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How to Export Power BI Dashboard to Excel

Cody Schneider•

Power BI is fantastic for creating interactive and visually appealing dashboards, but sometimes you just need to get that data into Excel. Whether it's for ad-hoc analysis, sharing with a colleague who doesn't use Power BI, or just falling back on the familiar comforts of a spreadsheet, exporting your data is a common task. This guide will walk you through the primary ways to export a Power BI dashboard to Excel, explaining the pros and cons of each method.

Why Export from Power BI to Excel Anyway?

Before jumping into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." While it might seem counterintuitive to move data from a powerful BI tool into a spreadsheet, there are several valid reasons:

  • Familiarity and Flexibility: Almost everyone knows Excel. It’s perfect for quick, custom calculations, creating very specific chart types, or manipulating data in ways that might be cumbersome in Power BI.

  • Sharing with Non-Power BI Users: Your CEO or a client might not have a Power BI license or the time to navigate an interactive report. Sending a clean, simple Excel file is often the easiest way to share a specific data set.

  • Ad-Hoc, Deep-Dive Analysis: Perhaps a visual on your dashboard has uncovered an interesting trend. Exporting the underlying data to Excel allows you to slice, dice, and pivot that specific dataset without altering the main Power BI report.

  • Snapshot and Auditing: You may need a static, point-in-time snapshot of your data for archival, auditing, or compliance purposes. An exported CSV or XLSX file serves as a fixed record.

Method 1: Exporting Data from a Specific Visual

This is the most common and direct method. When you’re looking at a specific chart or table in your Power BI report and want the data behind just that visual, this is the way to go. It preserves any filters you have applied to the report page or the visual itself.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  1. Open Your Report: Navigate to the Power BI report containing the visual you want to export.

  2. Hover and Select: Move your cursor over the visual (a line chart, bar chart, table, etc.). You will see an ellipsis (...) icon appear in the top-right corner. Click it.

  3. Choose "Export data": A dropdown menu will appear. Select the "Export data" option.

This will open a dialog box giving you a few important choices. This is where you need to understand the different data formats available.

Understanding Your Export Options: Summarized vs. Underlying Data

When you export from a visual, Power BI gives you two main choices. Picking the right one is essential to getting the data you actually need.

1. Summarized Data

  • What it is: This option exports the data exactly as you see it in the visual. If you have a bar chart showing total sales by country, exporting summarized data will give you a table with just two columns: "Country" and "Total Sales."

  • When to use it: Use this when you want a simple table representation of the aggregated data shown in your chart. It's fast, simple, and gives you exactly what the visual is displaying.

  • File format: You can choose between Excel (.xlsx) or Comma-separated value (.csv). The Excel format preserves formatting better, while CSV is a universal plain-text format.

2. Underlying Data

  • What it is: This option exports the raw, row-level data that is being used to create the visual's aggregation. Using the same example of total sales by country, exporting the underlying data would give you all the individual sales transactions that were added up to create the total sales for each country. This will include many more columns and rows.

  • When to use it: Use this when you need the granular details for a deeper analysis. For example, if you see an anomaly in the chart, exporting the underlying data helps you inspect the individual records to find the root cause. This is the choice for in-depth forensics.

  • File format: This option typically exports as a .csv file.

Important Note on Limitations: Power BI imposes limits on how much data you can export using this method. For a standard .csv export (summarized data), the limit is typically 30,000 rows. For an .xlsx export, it's 150,000 rows. Exporting underlying data may have higher limits depending on your Power BI capacity (Pro vs. Premium).

Method 2: Copying a Table Directly

Sometimes you don't even need a separate file, you just want to quickly paste a table into an existing spreadsheet. This is a lesser-known but incredibly useful trick for table and matrix visuals.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  1. Locate Your Table Visual: Open your report and find the table or matrix visual you want to copy.

