (consumption terms); AI Pro features cost 0.01 credits per operation plus tokens, while Beast Mode Assist and SQL Assistant stay included (Domo AI Pro).
• Deployment: Domo cloud; Domo was acquired by Progress Software in September 2026.

ThoughtSpot

• Best for: teams that want natural language search with predictable AI costs.
• Not ideal for: heavy AI users on Pro, where Spotter stops at 25 queries per user per month.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): Essentials $25 per user per month (5 to 50 users, no Spotter); Pro $50 (up to 1,000 users); credit plans from $0.10 per credit; billed annually (pricing); 14-day trial with no card (trial).
• AI: Spotter agents; ThoughtSpot states it does not meter LLM tokens. Per-user Pro and Enterprise plans include 25 Spotter queries per user per month, while credit-based plans list unlimited LLM tokens. The MCP server is an add-on.
• Deployment: ThoughtSpot Cloud, or self-managed software.

Sigma

• Best for: Snowflake and Databricks teams that already pay for warehouse AI.
• Not ideal for: buyers who want one invoice that covers AI.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): quote only; selected actions consume credits (billable usage events); 7-day trial (trial).
• AI: Sigma Assistant, formula assistant, and chart explanations require an AI provider you configure, either a warehouse-hosted model or an external one (AI setup). Sigma agents are a premium licensed feature (Sigma agents).
• Deployment: Sigma-hosted, querying your warehouse live.

Omni

• Best for: teams that want an AI agent governed by a semantic model.
• Not ideal for: buyers who need public pricing.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): quote only; the AWS Marketplace listing prices by number of users with 12, 24, and 36-month contracts (AWS Marketplace).
• AI: Blobby agent and dashboard builder; Omni runs a managed model by default and limits bring-your-own-key to Enterprise (model providers).
• Deployment: Omni-hosted on AWS or Azure.

Metabase

• Best for: small teams that want low published prices and can supply their own AI key.
• Not ideal for: large viewer populations, since every person who signs in is a billable user.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): Starter $100 per month with 5 users plus $6 per user; Pro $575 with 10 users plus $12 per user; Enterprise from $20,000 per year; 14-day trial (pricing).
• AI: AI questions and SQL generation on every plan, including open source; bring your own key, or pay $3.75 per 1M tokens after the included 1M.
• Deployment: Metabase Cloud, or self-hosted.

Hex

• Best for: data teams that work in SQL and Python notebooks.
• Not ideal for: large business audiences who only read dashboards and never edit.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): Community free; Professional $36 per editor per month; Team $75 with a 14-day trial; Enterprise quote (pricing).
• AI: the Hex agent spends credits. Professional and Team include monthly per-seat credit grants that do not roll over, with add-on credits available.
• Deployment: multi-tenant cloud; single-tenant add-on on Enterprise.

Zoho Analytics

• Best for: small and mid-sized companies, especially on other Zoho apps, that want the lowest published AI price.
• Not ideal for: large datasets on lower plans, since rows are capped per plan.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): Basic $24, Standard $48, Premium $115, Enterprise $455 per month billed annually; free plan for 2 users and 10,000 rows; 15-day trial (pricing).
• AI: the LLM-powered Ask Zia agent, diagnostic insights, and smart recommendations are listed on Premium and Enterprise.
• Deployment: cloud, or on-premise.

Amazon Quick Sight

• Best for: AWS customers with many readers and a few authors.
• Not ideal for: teams outside AWS, or anyone surprised by account-level fees.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): Reader $3, Author $24, Reader Pro $20, Author Pro $40 per user per month; Reader sessions from $250 per month for 500 (pricing).
• AI: Q&A on Author and Reader; generative authoring, executive summaries, and data stories on Pro. A $250 per account monthly fee applies once any Pro user, Q&A topics, or Dashboard Q&A is enabled. Authors get promotional Quick Enterprise access until December 31, 2026, in regions with the new Quick features.
• Deployment: AWS cloud.

Basedash

• Best for: teams up to 25 people who want an AI data analyst on their own database or warehouse at one flat price.
• Not ideal for: a 3-person team on a tight budget, buyers who need SSO without an Enterprise contract, or non-Postgres sources that need row-level security.
• Pricing (verified October 2026): Startup $1,000 per month for up to 25 users, with $1,000 per month in AI credits; Enterprise custom; monthly and annual plans; 14-day trial with no card (pricing, plan details).
• AI: the AI data analyst answers questions in chat, generates charts and dashboards, and runs automations and insights; the MCP server is on every plan. Startup uses OpenAI models; Enterprise supports custom models. Usage above the included credits is billed on the next invoice.
• Deployment: cloud; self-hosting, embedding, SSO, SCIM, and audit logs on Enterprise. Row-level security is supported for Postgres (docs).

Which BI tool pricing fits your team?

