Business Intelligence

Power BI Report Builder

Power BI Report Builder is a desktop authoring tool for creating paginated, pixel-perfect reports that print or export cleanly across many pages. Analysts use it to build invoices, statements, and operational listings from business data sources and publish them to the Power BI service.

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✓ Software download·Commercial·Updated September 28, 2026
DeveloperMicrosoft Corporation
LicenseCommercial
File size93.6 MB
Languageen-US
Downloads10

Authoring Paginated Reports with Power BI Report Builder

Power BI Report Builder is the standalone authoring tool for paginated reports, the print-ready report format used in the Power BI service. You design a report definition rather than an interactive dashboard: connect to one or more data sources, write a query or dataset, then drag fields onto tables, matrices, charts, or free-form list layouts. Because the output is paginated, every row reaches the page, so a 600-page invoice run prints or exports without truncation. Reports are previewed locally, published to a workspace, and then viewed in a browser or mobile app, exported to PDF and Excel, or delivered by subscription email.

Unlike a Power BI semantic model, a paginated report carries its own embedded data sources and datasets, so the same tool can pull from Azure SQL, SQL Server behind a gateway, Oracle, Teradata, or a published semantic model. That flexibility suits operational documents: bank statements, purchase orders, shipping manifests, and compliance filings that must repeat headers and footers on every page. Teams that plan and track delivery in a work management platform such as Monday still need a fixed-format artifact for auditors, finance, and customers, and paginated reports fill that gap. Authors design and preview in Power BI Report Builder on a desktop, while rendering, subscriptions, and sensitivity labels are handled after publishing to the service.

Benefits of Using Power BI Report Builder

The main benefit of Power BI Report Builder is control: you decide exactly where every column, total, and page break lands, which is what regulatory, billing, and customer-facing documents require. Interactive dashboards answer questions; paginated reports sign them off. Four practical gains follow. Printing is predictable, because page size, margins, repeating headers, and footers are fixed, so a statement looks the same on screen and on paper. Distribution is hands-off, since subscriptions can email a PDF of the whole report on a schedule rather than someone refreshing and re-exporting a file. Formatting is reusable, because expressions, custom code, parameters, and drillthrough actions let one definition serve many customers, regions, or date ranges. Finally, existing skills transfer: the report definition language is shared with the reporting tools many analysts already know, so SSRS-era reports can be moved forward instead of rewritten, and the same authors can connect directly to Power BI semantic models.

Power BI Report Builder features

Key capabilities and highlights.

Feature 1

Report Wizards and Layout Regions

Power BI Report Builder ships with table, matrix, chart, and map wizards that walk through connecting a data source, building a dataset query, choosing a layout, and applying a style, which shortens the distance between a blank canvas and a working draft. Beyond the wizards, you can place tablix data regions, charts, gauges, sparklines, indicators, images, and subreports anywhere on the page, then set properties individually. That combination supports both quick operational listings and carefully composed documents such as invoices or statements.

Feature 2

Expressions and Custom Code

Every report item exposes properties that can be driven by expressions, and the expression editor includes functions for dates, strings, aggregates, conditional formatting, and lookups. You can also embed custom Visual Basic code in a report and call those functions from property expressions, which is how teams compute running balances, age buckets, or currency formatting that built-in functions do not cover. Expressions keep one report definition flexible across regions, currencies, and date ranges.

Feature 3

Parameters, Filters, and Interactivity

Report parameters in Power BI Report Builder let a single definition serve many audiences: date pickers, multi-value lists, Boolean toggles, and cascading dropdowns whose available values come from a dataset query. From there you can add filtering, interactive sorting, drill-down toggles, drillthrough links, bookmarks, and conditional visibility, plus hyperlinks that jump into the Power BI service. The result is one report that answers many questions without duplicating the file for every branch or region.

Feature 4

Data Sources, Datasets, and Query Design

Power BI Report Builder connects to relational, analytical, and semantic sources, and each report carries its own embedded datasets instead of depending on a shared report model. A graphical query designer handles Transact-SQL and graphical MDX or DAX-style queries for analytical sources, and you can paste a query, call a stored procedure, or filter dataset fields afterwards. Because the report definition stores connection details and queries together, the file stays self-contained and portable between environments.

