How to See Who Has Access to Power BI Reports
You’ve done the hard work of connecting your data sources, building a stunning Power BI report, and publishing it... but now who can actually see it? It's a critical question that often gets overlooked until someone who shouldn't have access sees sensitive information, or someone who needs access can't get it. This guide will walk you through exactly how to see who has access to your Power BI reports and give you a few key strategies for managing permissions effectively.
Why Managing Power BI Report Access Matters
Before jumping into the "how," it’s worth quickly covering the "why." Properly managing access isn't just about administrative busywork, it's fundamental to your organization's data strategy. Here are a few key reasons to stay on top of it:
Data Security: Your reports might contain sensitive financial data, customer PII (personally identifiable information), or confidential sales figures. Ensuring only the right people can view this data is a non-negotiable part of data security.
Compliance: Regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA have strict rules about data privacy and access. Part of being compliant is being able to audit and prove who has access to what information.
Accurate Collaboration: Sharing reports is about getting insights into the right hands. If key decision-makers can't access a report, its value diminishes. Conversely, if too many people have editing rights, you risk accidental changes and data chaos.
License Management: Power BI licenses cost money. If people who no longer need access are still occupying a license seat on a premium workspace, you could be wasting budget that could be better allocated elsewhere.
The Primary Method: Using the "Manage Permissions" Pane
For most day-to-day checks, Power BI’s built-in "Manage Permissions" pane is your best friend. It gives you a direct, consolidated view of who has been granted access to a specific report in your workspace.
Step-by-Step Guide to Accessing "Manage Permissions"
Here’s how to find it. The process is straightforward and takes just a few clicks:
Navigate to Your Workspace: From the Power BI Service home screen, go to the workspace where your report is published.
Find Your Report: Scroll through the list of content until you find the specific report you want to check. You don’t need to open the report itself.
Open the Menu: Hover over the report name and click the ellipses (…) for "More options."
Select "Manage permissions": In the dropdown menu, click on Manage permissions. This will open the detailed access management pane.
Once you’re in, you’ll see a few tabs that break down how access has been granted.
Understanding the "Manage Permissions" Tabs
This pane organizes access into three primary categories, making it easier to untangle permissions.
1. Direct Access
This tab is the most straightforward. It lists every individual user and group who has been given access directly. Beside each name, you'll see their permission level and how it was granted (e.g., "Granted through their workspace role").
Here's what the permission levels mean:
Viewer: Can view and interact with the report, but cannot change or share it. This is the most common and safest level for general audiences.
Contributor: Can create, edit, copy, and delete content within the workspace. They can publish reports, schedule refreshes, and change gateway connections.
Member: Has all the capabilities of a Contributor, plus the ability to add or remove other users (except Admins) and publish or unpublish Power BI Apps.
Admin: The owner of the workspace with full control, including adding/removing other admins and deleting the workspace entirely.
Use this view to spot-check for former employees or people who have changed roles and no longer need access. You can easily remove individual access by clicking the ellipses next to their name and selecting Remove access.
2. Links
This tab shows all shareable links that have been created for your report. It’s an area that’s frequently forgotten but is a critical security checkpoint. Here, you'll see who can access via that link, such as:
People in your organization
People who already have access
Specific people
For each link, you have the option to see what settings are enabled (e.g., "Allow recipients to share this report") and the ability to delete the link entirely, which immediately revokes access for anyone who was using it. If a sensitive report was shared via a broad link for a temporary project, this is where you go to clean it up afterward.
3. Pending
If you've invited someone to view a report but they haven't accessed it yet, their invitation will appear here. This is mostly for housekeeping. If you see invites that are weeks or months old, you can resend the invitation or simply delete it.
Looking Beyond Direct Access: Other Ways Permissions are Granted
Sometimes, the "Manage Permissions" pane doesn't tell the whole story. Access in Power BI is layered, and people might be getting into your reports through broader container-level permissions. If a user says they have access but doesn't appear in the "Direct Access" list, one of these is likely the culprit.
Workspace-Level Roles
The simplest explanation is often the correct one: they have access because they are part of the workspace itself. As we covered above, anyone assigned a role (even "Viewer") within a Power BI Workspace automatically inherits permissions for all the reports, dashboards, and datasets contained within that workspace. To check this, you just need to check the workspace's own access list by clicking the ellipses next to the workspace name and selecting Workspace access.
This is why organizing your workspaces by department or project can be so effective - you manage one set of members for the entire collection of related reports.
Power BI Apps
Power BI Apps are bundles of reports and dashboards packaged for a broad audience. When you publish an App, you’re not managing access for individual reports inside it. Instead, you manage an access list for the App as a whole.
If your report is part of an App, someone might have access because they were given permission to view the entire App. To check this:
Go to the workspace containing the report.
Click the Update app button in the top right corner.
Go to the Audience tab (previously the Permissions tab).
Here you’ll see the individuals and security groups who can view the packaged App. This is a common method for distributing finalized reports to an entire department or the whole company.
O365 Groups and Security Groups
For better scalability, many organizations grant access through Microsoft 365 Groups or security groups. Instead of adding 50 individual users to a workspace, you can add one group (e.g., "Sales Team").
The catch? Power BI will only show the group's name, not the individual members. If you see a group in the "Direct Access" list, you'll need to go to your Azure Active Directory or M365 admin center to see a list of members within that group. This is the most efficient way to manage a large user base, as permissions are controlled centrally by whoever manages those groups.
Best Practices for Proactive Permissions Management
Knowing how to check for access is Step 1. Being proactive will save you headaches down the road. Here are a few simple best practices to implement.
Conduct Regular Audits: At least quarterly, set aside 30 minutes to review the access lists for your most critical workspaces and reports. Remove anyone who is no longer with the company or has changed roles.
Embrace the "Principle of Least Privilege": This is a core security concept that just means you should only grant the absolute minimum level of access someone needs to do their job. Most people just need to be a "Viewer." Use "Contributor" and "Member" roles sparingly.
Use Groups Over Individuals: Whenever possible, manage access with security groups instead of individual emails. It's far easier to remove one person from a group than to hunt down and revoke their access from ten different reports.
Clean Up Old Shareable Links: Links are powerful but can become a liability. If a link created for "Q1 Review Meeting" is still active in Q3, it's probably best to delete it.
Final Thoughts
Knowing how to see who has access to your Power BI reports is a fundamental skill for anyone sharing data. By using the "Manage Permissions" pane and understanding how overarching permissions from workspaces, Apps, and security groups work, you can confidently control your data and ensure insights are both secure and accessible to the people who need them.
For many teams, the management overhead of BI tools like Power BI - from building reports to wrangling permissions - is a constant source of friction. At Graphed we aim to eliminate that complexity. We make it possible to connect your data sources in seconds and create live, shareable dashboards simply by asking questions in plain English. This gets you straight to the insights and empowers your whole team, without the hours of setup and tedious manual report management.