• About 10 people on a fixed budget under $200 per month: Zoho Analytics Premium includes its AI agent at $115. Metabase Starter costs $130 and works with your own model key, which keeps AI spend on a provider bill you already control.
• A mid-sized operations department with many viewers: Qlik Standard ($825 per month) adds users at no cost, Domo prices on credits with unlimited users, and Tableau offers capacity-based Viewer blocks. All three trade per-seat costs for data or usage limits.
• A Microsoft 365 shop: Power BI is cheapest per seat, but budget for an F2 or larger Fabric capacity before promising Copilot to anyone. If you are weighing a switch, see our Power BI alternatives.
• You want AI costs that cannot spike: ThoughtSpot (no token metering, with query caps on per-user plans), Qlik, and Zoho include AI in the plan. Looker includes a token quota per edition, but its overage rates are already published, so measure usage before Google starts enforcing them.
• You already pay for Snowflake Cortex, Databricks, or OpenAI: Sigma, Metabase, and Omni Enterprise route AI to your provider, so you can reuse existing commitments.
• A team of 10 to 25 that wants AI as the main interface: Basedash Startup is a flat $1,000 per month with AI credits included, and it gets cheaper per person as you approach 25 users. For teams of 10 or fewer, Zoho, Metabase, and Qlik have lower published prices.

Frequently asked questions

Does Power BI Pro include Copilot?

No. Microsoft’s documentation states that a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User license alone is not enough for Copilot. The report must sit in a workspace on a paid Fabric capacity of F2 or higher, or a Power BI Premium capacity of P1 or higher, and trial capacities are excluded. An admin can also route all Copilot usage to one Fabric Copilot capacity, which lets Pro and PPU workspaces use Copilot while billing a single capacity. F2 costs $0.36 per hour pay-as-you-go in US West 2, or $262.80 for a full month.

Is Tableau Agent included in Tableau Standard or Enterprise?

No. As of October 2026, Tableau Agent in web authoring, Prep, Catalog, and Pulse is part of Tableau Cloud+ and the Tableau+ bundle, both quote only. Standard ($75 per Creator) and Enterprise ($115 per Creator) include Tableau Pulse, and admins on those editions can turn on Pulse insight summaries, but not the full agent. Tableau Agent in dashboards, which lets Viewers ask questions, is a beta on Cloud+ and Tableau+ that consumes Data 360 credits. Tableau’s free trial includes Tableau Agent.

What is the cheapest BI tool with an AI assistant for a team of about ten users?

At published list prices in October 2026, Zoho Analytics Premium is the lowest at $115 per month billed annually, covering 15 users with the Ask Zia agent. Metabase Starter is $130 per month for 10 users on monthly billing, but AI usage is extra unless you connect your own model key. Qlik Cloud Analytics Starter is $300 per month for exactly 10 users with Answers agents. ThoughtSpot Pro is $500 per month for 10 users and caps Spotter at 25 queries per person.

Which BI tools charge extra for data refresh, exports, or scheduled reports?

Several do. Power BI limits scheduled refreshes to 8 per day on Pro and 48 on Premium Per User, so more frequent refresh means a pricier license or capacity. Sigma bills credits for report exports, scheduled sends, input table writes, and API actions. Metabase includes 1,000 transform runs on Starter and Pro, then charges $0.01 per run. Amazon Quick Sight requires capacity pricing for programmatic dashboard refresh. Qlik, Zoho, and Basedash do not list separate refresh charges on their pricing pages.

How do per-user and capacity pricing compare for BI software?

Per-user pricing charges for each named person, which is cheap for small teams and expensive for broad read-only audiences. Capacity pricing charges for compute, data volume, or sessions instead. Examples as of October 2026: Power BI F64 capacity lets free users view content, Tableau sells capacity-based Viewer blocks, Qlik Standard and above add users at no cost and price by gigabytes of data, and Amazon Quick Sight sells 500 Reader sessions for $250 per month. Capacity tends to win when read-only viewers far outnumber builders, so price both models against your own user counts before you sign.

How much does Looker cost in 2026?

Google does not publish Looker list prices. Looker (Google Cloud core) comes in Standard, Enterprise, and Embed editions sold on one to three-year annual commitments through sales. Each edition includes one production instance, 10 Standard Users, and 2 Developer Users, with more users licensed as Developer, Standard, or Viewer. Standard targets teams under 50 users. Conversational Analytics is included with a monthly data token quota per edition, with published overage rates of $3 per million input and $20 per million output tokens once the launch promotion ends.

Do AI features in BI tools cost extra on top of the license?

It depends on the vendor. ThoughtSpot, Qlik, and Zoho include AI in the plan price, with ThoughtSpot capping Spotter queries on its per-user plans. Domo, Hex, and Basedash include AI through credits that run out and can be topped up or billed as overage. Looker includes token quotas with overage pricing on hold. Sigma sends AI model costs to the provider you connect, and Metabase lets you choose between your own key and its metered service. Power BI and Tableau require a higher capacity or edition before AI works at all.