Conditional Formating

[mozbay]

Hello everyone, 

I am trying to conditonal format a column with percentages between %0 and %999 where below %100 should be colored red and above %100 percent should be Green. I don't want to use DAX for this. However, in conditional format settings I see > and >= options but not < or <= and for some reason when I select percent it doesnt work at all. Could you please help me get around with this problem? 

Thank you so much, 

Meric Ozbay 

[mozbay]

Thank you so much! It is solved now and it works. 

[mdaatifraza5556]

Hi @mozbay 

Can you please try the below steps

Column you want to format → choose Conditional formatting > Background color or Font color.

In the conditional formatting window:

     -- Choose "Rules" instead of "Color scale"

     -- For Based on field, make sure it's the same column

     -- Now, define your custom rules as below

If value Operator Value Color

	is less than	1	Red
	is greater than or equal to	1	Green

If this answers your questions, kindly accept it as a solution and give kudos.

[anilelmastasi]

Hello @mozbay ,

This is a known quirk in Power BI’s Conditional Formatting UI!

Use “Rules” instead of “Gradient” in conditional formatting
In your matrix or table visual:

Go to Format pane → Values → Conditional formatting → Background color (or Font color) → Advanced controls.

Choose Format by → Rules.

In the rules dialog:

Select the field (your percentage column).

Make sure “Based on values” is selected.

Important DO NOT tick “Percent” in the rule settings unless you truly want percent-of-min-max (usually that’s not what you mean here).

Define two rules
Add two rules like this:

If value is number color

0	is less than	1	Red
1	is greater than or equal to	1	Green

Important: Power BI works with decimal numbers in rules, not percentage format —
so %100 is 1.0, %99 is 0.99, etc.

If your column is stored as 0.95 for 95%, use:

if value < 1 → red

if value ≥ 1 → green

If your column is stored as 95 for 95%, use:

if value < 100 → red

if value ≥ 100 → green

If this solved your issue, please mark it as the accepted solution. ✅

[andrewsommer · Accepted solution]

The “Percent” option in formatting doesn't interpret your actual values as percentages; it interprets them as percentile ranks of the values within the column. That’s why %100 doesn’t mean 100%, but instead the 100th percentile.

You can use a "Format by Rules" workaround without DAX, and interpret the values as raw numbers, not percentiles:

1. Go to your visual (e.g., a table or matrix).
2. Click the dropdown arrow for the column you want to format > choose Conditional formatting > Background color (or Font color).
3. In the dialog, choose:
• Format style: Rules
• Based on field: (the same column you're formatting)
• Values: Keep it as Number, not Percent
4. Add two rules:

Rule 1 (Red for < 1.0 / < 100%)

• If value >= 0 and value < 1
• Color: Red

Rule 2 (Green for ≥ 1.0 / ≥ 100%)

• If value >= 1 and value <= 9.99 (or whatever upper bound makes sense for your data)
• Color: Green
1. Apply formatting and save.

Please mark this post as solution if it helps you. Appreciate Kudos.