Account type and license overview (Lite/Essential/Pro)

If your organization utilizes the View/Act/Analyze/Build license model, refer to this account type and license overview.

Account types and licenses are foundational components of Sigma’s user management and pricing structure. Account types enable the selection of granular permissions that determine how users access and interact with data and documents in Sigma. The selected permissions determine the account type’s license tier used for billing purposes.

This document outlines Sigma’s license tiers and explains the relationship between account types and licenses. It also provides a comprehensive comparison of permissions that determine which license is assigned to each account type.

For information about using account types, see Create and manage account types. For information about license pricing, contact your Account Executive or Customer Success Manager.

License tiers

Sigma offers three license tiers that support different service levels to accommodate your organization’s diverse user requirements and access control policies. The following table describes model users and key capabilities of each license tier.

Lite license

The Lite license is suitable for report consumers who require access to prepared data and insights. This license tier allows members to view shared datasets, explorations, workbooks, and reports. Lite-licensed members also have access to baseline interactions in explorations and workbooks, including the ability to update control values, sort column data, view aggregated underlying data, create saved views, and ask natural language queries with Sigma Assistant.

Essential license

The Essential license is ideal for decision-making data consumers who require more deep-dive capabilities in published workbooks but don’t need to build workbooks themselves. This license tier includes all Lite license capabilities while also allowing members to drill into unaggregated underlying data, contribute to input tables, download workbook content, and schedule exports and alerts.

Pro license

The Pro license is designed for data architects, BI analysts, and report builders who model, transform, and analyze data. This license tier offers the full range of Sigma features and capabilities, including the ability to create and manage datasets, data models, workbooks, and reports. The Pro license also supports system administrators who manage organization settings and members.

Account type and license relationship

Account types enable admin users to select granular permissions that determine which features and capabilities organization users can access. Sigma automatically assigns a license to each account type based on the highest license tier of the enabled permissions. This relationship allows for more flexible and scalable access control that adapts to ongoing changes in your user base and user requirements.

Account type permission availability matrix

If your organization utilizes the View/Act/Analyze/Build license model, refer to this account type permission availability matrix.

The following table compares the account type permissions associated with each license tier. When configuring an account type, admins can enable or disable any combination of permissions within and across license tiers.

