I can't access Power BI Desktop free account because I don't have a work/email. Is there a work-around? Or other free alternatives?

Context:Most companies I've been applying to require proficiency in Power Bi and they also need a submission of previous dashboards created using Power BI.

I’ve decided to self teach myself Power BI over Tableau on my personal laptop at home. I didn’t realize there’s a free version. However you also have to create a “Microsoft Fabric Account.” Is there a catch to this?

Hi all,

PBI loudly states it's free for personal use. But if you look closely, you find that you can only create an account using an organizational (work) email address.

I have a large set of smart-home sensor data, too many rows to fit in an Excel. Purely personal data.

My workplace has a Microsoft license, and Power BI. I could easily sign up with my workplace email.

But I am retiring in a few years, and my work email will suddenly cease to exist.

Can I, or can I not, have Power BI purely for personal use? All the official PBI pages seem to carefully avoid talking about purely personal use. Maybe I was just looking in the wrong place.

If I can have a purely personal account, how do I sign up without using an org address? So I can be sure I'm not suddenly locked out of my data after I retire.

I would have asked this on the MS Power BI ... but you have to sign up for PBI with your org address to access that! :-(

I also asked both my workplace liaison to MS, and the MS liaison to my work ... and they both basically said they don't know; it's outside their purview.

Thanks if you can help.