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Choosing a Power BI data source

  • Artikkeli

Microsoft offers several ways to analyze and report on your cloud costs. For quick exploration of subscriptions and billing accounts, we recommend starting with smart views in Cost analysis in the Azure portal or Microsoft 365 admin center. When you need more control or to save and share charts, switch to customizable views.

When you need more advanced reporting or to merge with your own data, we recommend using Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, or a custom or third-party solution. Use the following sections to determine the best approach for you.


At a glance

Use the following list as a quick guide for selecting the most appropriate data source for your Power BI reports. If you need more detail, refer to the comparison table.

  • For costs under $2 million in total¹ that don't need savings plan data, you can use the Cost Management connector for Power BI.
    • The connector uses existing raw cost data APIs and can't scale to data sizes beyond $2M¹.
    • Due to the size constraints, the connector will be phased out starting in 2025.
    • The APIs don't include some key columns for savings plans, like the BenefitId/Name columns. All costs are covered but aren't always easily identifiable.
  • For costs under $2 million per month (~$26 million total)² that need savings plan data, you can connect to raw exports in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2.
  • For costs under $2 million per month (~$26 million total)² that need managed exports or to connect to multiple tenants, you can connect to FinOps hubs storage.
  • For costs over $2 million per month or that need advanced, high performance analytics, you can connect to FinOps hubs with Data Explorer.
    • While not directly supported by FinOps toolkit reports at this time, you can build reports that connect to data in Microsoft Fabric.

¹ Power BI Pro can handle under $1 million of raw cost data. Power BI Premium can handle ~$2 million.

² The $2M limits are for Power BI data refreshes and apply on a monthly basis for hubs and raw exports. They can load up to $26M with incremental refresh enabled.


Comparison table

In general, we recommend starting with Power BI reports by connecting to the Cost Management exports. The most common reasons to switch to FinOps hubs are for performance, scale, and to enable more advanced capabilities. Use the following comparison to help you make the decision:

Capabilities Connector Exports FinOps hubs (storage) FinOps hubs (Data Explorer) Microsoft Fabric¹
Monthly Azure cost (based on list prices) $0 ~$3 per $1M ~$5 per $1M Starts at $120 + ~$10 per $1M $300+
Monthly Power BI cost (based on list prices) $20 per user $20 per user $20 per user $20 per user $0
Data storage Power BI Data Lake Storage Data Lake Storage Data Lake Storage + Data Explorer Data Lake Storage
Est. max raw cost details per month² Up to $2M Up to $2M/mo Up to $2M/mo TBD TBD
Est. max total with incremental refresh² Up to $2M Up to $26M Up to $26M TBD N/A
Latest API version³ ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Azure Government ✘ In development ✔ (0.1.1) In development ✔ (via Hubs)
Azure China ✘ In development ✔ (0.1.1) In development ✔ (via Hubs)
Enterprise Agreement ✔ (billing scopes only) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Microsoft Customer Agreement ✔ (billing scopes only) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Microsoft Partner Agreement ✔ (partners only) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Microsoft Online Services Agreement ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘
Billing accounts ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Billing profiles ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Invoice sections ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Cloud Solution Provider customers (partner only) ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Management groups ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘
Subscriptions ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Resource groups ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Calculate EA and MCA cost savings ✘ ✘ ✘ ✔ ✔ (via Hubs with Data Explorer)
Supports savings plans³ ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Supports savings plan recommendations ✘ ✘ In development In development In development
Supports multiple scopes ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Supports scopes in different tenants ✘ ✘⁴ ✔ ✔ ✔ (via Hubs)
Faster data load times ✘ ✘ ✘ ✔ ✔
Supports >$65M in cost details ✘ ✘ ✘ ✔ ✔
Accessible outside of Power BI ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Kusto Query Language (KQL) support ✘ ✘ ✘ ✔ ✔
Native integration with Azure Monitor workbooks ✘ ✘ ✘ In development ✘
Learn more Learn more Learn more Learn more Learn more Learn more

¹ Microsoft Fabric can connect to either raw exports or FinOps hubs. FinOps toolkit reports don't support Microsoft Fabric yet.

² The Cost Management connector for Power BI doesn't support incremental refresh, so the limits are the same as the per-month estimation. Storage-based estimates are based on incremental refresh being enabled, which requires configuration after your report is published.

³ The Cost Management connector uses an old API version and doesn't include details for some features, like savings plans. Use exports or FinOps hubs for the latest version with all details.

⁴ EA billing scopes can be exported to any tenant today. Sign in to that tenant with an account that has access to the billing scope and target storage account to configure exports. Subscriptions, resource groups, and Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) billing scopes are only supported in the tenant they exist in today but can be integrated using the FinOps hubs "remote hubs" feature that pushes data to a primary hub in another tenant.

If you're unsure where to start, we recommend downloading the Power BI dashboards and connecting them to Cost Management exports in storage. You can explore reports and see how they work with your data. Alternatively, you can open the demo reports using the provided sample data.

For the best performance and capabilities, we recommend using FinOps hubs with Data Explorer, as it offers exclusive features not available in other options.


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