Feature 5

Fixed Page Layout and Print Control

Page setup is where Power BI Report Builder earns its name: set page size, margins, orientation, columns, gutters, and exact unit measurements, then decide how pagination behaves for groups. You can define page breaks between groups or list sections, repeat table headers on every page, and vary headers and footers per section, including page numbers and totals. That precision is what makes a long document look the same whether it is printed, previewed, or exported.

Feature 6

Preview, Export, and Scheduled Delivery

Reports designed in Power BI Report Builder can be previewed locally before publishing, and once they are in the service they render in a browser or the mobile app and export to PDF, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, CSV, XML, and MHTML. Email subscriptions deliver the whole report as a PDF attachment on an hourly, daily, or weekly schedule, and per-recipient subscriptions can target different parameters for each person. Deployment pipelines move a report from development through test to production.

Feature 7

Compatibility with Existing Reporting Assets

Reports created for earlier Reporting Services deployments share the same definition language, so existing files can generally be opened, adjusted, and published forward rather than rebuilt from scratch. Backwards compatibility preserves the investment teams already made in RDL-based reporting, and the same authors can keep working in a familiar designer. Semantic models published in Power BI can be added as data sources, letting one report mix warehouse tables with governed measures, though some features behave differently in the service.

Feature 8

Embedding, Sharing, and Governance

Paginated reports authored in Power BI Report Builder can be embedded in custom applications and portals, so customers or internal users see a branded, fixed-layout document without signing in to a separate tool. Sharing works through workspaces, apps, links, and sensitivity labels applied in the service, and access is governed by workspace roles and build permissions on the underlying data. That makes the same report usable for a finance review, a customer statement, and a printed archive.

Old versions

Browse historical releases and previous builds.

15.7.1819.28—
15.7.1820.75—

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about Power BI Report Builder.

What is Power BI Report Builder used for?

It is used to author paginated reports: fixed-layout, print-ready documents such as invoices, statements, purchase orders, and regulatory filings. Unlike interactive dashboards, a paginated report prints every row across as many pages as needed and repeats headers and footers on each one. Reports are designed locally, published to the Power BI service, then viewed, exported, or emailed to recipients.

How is a paginated report different from a normal Power BI report?

A standard Power BI report is an interactive canvas that fits data to the screen, so printing shows only what happens to fit on the visible page. A paginated report is built for exact page output: page size, margins, headers, footers, and page breaks are all controlled, and the full result set is rendered across as many pages as required. Both report types can live in the same workspace.

Which data sources can a paginated report connect to?

Power BI Report Builder can query relational and analytical sources such as Azure SQL Database, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Analysis Services, SQL Server through a gateway when the data is on premises, Oracle, and Teradata, as well as Power BI semantic models. Each report holds its own embedded data source and dataset definitions, which is why the file stays self-contained and portable between environments.

Can a paginated report be scheduled and emailed automatically?

Yes. In the Power BI service you can subscribe yourself and colleagues to a paginated report and choose an hourly, daily, or weekly schedule, and the message arrives with a PDF attachment of the complete report output. Dynamic per-recipient subscriptions go further by running the same report with different parameter values for each person on the list, which suits per-region or per-customer distributions.

Do I need the Power BI service to work with Report Builder?

You can design and preview reports locally with Power BI Report Builder, and the designer works independently of the service. Publishing, sharing, scheduled delivery, and rendering in a browser or mobile app all happen in the Power BI service, so the two are usually used together. Reports that read on-premises data need a gateway configured after publishing before the data refresh works.

Can an existing SSRS report be opened in Power BI Report Builder?

Reports built for SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 and later or for Power BI Report Server are compatible with the Power BI service, and their definitions can be opened, adjusted, and published forward rather than recreated. Not every feature behaves identically once a report is hosted in the service, so it is worth reviewing the official considerations and limitations list before migrating a large report catalog.

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Power BI Report Builder is a desktop authoring tool for creating paginated, pixel-perfect reports that print or export cleanly across many pages. Analysts use it to build invoices, statements, and operational listings from business data sources and publish them to the Power BI service.

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