Sign in to the Power BI service

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Power BI accounts

Before you can sign in to Power BI, you need an account. There are two ways to get a Power BI account. Your organization can purchase Power BI licenses for its employees or individuals can sign up for free trials or personal licenses. This article covers the first scenario.

Sign in for the first time

After you have an account set up, you can sign in and get started in the Power BI service. Use the steps here for general guidance. The exact screens may vary from what you see here, depending on your version of Microsoft software, browser version, and how your admin set up your license and tenant.

Step 1: Open the Power BI service

The Power BI service runs in a browser.

• If you receive an email from a colleague, with a link to a dashboard or report, select the link to Open this report or Open this dashboard.

  

• Otherwise, open your favorite browser and type app.powerbi.com.

  

Step 2: Type your email address

1. The first time you sign in, Microsoft checks to see if you already have a Microsoft 365 account. Enter your email address.

2. Enter your Microsoft 365 account password. It's the same email and password that you use for other Microsoft products, like Outlook and Office. Depending on how your account is set up, you might be prompted to enter a code sent to your email or mobile device.

   

   Sometimes, your global administrator assigns you a license and sends you an email with this information. Look in your inbox for a welcome email and follow the instructions to sign in for the first time. Use this email account for your sign-in.

Step 3: Review your Home landing page

On your first visit, Power BI opens your Home landing page. If Home doesn't open, select it from the navigation pane.

On Home, you can see all the content that you have permission to use. There might not be much content at first, but that changes as you continue to use Power BI with your colleagues. You can find the report that your colleague emailed to you under Recent on the Home page.

Reports shared with you are also stored under Shared with me on the Browse page.

Safely interact with content

As a business user, others share content with you and you interact with that content to view data and make business decisions. As you filter, slice, subscribe, export, and resize, your changes don't impact the underlying semantic model or the original shared content. Power BI is a safe space where you can explore and experiment.

That doesn't mean that you can't save your changes. You can, but those changes only affect your view of the content. And you can always reset your changes back to the default view by selecting Reset.

Sign out of the Power BI service

When you close or sign out of the Power BI service, your changes are saved. You can pick up where you left off.

To close Power BI, close the browser tab where you're working.

If you share a computer, we recommend signing out each time you close Power BI. In the upper right corner, select your profile picture, and then choose Sign out.

Considerations and limitations

• If you don't have a work or school account, you can still sign up for Power BI with a Microsoft 365 trial.

• If you signed up for Power BI as an individual, sign in with the email address that you used to sign up.

• Some people use more than one Power BI account. If you do, you're prompted to select an account from a list when signing in.

• If sign up is disabled, use this article to get help.

Related content

• View a Power BI app.