  2. Click the Ellipsis: Hover over the visual and click the ellipsis (...) in the corner to open the menu.

  3. Select "Copy table to clipboard": Instead of exporting, choose the copy option.

  4. Paste into Excel: Open Excel, click a cell, and press Ctrl+V (or Command+V on Mac) to paste the data. The data will appear with its basic formatting intact.

This method is fantastic for quickly grabbing small tables but isn't suitable for large datasets. It's a quick and dirty way to move structured data without creating new files.

Method 3: From the Data View in Power BI Desktop

What if you want an entire raw data table from your data model, not just the data behind a single visual? For this, you need to use the Data View within Power BI Desktop.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  1. Open in Power BI Desktop: You must have the .pbix file and open it in the Power BI Desktop application for this method. It cannot be done from the Power BI web service.

  2. Go to the Data View: On the left-hand side of the Power BI Desktop window, you'll see three icons: Report, Data, and Model. Click the "Data" icon (it looks like a spreadsheet grid).

  3. Select a Table: On the right side of the screen, in the "Data" pane, you’ll see a list of all the tables in your model. Click on the table you wish to export.

  4. Copy the Table: Right-click on the table in the "Data" pane and select "Copy table."

  5. Paste in Excel: Open a new Excel workbook and paste the data.

This method exports the entire, unfiltered table from your data model. It's a great way to extract base data before any report-level measures or filters have been applied.

Method 4: The Power-User Way with "Analyze in Excel"

This is by far the most powerful and sophisticated method, but it comes with a few prerequisites. "Analyze in Excel" allows you to connect an Excel spreadsheet directly to your Power BI dataset. Instead of a static export, you get a live connection that lets you build PivotTables, PivotCharts, and CUBE formulas in Excel using your Power BI data as the source.

Prerequisites:

  • You need a Power BI Pro or Premium license.

  • You must have permission to connect to the dataset.

  • Your organization's Power BI administrator must have this feature enabled.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  1. Navigate to your Power BI Workspace: Log into the Power BI service (app.powerbi.com). Go to the workspace containing the dataset you're interested in. Don't go into a specific report, but view the list of contents.

  2. Find Your Dataset: Locate the dataset in your workspace list (the icon looks like an orange data block). Datasets are often named the same as their corresponding reports.

  3. Open the Menu: Click the ellipsis (...) next to the dataset name to open the options menu.

  4. Select "Analyze in Excel": This will either download an .odc (Office Data Connection) file or prompt you to install updates if needed the first time.

  5. Open the File: Open the downloaded .odc file. Excel will launch and prompt you to "Enable" the connection for security.

Once you enable the connection, you’ll see an empty PivotTable. On the right, the "PivotTable Fields" pane will be populated with all the tables, columns, and measures from your Power BI dataset. You can now drag and drop these fields to build reports directly in Excel, all while being connected to your live, trusted Power BI model. Any changes or data refreshes in Power BI will be reflected in your Excel file the next time you refresh it.

Choosing the Right Method for Your Goal

With several options available, here’s a simple rule of thumb for which one to use:

  • For the data in a single chart: Use Method 1 (Export data from visual).

  • For a tiny table to quickly paste into another doc: Use Method 2 (Copy Table).

  • For the entire raw data table from your model: Use Method 3 (Data View).

  • For a live, interactive analysis in Excel using your Power BI model: Use Method 4 (Analyze in Excel).

Final Thoughts

Getting your data from Power BI into a format like Excel is a routine part of any analyst's workflow. By understanding whether you need summarized data from a visual, the full underlying dataset, or a live connection for pivot tables, you can choose the right method for the task and move seamlessly between these powerful tools.

While manual exports work, they can sometimes reintroduce the very cycle we’re trying to escape: an endless loop of downloading CSVs and manually crunching numbers. At Graphed we help you break this cycle by connecting your marketing and sales data sources into one place. Rather than exporting reports from one system to another, you can ask questions in natural language and instantly generate a live dashboard, getting you from data to decision in seconds, not hours.