		Lite	Essential	Pro
Data warehouse
Connections	View connections Browse connections, schemas, and database tables
Connections	Manage connections¹ Create new connections and manage existing ones (Automatically enables the *View connections* permission)
Tables	Annotate tables¹ Annotate database tables (edit column details, metrics, and links)
Stored procedures	Create stored procedure actions Configure actions that call stored procedures (Automatically enables the *Call stored procedure actions* permission)
Stored procedures	Call stored procedure actions Trigger actions that call stored procedures
Write-back
Input tables	Create input tables² Create and edit input tables in workbooks (Automatically enables the Edit input tables* permission)*
Input tables	Edit input tables² Add rows and edit cell values in input tables
Materialization	Schedule materializations² Create and edit materialization schedules
CSV	Upload CSV Upload and analyze CSV data
Warehouse views	Create warehouse views² Create warehouse views based on datasets and document elements
Data modeling
Data models	View data models² View existing datasets and data models
Data models	Create, edit, and publish data models² Create and manage datasets and data models (Automatically enables the View data models* permission)*
Features	Write Python Write Python code to run in your data platform
Features	Write SQL Query a connected data platform directly with SQL
Documents
Workbooks	View workbooks² View and interact with explorations and published workbooks
	Can comment on workbooks⁴ View and add comments on workbooks
	Basic explore^2,3 View and interact with explorations and published workbooks with added ability to drill into data, filter columns, enter input table data, and more (Automatically enables the *View workbooks* permission)
	Full explore^2,3 Modify workbook elements to create custom views of published workbooks, configure actions, and more (Automatically enables the *Basic explore* and *View workbooks* permissions)
	Create, edit, and publish workbooks² Create new workbooks and manage existing ones (Automatically enables the *Full explore, Basic explore*, and *View workbooks* permissions)
	Set workbook data refresh² Set an automatic data refresh schedule for a workbook (Automatically enables the *Create, edit, and publish workbooks* permission)
Version tags	Apply tag² Apply version tags to workbooks or data models
Org management
Usage dashboard	View usage dashboard View the organization dashboard
Usage dashboard	View SQL in usage dashboard View raw SQL in the organization usage dashboard (Automatically enables the View usage dashboard permission)
Customization	Manage all workbook themes and fonts Create, edit, and delete workbook themes and custom fonts
Admin	Manage branding settings Manage organization branding settings, including workbook themes, custom fonts, and system emails
Plugins	Manage plugins Access plugin development features and manage custom plugins
Badges	Manage all badges Add, change, and remove workbook badges (Endorsed, Warning, or Deprecated)
Export integrations	Manage export integrations Can configure export integrations to Slack channels, Microsoft Teams channels and SharePoint folders
Sigma Tenants	Manage deployment policies Can create and manage deployment policies used to deploy content to tenant organizations.
Sharing / folders
Sharing and exports	Download² Immediately download entire workbooks, specific pages, and individual elements
	Export to email² Export entire workbooks, specific pages, and individual elements by email (Automatically enables the Download* permission)*
	Run exports as recipient² Choose to run exports as the recipients. (Automatically enables the Download* and Export to Email permissions)*
	Export to Google Sheet² Export data to Google Sheets spreadsheets (Automatically enables the Download* permission)*
	Export to Google Drive² Export data to Google Drive folders (Automatically enables the Download* permission)*
	Export to Slack² Export data to Slack channels (Automatically enables the Download* permission)*
	Export to Microsoft Teams and SharePoint² Export data to Microsoft Teams channels or Microsoft SharePoint folders. (Automatically enables the Download* permission)*
	Schedule export² Create, edit, and delete scheduled exports and alerts to send entire workbooks, specific pages, and individual elements (Automatically enables the Download* and Export to Email permissions)*
	Share documents² Share folders and documents with organization members
	Export to cloud² Export data to Google Cloud Storage (GCS) or Amazon S3 (Automatically enables the Download* permission)*
	Export to webhook² Export data to webhook endpoints (Automatically enables the Download* permission)*
	Export as email burst² Export data as email bursts to send different reports for each email recipient. (Automatically enables the Download* and Export to Email permissions)*
Folders	Create new folders² Create new personal, workspace, and shared folders
	Contribute to shared folders² Create new documents in workspaces and shared folders
	Create new workspace Create new organization workspaces (Automatically enables the *Contribute to shared folders* and *Share documents* permissions)
AI
AI features	Explain charts with AI⁵ Use AI to instantly generate a description of any chart
	Use AI with formulas⁵ Use the formula assistant to write new formulas, correct formula errors, and explain existing formulas
	Use Assistant⁵ Access and use Sigma Assistant to ask natural language queries
	Create AI column⁵ Generate AI-powered column output with natural language prompts.
	Manage agents⁵ Create, edit, and delete Sigma agents
Sigma MCP server	Use Sigma MCP with OAuth Access the Sigma MCP server with tokens granted through OAuth
External MCP tools	Manage MCP tools Add and edit MCP tools to be used by Sigma agents
External MCP tools	Use MCP tools Use MCP tools when called by Sigma agents
Developer
API connectors	Manage API connectors Add and edit API connectors and credentials
	Create API actions Create and edit actions that call an external API endpoint
	Trigger API actions Trigger actions that call an external API endpoint
Sigma API	Use Sigma API with OAuth Access the Sigma REST API with tokens granted through OAuth

1Access to individual connections are determined by data permissions.

2Access to individual datasets, data models, and workbooks are determined by folder and document permissions.

3For a comprehensive comparison of user capabilities, see Basic explore vs. Full explore.

4Enables the ability to add and view comments for all license tiers. Also enables screenshot capture and annotation in comments for Essential and Pro licenses only.

5AI features such as Sigma Assistant, explain charts with AI, and the AI-powered formula assistant require an AI provider to be configured for the organization. See Configure an AI provider.