Importing Survey Monkey data

[Dwittkop]

I am able to connect to and import some Survey Monkey data, but we use it to by creating branching surveys which create very large datasets and exceed the amount allowed to import by Power BI. I have used Copilot numerous times to do advanced queries and unfortunately, either because I am new to this or because I am not asking the right questions, the answers never give me the right results. Does anyone have experience with this?

[v-pgoloju]

Hi @Dwittkop,

Just following up to see if the Response provided by community members were helpful in addressing the issue. if the issue still persists Feel free to reach out if you need any further clarification or assistance.

Best regards,
Prasanna Kumar

[Nabha-Ahmed]

Hi @Dwittkop 

Solutions / Workarounds

1.  Use DirectQuery instead of Import

• If supported by your connector or API, use DirectQuery mode so Power BI queries SurveyMonkey live rather than importing all data.

• This avoids hitting the import size limit, but may have performance considerations for very large surveys.

2. Pre-process / Aggregate the Data

• Use Power Query or an intermediate storage (Azure Data Lake, SQL, or Dataverse) to flatten or aggregate survey responses before loading into Power BI.

• For branching surveys, consider summarizing at the question level rather than importing every row/response.

3. Incremental Data Loading

• Load data in chunks (e.g., by survey period, survey ID, or response batches) and append into Power BI over time.

• Use parameters in Power Query to filter the dataset dynamically.

4. Consider External ETL

• Use tools like Azure Data Factory, Power Automate, or Python scripts to extract, clean, and flatten SurveyMonkey data into a storage location.

• Power BI can then connect to this storage instead of directly to SurveyMonkey, reducing size and complexity.

[Dwittkop]

Thank you for the list of ideas. SurveyMonkey does not support 1 or 3 and I do not have access to 4. Number 2 may be doable, but I don't have the expertise to do this. 

[v-pgoloju]

Hi @Dwittkop,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Forum Community, and special thanks to @amitchandak  for prompt and helpful responses.

Don’t import the full SurveyMonkey dataset at once filter only the surveys and dates you need, remove unused columns, use incremental refresh, and if the connector still fails, pull data via the API into SharePoint/Azure first and load from there into Power BI.

Thanks & Regards,

Prasanna Kumar

[amitchandak]

@Dwittkop , Copilot  for Developer or Copilot  for end user?
For Both cases, make sure you setup - "Prep Data for AI" with instructions and sample 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/copilot-prepare-data-ai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XcaYINS6f8