License and account type 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.
License tiers
The three license tiers provide different levels of service to accommodate your organization’s diverse user requirements and access control policies.
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, and workbooks. 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, and create bookmarks.
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, and workbooks. 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
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 |  | |  |
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) | | | |
| Write-back | ||||
| Input tables | Create input tables2 Create and edit input tables in workbooks | | | |
| 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 workbook elements | | | |
| Data modeling | ||||
| Datasets | View datasets2 View existing datasets and data models | | | |
Create, edit, and publish datasets2 Create and manage datasets and data models (Automatically enables the View datasets permission) | | | | |
| Features | Write SQL Query a connected CDW or DBMS 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 explore2,3 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 explore2,3 Modify workbook elements to create custom views of published workbooks (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 | | | |
| AI | Use AI features Access AI functionality, including the formula assistant and Explain visualization feature | | | |
| Org management | ||||
| Usage dashboard | View usage dashboard View the organization 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) | | | |
| 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) | | | | |
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) | | | | |
| 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) | | | | |
1 Access to individual connections are determined by data permissions.
2 Access to individual datasets, data models, and workbooks are determined by folder and document permissions.
3 For a comprehensive comparison of user capabilities, see Basic explore vs. Full explore.
4 Enables 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.
Updated about 3 hours ago