How to Make a Power BI Report Public

Setting up a Power BI report is one thing, but figuring out how to share it with an audience outside your organization can feel tricky. If you want to embed a report on your public website, add it to your portfolio, or simply share it with anyone via a direct link, you have a few options. This article will walk you through how to make a Power BI report public and the critical security considerations you need to understand first.

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First Things First: Should Your Report Be Public?

Before creating a public link, you have to stop and ask one crucial question: is the data in this report okay for anyone on the internet to see? When you use Power BI’s “Publish to web” feature, you’re creating a version of your report that is accessible to the public without any password, login, or authentication required.

This means you should never, ever use this method for reports containing:

• Confidential Business Data: This includes internal sales figures, revenue, customer lists, performance metrics, or any proprietary information.
• Personally Identifiable Information (PII): Do not publicly publish any report containing names, email addresses, phone numbers, employee details, or any other private customer data.
• Sensitive Financial Information: Reports connected to company financial systems, payroll, or detailed accounting information must be kept secure.

The "Publish to web" feature is perfect for visualizing open, non-sensitive data. Think population statistics, public survey results, data from public APIs, or general market trend information that you want to share in a blog post or on a public-facing web page.

Choosing Your Path: “Publish to Web” vs. Secure Embedding

Power BI offers two primary ways to get your reports onto a webpage, each serving a very different purpose. Understanding the distinction is essential for keeping your data secure.

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1. Publish to web (Public and Unsecured)

This is the method for making a report truly public. It generates a shareable link and an embed code that allows anyone with a web browser to view your live, interactive report. They don't need a Power BI license or an account with your organization. This is fantastic for transparency and ease of access but offers absolutely no security. Anyone who stumbles upon the link can see your report.

• Best for: Public websites, blog posts, online portfolios, sharing open data.
• Pro: No login required for viewers, making it easy to share widely.
• Con: Completely unsecured. The data is public.

2. Embed for your organization (Secure)

This option allows you to embed a report in an internal site, like SharePoint Online or an internal portal. While the report appears directly on the page, viewers are required to sign in with their organizational Power BI account. If a person viewing the page doesn’t have the necessary permissions to see the report, a "Sign In" prompt will appear. It's a method for widespread internal sharing, not for showing things to the general public.

• Best for: Company intranets, secure internal dashboards, sharing with all employees.
• Pro: Secure and respects all your existing permissions and row-level security.
• Con: Viewers must have the appropriate Power BI license and be part of your organization.

For the remainder of this guide, we'll focus on the first method: making your report truly public using “Publish to web.”

How to Make Your Report Public with “Publish to Web”

To use this feature, you'll need at least a Power BI Pro license. You can’t create a public code from the Power BI Desktop application, you must do it from the Power BI service (the browser-based version).

Step 1: Open Your Report in the Power BI Service

Navigate to app.powerbi.com, log in, and find the report you want to share. Open it up so you are in the main report view.

Step 2: Find the “Publish to web” Option

With your report open, click on File in the top menu bar. From the dropdown menu, select Embed report, and then choose the option Publish to web (public).

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Step 3: Review the Security Warning and Create the Embed Code

This is the most important step in the process. Power BI will display a prominent warning to make sure you understand the implications of what you're doing. It reminds you that this will make your report and its data visible to anyone on the internet and that you should not use it for confidential information.

Read this carefully. If you are 100% certain the data is safe to be public, click "Create embed code." A final pop-up will appear, click "Publish" to confirm.

Step 4: Copy Your Public Link or an iFrame Code

Once you confirm, a dialog box will appear with two options. You have officially created your public report.

• Link you can send in an email: This is a simple URL that takes people directly to a publicly hosted version of your report. You can paste this anywhere you can share a link - in an email, a social media post, or a chat message.
• iFrame to paste into your website or blog: This is an HTML code snippet. You can copy this code and paste it into the HTML of your website, blog, or portfolio to embed the interactive report directly onto the page.

The iFrame code snippet will look something like this:

<iframe title="My Public Sales Report - Sample Data" width="800" height="600" src="https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=ey..." frameborder="0" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>

You can adjust the width and height attributes to fit the dimensions you need for your website.

Managing or Disabling Your Public Report

What if you accidentally publish a sensitive report, or a formerly public report needs to be made private? You can and should immediately disable the public link.

How to Find and Manage Your Embed Codes

1. In the Power BI Service, click the settings gear icon (⚙️) in the top-right corner.
2. In the menu that appears, click on Manage embed codes.

This will take you to a page listing every public embed code you have created. You can see which reports they belong to and get the code again if you've lost it.

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How to Delete a Public Link

Next to the embed code you want to remove, click the ellipses (…) and select Delete from the menu. Power BI will ask you to confirm. Once you confirm, the embed code is permanently de-activated.

Anyone who had the link or visits the web page where it was embedded will now see an error message stating that the report couldn't be found. Please note that while this blocks access immediately, you can’t fully retract a link that has been shared online. The best security is preventing a sensitive report from being published in the first place.

Best Practices for Public Power BI Reports

• Audit Your Dataset First: Before publishing, comb through the entire dataset connected to your report. Make sure there are no hidden columns, tabs, or fields containing sensitive information.
• Start with Sample Data: If you're new to this process, try the entire workflow first with a completely safe, sample dataset. This lets you get comfortable with creating and deleting embed codes without putting real data at risk.
• Design for Everyone: A public report won't have your internal team on hand to explain things. Use clear titles for your charts, simplify your views, and maybe include a text box that briefly explains the data sources and what the report shows.
• Use Separate Workspaces: Consider creating a specific Workspace in Power BI called "Public Reports." Only place reports there that have been vetted and approved for public sharing. This creates a clear boundary between your internal and external analytics.

Final Thoughts

Using Power BI's "Publish to web" feature is a powerful way to share data stories with a broad audience, but it comes with significant responsibility. Always lead with a security-first mindset and double-check that your data is appropriate for public viewing. If in doubt, stick to secure internal sharing methods.

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