How to Display Power BI Dashboard on Website

Embedding a live, interactive Power BI dashboard on your website is one of the best ways to share real-time data with your audience. Unlike static screenshots in a blog post, an embedded dashboard allows users to click, filter, and explore the data on their own. This article will walk you through the primary methods for displaying a Power BI dashboard directly on your website, from the simplest public option to secure methods for internal use.

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Why Embed a Power BI Dashboard on Your Website?

Before jumping into the "how," it's helpful to understand the "why." Moving your business intelligence out of the Power BI app and into a location your team or audience already frequents has some major advantages.

• Share Real-Time Insights: Static images of charts go stale the moment you export them. An embedded dashboard is connected to your data source and refreshes automatically (based on your settings), ensuring everyone is looking at the most current information.
• Boost User Engagement: People love to interact with content. An embedded dashboard invites users to play with filters, hover over data points to see details, and drill down into information, keeping them on your page longer. It transforms passive data consumption into an active, engaging experience.
• Enhance Transparency: For non-profits, government agencies, or companies sharing public interest data, embedding a dashboard is a powerful way to promote transparency. You're not just presenting conclusions, you're providing the underlying data for public exploration.
• Centralize Information: Placing key metrics directly on a company intranet, a private blog page, or a team portal puts data at your team's fingertips. This eliminates the need for them to search for a link or log into another platform, making it much more likely they'll use the data to make decisions.

Before You Start: What You'll Need

To successfully embed a Power BI report, you need to have a few things in place first. Taking a moment to review this list will save you a lot of troubleshooting time later.

A Published Power BI Report

You cannot embed a report directly from the Power BI Desktop application on your computer. Your report must first be published to the Power BI Service (the cloud-based version of Power BI). This is where you'll find the embedding and sharing options.

A Power BI Pro or Premium License

Sharing is a key feature of Power BI’s paid plans. While you can build reports with a free account, you'll need at least a Power BI Pro license or be part of a Premium Per User (PPU) or Premium Capacity organization to use the embedding features described in this guide. Viewers of securely embedded reports will also typically need a license.

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The Right Permissions

You must have owner or correct member permissions for the workspace where the report is located. If you can edit the report, you generally have the permissions you need to generate an embed code.

Public vs. Secure Embedding: Know the Difference

This is the single most important consideration before you start. Choosing the wrong method can accidentally expose sensitive company information. There are two primary categories for embedding a report:

• Publish to Web (Public): This method creates a public link and an embed code that anyone can view. Once published, the dashboard is no longer secure - anyone on the internet with the link can see it, and search engines could even index it. This is perfect for open data, marketing reports on a public blog, or non-sensitive information. Never use this for confidential financial data, customer lists, or internal metrics.
• Embed for your Organization (Secure): This method generates a secure link and embed code that requires viewers to log in with their Power BI or Microsoft 365 credentials. The data remains private and is only accessible to authenticated users within your organization. This is the correct choice for company intranets, private SharePoint sites, and secure customer portals.

Method 1: "Publish to Web" for Public Dashboards

This is the fastest way to get your dashboard onto a public-facing website. It generates a simple iframe code that you can copy and paste into your website's HTML.

When to Use This Method

Use "Publish to Web" only when your data is completely non-sensitive and intended for public consumption. Think of it like publishing a YouTube video - once it’s embedded, anyone who comes across the page can see it. Good examples include:

• Visualizing open-source government data.
• Sharing survey results with the public.
• A dashboard for a non-profit showing project progress.

Step-by-Step Guide to Publishing to Web

1. Open your report in the Power BI Service (app.powerbi.com).
2. Navigate to File > Embed report > Publish to web (public).
3. A warning pop-up will appear explaining that you're about to create a public link to your report. Read it carefully and click "Create embed code."
4. Another dialog box will appear. Click "Publish." You'll see a final confirmation.
5. The success window provides both a public link you can share directly and an HTML code snippet in a textbox. Copy the HTML code (it starts with <iframe...).
6. Paste the code into your website builder. Navigate to the page where you want to display the dashboard. If you're using a CMS like WordPress, add a "Custom HTML" block and paste the code inside. For other builders, look for an option to add HTML, a code snippet, or an embeddable widget.

