How to Publish Power BI Report to Web

You’ve done the hard work of connecting data sources, cleaning data, and building a powerful report in Power BI. Now, you need to share those insights with an audience outside your organization. This guide provides a clear, step-by-step process for publishing your Power BI report to the web, allowing you to share a public link or embed an interactive version directly on your website or blog.

Before You Publish: Important Considerations

Publishing your Power BI report to the web is an incredibly useful feature, but it's essential to understand what it entails before you proceed. This isn't the same as sharing a report internally with colleagues, this method makes your report publicly accessible.

It’s Public for a Reason

This is the most critical point: anyone with the link can view your report. Search engines can index it, meaning people could potentially find it through a Google search. Never, ever use the "Publish to web" feature for confidential or sensitive information. This feature is intended for data that you are comfortable sharing with the general public, such as:

• Public datasets for a blog post or news article.
• Analytics from an open community project.
• A portfolio of your data visualization work.

If you need to share sensitive data securely with external clients or partners, you should use Power BI Embedded or the secure sharing options within the Power BI Service.

Licensing Requirements

To publish a report to the web, you need a Microsoft Power BI Pro or a Premium Per User (PPU) license. Free users can consume content and create reports for personal use, but sharing and publishing features like this one require a paid license. Your organization's Power BI admin also needs to have enabled this feature in the tenant settings.

Data Refresh Cadence

When you publish a report to the web, the data is not updated in real-time. It gets cached to optimize performance for a public audience. For reports using a DirectQuery connection, the cache is updated about every hour. For all other refresh types (like Import mode), the refresh depends entirely on when the underlying dataset is refreshed in the Power BI Service. Viewers of your embedded report will always see the latest cached version.

Step-by-Step Guide to Publishing Your Report

With those considerations out of the way, let’s get your report live. The process involves starting in Power BI Desktop and moving to the Power BI Service to generate the public link.

Step 1: Finalize and Save Your Report

First, open your report in Power BI Desktop. Put the finishing touches on your visualizations, slicers, and titles. Ensure the report is designed to be easily understood by an audience that may not have the same context as you do. Once you’re happy with it, save your .pbix file.

Step 2: Publish from Desktop to Power BI Service

Your report must be in the Power BI Service before you can publish it to the web. The Power BI Service is the cloud-based platform where you manage and share your reports.

In the Home tab of the Power BI Desktop ribbon, click the Publish button.

A dialog box will appear asking you to select a destination workspace. A workspace is like a folder for organizing your reports and datasets. "My workspace" is your personal sandbox, while other workspaces are typically shared with different teams. Choose the appropriate workspace and click Select.

After a short while, you'll see a success message with a link to open your report directly in the Power BI service. Click it to continue.

Step 3: Find the "Publish to web" Option

Once your report is open in the Power BI Service (your browser), it’s time to generate the publish code. It may look a little different from the desktop version, but all your visuals and pages are there.

1. In the top menu bar, click on File.
2. From the dropdown menu, select Embed report.
3. From the subsequent menu, choose Publish to web (public).

Step 4: Create the Embed Code

A confirmation dialog will pop up, reminding you once again about the public nature of what you’re about to do. This is your final chance to make sure you are not publishing private data. If you are confident the data is safe to share publicly, click Create embed code.

Another window will appear prompting you to click Publish. This finalizes the process and makes the report available publicly. Once you do this, Power BI will generate the code and links you need.

A success window will then display your public link and an HTML snippet, known as an iframe, for embedding on a webpage.

Using Your Public Link and Embed Code

The final confirmation window gives you two primary ways to share your now public report.

1. The Direct Link

The first option is a direct URL. You can copy this link and send it via email, post it on social media, or link to it from any document. Anyone who clicks this link will be taken to a full-screen, interactive version of your report hosted on Power BI's servers.

2. The iframe Embed Code

The second option is an HTML snippet that starts with <iframe>. This is what you need to embed the report directly into your own website, blog post, or SharePoint page. When embedded, the report appears as part of your page, not as a standalone site.

To use it, copy the entire block of code. Go to the content management system (CMS) of your website (like WordPress, Squarespace, or Webflow) and find the page you want to add the report to. You'll typically need to switch to an HTML or code view or use a specific "Custom HTML" block to paste the iframe code. Once you save or publish the page, your interactive Power BI report will appear right on your site.

You can adjust the width and height attributes within the iframe code to better fit your page's layout.

<iframe title="Your Report Name" width="800" height="600" src="https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=..." frameborder="0" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>

How to Manage or Delete Your Published Reports

What if you need to take a report down? Removing public access is just as important as publishing.

In the Power BI service:

1. Click the Settings gear icon in the top-right corner.
2. Select Manage embed codes from the menu.

This will take you to a page listing every report you've published to the web. For each one, you have two options: you can either get the code again or delete it.

To revoke access, find the report you want to privatize, click the ellipsis (...) next to it, and select Delete. This will immediately disable the public link and break any embedded versions on websites. The original report in your Power BI workspace will remain untouched.

Best Practices and Avoiding Common Issues

Follow a few best practices to ensure a smooth experience for both you and your audience.

• Reiterate Security: It bears repeating: only publish non-sensitive data. Create separate versions of reports for public consumption if needed, stripping out any personally identifiable or commercially sensitive information.
• Optimize for Performance: Publicly embedded reports should load quickly. Avoid using overly complex DAX measures, huge datasets, and high-resolution background images. Summarize your data where possible before importing it.
• Design for a Public Audience: Add titles to every visual, use clear labels, and consider adding a text box with a brief introduction or instructions. Remember that your public audience won't be as familiar with the data as you are.
• Check Mobile Responsiveness: Test how your embedded report looks on a mobile device. While Power BI's interactivity remains, complex reports with small print can be hard to use on small screens. Design in a way that is clean and uncluttered.
• Fixing Broken Embeds: If your published report suddenly shows an error, check two things first. One, was the original report accidentally deleted or renamed in your Power BI workspace? Two, has a Power BI administrator for your organization disabled the "Publish to web" feature?

Final Thoughts

Publishing a Power BI report to the web is a fantastic way to democratize data and share your findings with the world. Once you understand the security implications and follow the straightforward steps in the Power BI Service, you can transform your static webpage into an interactive data experience.

While Power BI is a powerful tool for this final step, creating these reports often starts with the time-consuming process of gathering, cleaning, and preparing data from scattered marketing and sales sources. We built Graphed to dramatically shorten that journey. After you connect sources like Google Analytics, HubSpot, or Shopify in a few clicks, you can use plain English to generate entire dashboards in seconds. This allows you to move directly from data to shareable insights without the typical overhead.