Limit to import data in PBI desktop

[Ritika_Wadhwa]

Hi,

Can anyone please help me with answers of below questions:

1) I am aware their is a limit of publishing file on service, but is their is any limit of importing data in power bi desktop application?

2) My organization data set is huge i.e rows in billions. Can i go-ahead with import mode with this much of data  after convincing clients for premium license for publishing report?

3) If importing huge data is not a good idea , can anyone please help me with the right approach? How i can import less data in dekstop application and make sure complete data load happens in service?

Thanks,

Ritika

[v-yanjiang-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ritika_Wadhwa ,

According to the blog from Chris Webb who is a Power BI expert worked in Microsoft, the only practical limit on the amount of data you can load into Power BI Desktop is the amount of memory you have on your PC. But as there is limit when you want to publish to Service, if you want to import less data in dekstop application and make sure complete data load happens in Service, you can do this in a few different ways, for example using incremental refresh or by using M parameters to limit the amount of data you load in Desktop and then changing the parameter after publishing, as showed here.

Reference: How Much Data Can You Load Into Power BI? - Chris Webb's BI Blog (crossjoin.co.uk)

Best regards,

Community Support Team_yanjiang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Ritika_Wadhwa]

Hi @ribisht17 , Thanks for your response!!

I am aware of these techniques and use some of them in my case like removing unwanted columns , disable auto date/time.

In my case I am unable to reduce rows by doing summarization and groupby at database level.

And if I switch to Mix model i.e table with huge data if I make it as Direct query, then how will i able to use all DAX funtions .Like for my calculations I need to use Summarize function and Iterrator functions like CountX, SUMX .How i will use them in my measures with direct query? Also Performance issue will arise in case of direct query approach.

If i want to go-ahead with import mode only is there any way possible in my situation? Can i load billions of data in desktop? What is the limit of Power bi Desktop application how much data volume we can load in it?

Thanks,

Ritika

[ribisht17]

Hi @Ritika_Wadhwa 

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Maximum-amount-of-data-that-Power-BI-Desktop-can-i...

Power BI has no size limit for the local data model.
If you do not publish the data model to the service, you will not be affected by this restriction.

Once you publish then Power BI Pro comes with 1GB and Power BI Premium capacity with 100 GB/User and 400 GB/Capcity

Regards,

Ritesh

[ribisht17]

Hi @Ritika_Wadhwa 

Please help the community back by marking the relevant answer/answers as solution so that it can help others as well.

If it did not solve then please let us know

Ritesh

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[ribisht17]

hi @Ritika_Wadhwa 

There are eight different data reduction techniques covered in this article. These techniques include:

• Remove unnecessary columns
• Remove unnecessary rows
• Group by and summarize
• Optimize column data types
• Preference for custom columns
• Disable Power Query query load
• Disable auto date/time
• Switch to Mixed mode

Please find this link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/import-modeling-data-reduction

Regards,

Ritesh

Mark my post as a solution if it helped you| Munde and Kudis (Ladies and Gentlemen) I like your Kudos!! !!
My YT Channel Dancing With Data !! Connect on Linkedin !!Power BI for Tableau Users