That's it! After saving your page, the live Power BI dashboard will appear on your website, accessible to all visitors.

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Managing Your Public Embed Codes

If you need to revoke access to a publicly embedded report, you can do so from the Power BI Service. Click the Settings gear icon > Manage embed codes. Here you'll see a list of every report you’ve published publicly. You can retrieve an existing code or click the ellipsis (...) to delete it permanently, which will disable the link and its embed.

Method 2: Secure Embedding for Your Organization

This method maintains the security of your data by requiring anyone who views the report to log in. It’s perfect for internal company portals or sharing sensitive data with specific partners who have been granted access.

When to Use This Method

Choose this embedding option for any report containing internal, confidential, or proprietary data. Examples include:

• Adding a sales dashboard to an internal team SharePoint site.
• Displaying project management KPIs on your intranet's homepage.
• Embedding customer-specific data in a secure, authenticated client portal.

The key requirement is that every viewer must have a Power BI account (Free, Pro, or PPU, depending on where the content is stored) and be authorized to view the report.

Step-by-Step Guide to Secure Embedding

1. From your report in the Power BI Service, go to File > Embed report > Website or portal.
2. A pop-up will appear presenting an embed link and an iframe HTML code. This time, there’s no big security warning because this method is secure by default.
3. Copy the HTML <iframe> code.
4. Paste the embed code into your website's HTML editor, just as you did in the public method.

When an authorized user visits the page, they'll see the report immediately (if already logged into their Microsoft 365 account) or be prompted with a "Sign In" button to view the content. If someone without permission tries to view the page, they'll receive a message informing them they don't have access.

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A Note for Developers: What about Power BI Embedded?

You may also come across a third option: Power BI Embedded. This is an advanced, developer-focused solution designed for independent software vendors (ISVs) or businesses building custom applications. In this "app owns data" model, the end-user doesn't need a Power BI license to view the analytics. Instead, the application itself handles authentication via its own user management system.

This approach offers the most seamless integration for external users, but it's a far more complex and costly process. It requires working with the Power BI API, managing embedding tokens, and purchasing a dedicated capacity on Microsoft Azure. It is generally not the right solution if your goal is simply to place a report on a standard website or internal portal.

Best Practices for Embedded Dashboards

Just because you can embed a report doesn't mean your work is done. Follow these tips to ensure a great user experience.

• Design for the Destination: Think about the size and context of where the report will live. Use "View > Page View > Actual size" in Power BI Desktop to lock in the canvas dimensions so it doesn't look stretched or crowded inside your webpage's container.
• Optimize for Performance: A complex report with tons of visuals and heavy DAX will be slow to load - both in Power BI and on your website. Simplify embedded reports to show only the most essential information needed to avoid long load times that frustrate visitors.
• Customize the Mobile Layout: Most of your website visitors are likely on their phones. The default desktop layout often looks terrible when shrunk down to a mobile screen. In Power BI Desktop, use the View > Mobile Layout feature to create a separate, optimized view for small screens.
• Provide Context Around the Report: Don’t just drop a dashboard onto a blank page. Add a title, a short paragraph of text explaining what the data shows, and maybe even a quick guide on how to use the slicers or filters. This will help your audience understand what they are looking at and get more value out of it.

Final Thoughts

Displaying a Power BI dashboard adds a dynamic and engaging element to any website, whether you’re sharing public data openly or giving your team secure access on your intranet. Choosing the right path between "Publish to web" for public data and "Website or portal" for secure data is the key to sharing your insights effectively and safely.

While publishing and embedding a finished report is a powerful final step, we know that the work of connecting data sources and creating meaningful reports in the first place can be frustrating and time-consuming. We built Graphed to streamline this entire process. We allow you to connect all your marketing and sales data, then build dashboards and get insights instantly - all by using simple, natural language. It’s like having a data analyst on your team who works in seconds, not hours.