What Data Sources can Microsoft Power BI Desktop connect to?

It goes without saying, but data is at the heart of Power BI. When you are exploring data within Power BI, by creating charts, dashboards or asking questions for example. The visualisations and answers you see are getting their underlying data from a dataset; this dataset comes from a data source. Below, we will cover a few of the data source types within Power BI Desktop:

You connect to data by using the Home ribbon. To show the Most Common data types menu, select the Get Data button label or the down arrow.

To go to the Get Data dialog box, show the Most Common data types menu and select More. You can also bring up the Get Data dialog box (and bypass the Most Common menu) by selecting the Get Data icon directly.

Power BI Desktop Navigate to Get Data Sources

Data Sources

The Get Data dialog box organizes data types in the following categories:

  • All
  • File
  • Database
  • Power Platform
  • Azure
  • Online Services
  • Other

The All category includes all data connection types from all categories.

File Data Sources

The File category provides the following data connections:

  • Excel
  • Text/CSV
  • XML
  • JSON
  • Folder
  • PDF
  • SharePoint folder

The following image shows the Get Data window for File.

Database

The Database category provides the following data connections (this is a shortened list, view the full list here):

  • SQL Server database
  • Access database
  • SQL Server Analysis Services database
  • Oracle database
  • MySQL database
  • Google BigQuery
  • MarkLogic
  • BI Connector

The following image shows the Get Data window for Database.

Power Platform Data Sources

The Power Platform category provides the following data connections:

  • Power BI datasets
  • Power BI dataflows
  • Microsoft Dataverse
  • Power Platform dataflows (Beta)

The following image shows the Get Data window for Power Platform.

Azure Data Sources

The Azure category provides the following data connections (this is a shortened list, view the full list here):

  • Azure SQL Database
  • Azure Synapse Analytics (SQL DW)
  • Azure Analysis Services database
  • Azure Database for PostgreSQL

The following image shows the Get Data window for Azure.

Online Services Data Sources

The Online Services category provides the following data connections (this is a shortened list, view the full list here):

  • SharePoint Online List
  • Microsoft Exchange Online
  • Dynamics 365 (online)
  • Dynamics NAV
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central (on-premises)
  • Google Analytics
  • Adobe Analytics
  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator (Beta)
  • Twilio (Beta)

The following image shows the Get Data window for Online Services.

Other Data Sources

The Other category provides the following data connections (this is a shortened list, view the full list here):

  • Web
  • SharePoint list
  • Active Directory
  • Microsoft Exchange
  • Python script
  • ODBC
  • Automation Anywhere (Beta)
  • MicroStrategy for Power BI
  • Paxata
  • Siteimprove
  • SurveyMonkey (Beta)
  • Blank Query

The following image shows the Get Data window for Other.

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