What are Power BI samples

2025-09-12

APPLIES TO: Power BI Desktop Power BI service

Ready to explore Power BI hands-on? This page brings together ready-made samples, reports, and datasets you can open, inspect, and reuse to learn Power BI fast. Get access to built-in samples and apps, downloadable .pbix and .pbit files, Excel workbooks, and SQL sample databases — all with direct download links and links to articles that explain the data model, visuals, and techniques used.

Sample file overview

Use these samples to try features, prototype reports, validate scenarios, or jumpstart your own projects. Follow the instructions to open them in Power BI Desktop or upload them to the Power BI service.

The samples in this article are available in multiple formats, but two common ways to get started are with .pbix and .xlsx files:

.pbix: A Power BI Desktop report file that contains the report pages, data model, queries, and visuals. Download a .pbix when you want to open a complete report directly in Power BI Desktop and explore or modify both the visual layer and the underlying model.
.xlsx: An Excel workbook that contains the sample data (and sometimes a Power Pivot model). Use the .xlsx files as data sources in Power BI Desktop or publish them from Excel to the Power BI service; advanced Excel users can open the workbook in Power Pivot to inspect or edit the data model.

These two formats are highlighted here for clarity, but they’re only two of the formats available for Power BI samples (others include templates, direct database samples, and packaged content).

Use a sample .pbix file

Some samples are available as Power BI .pbix files. The .pbix files are designed to be used with Power BI Desktop.

Select a .pbix link from the table to download the sample file.
In Power BI Desktop, select File > Open, navigate to the ___location where you saved the sample .pbix file, and select the .pbix file to open it in Power BI Desktop.

Use a sample .xlsx file

Each of the built-in samples is also available as an Excel workbook. The Excel workbooks are designed to be used as a data source in the Power BI service or Power BI Desktop. If you're an advanced Excel user, you can explore or edit the data models in the Power Pivot add-in to Excel.

Select an .xlsx link from the table to download the sample file.
You can use the files as data sources in Power BI Desktop, or Publish to Power BI from Excel to the Power BI service.
In the Power BI service (app.powerbi.com), navigate to My workspace or to another workspace of your choice.
In the upper-left corner of the workspace, select Upload, then select one of the sources.
Select the .xlsx sample file. Depending on where the file is, select Upload or Open.

Download and understand Power BI sample files

The following table includes some of the samples available to help you explore the capabilities of Power BI. Select the link to download a sample directly, or read more in our documentation.

Downloadable sample	Description
Artificial Intelligence sample .pbix	Demonstrates AI-powered visuals and cognitive insights to surface patterns, predictions, and natural-language summaries from data. Learn more about the Artificial Intelligence sample.
COVID-19 US sample .pbit	Tracks COVID-19 cases, testing, and trends across US geographies with time-series charts and maps for outbreak analysis. Learn more about the COVID-19 US sample.
Customer Profitability sample .pbix, .xlsx	Analyzes revenue, costs, and customer segments to identify high- and low-profit customers and lifetime value. Learn more about the Customer Profitability sample.
Corporate Spend sample .pbix	Provides insight into corporate expenditures by category, department, and vendor to support spend optimization. Learn more about the Corporate Spend sample.
IT Spend Analysis sample .pbix, .xlsx	Breaks down IT spending across projects, services, and cost centers to help with budgeting and chargeback decisions. Learn more about the IT Spend Analysis sample.
Employee Hiring and History sample .pbix	Presents hiring trends, tenure, and historical employee data to support workforce planning and HR analysis. Learn more about the Employee Hiring and History sample.
Human Resources sample .pbix, .xlsx	Contains HR KPIs such as headcount, turnover, diversity, and workforce distribution for HR reporting. Learn more about the Human Resources sample.
Revenue Opportunities sample .pbix	Examines the sales pipeline and revenue opportunities to prioritize deals and forecast potential income. Learn more about the Revenue Opportunities sample.
Opportunity Analysis sample .pbix, .xlsx	Investigates opportunity performance, win rates, and salesperson effectiveness to improve sales outcomes. Learn more about the Opportunity Analysis sample.
Procurement Analysis sample .pbix, .xlsx	Focuses on purchasing activity, supplier performance, and procurement spend to identify savings and risks. Learn more about the Procurement Analysis sample.
Regional Sales sample .pbix	Visualizes sales performance by region and territory with geographic maps and drill-down capabilities. Learn more about the Regional Sales sample.
Store Sales sample pbix	Shows store-level sales metrics, product performance, and trends to support retail operations analysis. Learn more about the Store Sales sample.
Retail Analysis sample .pbix, .xlsx	Comprehensive retail dashboard covering sales, inventory, promotions, and customer behavior insights. Learn more about the Retail Analysis sample.
Competitive Marketing Analysis sample .pbix	Compares marketing campaign performance against competitors and market benchmarks to inform strategy. Learn more about the Competitive Marketing Analysis sample.
Sales and Marketing sample .pbix, .xlsx	Blends sales and marketing data to measure campaign effect on pipeline, conversions, and revenue. Learn more about the Sales and Marketing sample.
Sales and Returns sample .pbix	Demonstrates features like buttons, drillthrough, conditional formatting, what-if, and customized tooltips. Learn more about the Sales and Returns sample.
Supplier Quality Analysis sample .pbix, .xlsx	Monitors supplier quality metrics, defects, and compliance to drive supplier performance improvements. Learn more about the Supplier Quality Analysis sample.
Financial Excel Workbook sample .xlsx	Provides a downloadable financial workbook that demonstrates financial statements, KPIs, and sample reports for finance scenarios. Learn more about the Financial Excel Workbook sample.

Legal guidelines for using samples

Before starting, review the following legal guidelines for using these samples.

©2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. The documents and workbooks are provided "as-is." Information and views expressed in the workbooks, including URL and other Internet Web site references, can change without notice. You bear the risk of using it. Some examples are for illustration only and are fictitious. No real association is intended or inferred. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided here.

The workbooks don't provide you with any legal rights to any intellectual property in any Microsoft product. You can copy and use this workbook for your internal reference purposes.

The workbooks and related data are provided by obviEnce. www.obvience.com

ObviEnce is an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and an Intellectual Property (IP) Incubator focused on Microsoft Business Intelligence. ObviEnce works closely with Microsoft to develop best practices and thought leadership for jump-starting and deploying Microsoft Business Intelligence solutions.

The workbooks and data are the property of obviEnce, LLC, and are shared solely to demonstrate Power BI functionality with industry sample data.

Any uses of the workbooks and/or data must include the above attribution (that is also on the Info worksheet included with each workbook). The workbook and any visualizations must be accompanied by the following copyright notice: obviEnce ©.

By downloading these files, you agree to the terms.

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