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Tutorial: Set alerts on Power BI dashboards

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  • 4 minutes to read

APPLIES TO: Power BI service for business users Power BI service for designers & developers Power BI Desktop Requires Pro or Premium license

Set alerts in the Power BI service to notify you when data on a dashboard changes above or below limits you set. Alerts can be set on tiles pinned from report visuals or from Power BI Q&A, and only on gauges, KPIs, and cards.

Screenshot showing part of a dashboard that includes a tile, a card, and a KPI.

Alerts only work on data that is refreshed. When data refreshes, Power BI looks to see if an alert is set for that data. If the data has reached an alert threshold, an alert is triggered.

This tutorial covers the following.

  • Who can set alerts
  • Which visuals support alerts
  • Who can see my alerts
  • Do alerts work on Power BI Desktop and mobile
  • How to create an alert
  • Where will I receive my alerts

Prerequisites

  • A Power BI license. If you're not signed up for Power BI, sign up for a free trial before you begin.
  • Access to a dashboard with one of the following types of tile: gauge, KPI, or card.
  • A dataset that refreshes.

Who can set alerts

Alerts can be created in the Power BI service by customers with any license type. Set alerts on dashboard tiles:

  • that you have created and saved in My workspace
  • that have been shared with you in a Premium reserved capacity.
  • in any workspace you can access, if you have a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license.

Who can see alerts I create?

Only you can see the alerts you set, even if you share your dashboard. Data alerts are fully synchronized across platforms; set and view data alerts in the Power BI service, in the Power BI mobile apps, and in Power BI for Teams.

Warning

These alerts provide information about your data. If you view your Power BI data on a mobile device and that device gets stolen, we recommend using the Power BI service to turn off all alerts.

Add an alert to a dashboard tile

Alerts can be set on three types of tiles (gauges, KPIs, and cards) on a Power BI dashboard. This tutorial uses the Sales and Marketing sample. To follow along, get the sample.

  1. From a dashboard gauge, KPI, or card tile, select the ellipsis.

    Screenshot of a card tile showing market share, with an ellipsis called out in the upper right corner.

  2. Select the alert icon , or Manage alerts, to add one or more alerts for the Market share card.

    Screenshot showing the shortcut menu of the ellipsis, with Manage alerts called out.

  3. On the Manage alerts pane, select + Add alert rule. Ensure the slider is set to On, and give your alert a title. Titles help you easily recognize your alerts.

    Screenshot showing the Add alert rule window. The Alert title box contains a title, and the Active slider is set to On.

  4. Scroll down and enter the alert details. In this example we'll create an alert that notifies us once a day if our market share increases to 40% (.4) or higher. Alerts will appear in our Notification center. We'll have Power BI send us an email as well.

    Screenshot showing the Manage alerts window. The Condition box is set to Above, the Threshold box contains 40, and the email check box is selected.

  5. Select Save and close.

Receiving alerts

When the data being tracked reaches one of the thresholds you've set, several things happen. First, Power BI checks to see if it has been more than an hour, or more than 24 hours (depending on the option you selected), since the last alert was sent. As long as the data is past the threshold, you'll get an alert.

Next, Power BI sends an alert to your Notification center and, optionally, in email. Each alert contains a direct link to your data. Select the link to see the relevant tile.

  1. If you've set the alert to send you an email, you'll find something like this in your Inbox. This is an alert we set for the Sentiment card.

    Screenshot showing an email message for the Alert for Sentiment alert. A link in the message is labeled Go to dashboard.

  2. Power BI also adds a message to your Notification center.

    Screenshot showing the Power BI menu bar. The Search box and a few icon buttons are visible. The notification icon is called out.

  3. Open your Notification center to see the alert details.

    Screenshot showing the Notification center, with the notification icon called out and a few notifications visible.

Managing alerts

There are many ways to manage your alerts: from the dashboard tile itself, from the Power BI Settings menu, on an individual tile in the Power BI mobile app on the iPhone or in the Power BI mobile app for Windows 10.

From the tile itself

  1. If you need to change or remove an alert for a tile, re-open the Manage alerts window by selecting the alert icon . All the alerts that you've set for that tile are displayed.

    Screenshot showing the Manage alerts window, with the Alert for Market Share alert visible.

  2. To modify an alert, select the arrow to the left of the alert name.

    Screenshot showing the Manage alerts window. Next to the Alert for Market Share alert, the arrow is called out.

  3. To delete an alert, select the trashcan to the right of the alert name.

    Screenshot showing the Manage alerts window. Next to the Alert for Market Share alert, the trashcan icon is called out.

From the Power BI settings menu

  1. Select the gear icon from the Power BI menubar.

    Screenshot showing the Power BI menu bar. The Search box and a few icon buttons are visible. The gear icon is called out.

  2. Under Settings select Alerts.

    Screenshot showing the Alerts tab of the Settings window. A few alerts are visible, and the Alerts tab is called out.

  3. From here you can turn alerts on and off, open the Manage alerts window to make changes, or delete the alert.

Considerations and limitations

  • If you are unable to set an alert for a gauge, KPI, or card, contact your Power BI admin or IT help desk for help. Sometimes alerts are turned off or unavailable for your dashboard or for specific types of dashboard tiles.
  • Alerts only work on data that is refreshed. They do not work on static data. Most of the samples supplied by Microsoft are static.
  • The ability to receive and view shared content requires a Power BI Pro license, a Premium Per User license, or for the report to be saved in Premium reserved capacity. For more information, read Which license do I have?.
  • Alerts can be set on visuals created from streaming datasets that are pinned from a report to a dashboard. Alerts can't be set on streaming tiles created directly on the dashboard using Add tile > Custom streaming data.

Clean up resources

Instructions for deleting alerts are explained above. In brief, select the gear icon from the Power BI menubar. Under Settings select Alerts and delete the alert.

Set data alerts on your mobile device