How to Embed Power BI in SharePoint

Placing your Power BI reports directly into SharePoint brings your team's most important metrics right into their daily workflow. Instead of sending links or static PDFs, you can embed fully interactive dashboards on the same pages your team uses for collaboration and project management. This article will walk you through exactly how to embed your Power BI reports in SharePoint, step-by-step.

Why Embed Power BI Reports in SharePoint?

Embedding your reports isn't just a matter of convenience, it’s about creating a more informed and efficient team. By bringing your data into your central collaboration hub, you make insights a natural part of the workday instead of a separate task.

• Centralize Your Information: Your SharePoint site often serves as the "single source of truth" for documents, news, and project updates. Adding live data dashboards to the mix makes it a true cockpit for your team or organization.

• Enhance Data Accessibility: People are more likely to use data when it's easily accessible. Embedding reports removes the friction of having to open a separate app, log in, and find the right report.

• Drive Data-Driven Conversations: When a live sales report is right next to the Q3 sales playbook on your SharePoint page, conversations naturally become more data-centric. Teams can discuss performance and strategy with the relevant insights right in front of them.

• Maintain Security and Control: SharePoint and Power BI integrate seamlessly, respecting the security and permissions you've already set. You control who sees what, ensuring sensitive data is only seen by authorized users.

What You'll Need Before You Start

Before you get started, let's make sure you have a few things in place. The process is straightforward, but it relies on an existing setup in both Power BI and SharePoint.

• A Power BI Pro or Premium Per User License: Embedding from your "My workspace" or a shared workspace requires a Pro or PPU license. If the report lives in a workspace backed by a Premium capacity, viewers can access it with a free license.

• A Modern SharePoint Online Site: The Power BI web part is designed for modern SharePoint pages. While there are workarounds for classic SharePoint, this guide focuses on the streamlined, modern experience.

• A Published Power BI Report: You can only embed reports that have been published from Power BI Desktop to the Power BI service (app.powerbi.com).

• Sufficient Permissions: You’ll need edit permissions on the SharePoint page where you want to embed the report. Viewers of the page will also need permission to view the Power BI report itself.

Step 1: Get the Correct Link from Power BI

First, you need a special link from Power BI that’s specifically designed for SharePoint embedding. Grabbing the URL from your browser's address bar won't work correctly. Here’s how to find the proper embed link.

1. Open your web browser and navigate to app.powerbi.com.

2. Using the left-hand navigation, locate the workspace and then the specific report you want to embed. Click to open it.

3. With the report open, go to the menu at the top of the screen and click File > Embed report > SharePoint Online.

4. A dialog box will appear containing a long URL. This is the link you need. Click the Copy button to save it to your clipboard.

This special link contains the necessary information for SharePoint to render your report securely and interactively, respecting all the data source permissions you’ve configured.

Step 2: Embed the Report in SharePoint Using the Power BI Web Part

Now that you have your link, you're ready to add the report to your SharePoint page. This is done by adding and configuring the official Power BI web part.

1. Navigate to the SharePoint Online site and page where you want to embed the report.

2. If the page is not already in edit mode, click the Edit button in the top-right corner.

3. Find an area on the page where you'd like to add the report. Hover your mouse in that section until you see a line with a circled + icon. Click it to add a new web part.

4. The web part selection box will open. In the search bar, type "Power BI" and select it from the list.

5. This will add the Power BI web part container to your page. Click the Add report button to open its configuration panel on the right.

Configuring the Web Part

The configuration panel is where you tell SharePoint which report to show and how to display it.

1. In the first field, labeled Power BI report link, paste the URL you copied from Power BI in the previous step.

2. As soon as you paste the link, SharePoint will likely render a preview of your report. You now have several display options to configure:

   • Page name: If your report has multiple pages, you can choose a specific one to display by default. If you leave it on "Default page," SharePoint will show whichever page the report's author set as the default view.

   • Display: This lets you set the aspect ratio. We recommend keeping this at 16:9 (widescreen) as most Power BI reports are designed for this dimension.

   • Show Navigation Pane: This toggle controls whether viewers can see and click through the different pages of your report using the page navigation bar at the bottom. Turn it off if you want to lock them into viewing only the specific page you selected.

   • Show Filter Pane: This allows users to see and interact with the report's Filter Pane. If your report is designed for self-service analysis, keeping this on is a good idea. If you've preset all the filters and want to present a specific view, you might turn it off to simplify the experience.

3. Once you are satisfied with your settings, close the configuration panel. Finally, click Republish or Publish at the top right of your SharePoint page to save your changes and make them visible to your team.

That's it! Your interactive Power BI report is now live on your SharePoint page.

Tips for a Better Experience

Embedding is a great start, but a few extra tips can make the user experience even better.

Manage Permissions Proactively

The most common issue users face is an access-denied error. Remember, a user must have permission to view the SharePoint page and permission to view the underlying Power BI report. If they only have SharePoint access, they'll see a block asking them to sign in or request access. Always check the report's access settings in the Power BI service (under the Workspace) before sharing the SharePoint page widely.

Use Report Bookmarks

Want to embed different filtered views of the same report on separate SharePoint pages? Use Power BI's Bookmarks feature. In Power BI, apply the specific filters and slicers you want, create a bookmark to save that view, and then publish the report. When embedding, you can tell the web part to display that specific bookmark, creating a tailored view for a specific team or project.

Optimize Report Performance

A huge, complex Power BI report can slow down your SharePoint page's load time. Before embedding, it’s always a good practice to optimize your report in Power BI Desktop. This includes removing unused columns, simplifying complex DAX measures, and using summary tables where possible.

Final Thoughts

Embedding Power BI reports into SharePoint is a powerful way to put interactive, real-time data at your team's fingertips. By moving insights directly into your collaborative spaces, you break down the barriers between information and action, fostering a more data-aware culture from the ground up.

While tools like Power BI are perfect for deep analysis, it isn't always the fastest way to get answers across all your platforms. To make data access simpler, we created Graphed. Our platform connects all your marketing and sales data sources - like Google Analytics, Salesforce, and Shopify - so you can use plain English to build real-time dashboards in seconds. Instead of navigating separate tools, you can just ask a question and get the answer, giving your team a single, unified view of business performance without the complexity.