Connecting to Australian-hosted Smartsheet data

[MattB-Motive]

Just wondering if anyone has had experience connecting to Australian-hosted Smartsheet data. The standard/native Power BI connector only allows you to specify either US or EU locations - no AU.

If so, what have you used to connect? APIs or 3rd-party connectors? What issues have you come across?

(Bonus points, have you used Power Automate to connect to the AU-hosted data?)

[Poojara_D12]

Hi @MattB-Motive 

Yes, you completely hit the nail on the head—the native Power BI and Power Automate Smartsheet connectors are hardcoded to the US and EU data islands, which leaves the Australian region completely stranded. Because the AU instance is a strictly isolated environment with its own localized infrastructure, standard OAuth authentication loops fail, and you have to bypass the built-in connectors entirely. The absolute cleanest, zero-cost way to handle this in Power BI is to bypass the Smartsheet option entirely and use the native Web connector in Power Query to hit the official AU API endpoint at https://api.smartsheet.au/2.0/. You will need to generate a Personal Access Token (PAT) from directly inside your AU Smartsheet account settings and pass it explicitly via an authorization header within your Web.Contents M code—ensuring you use split RelativePath syntax rather than string concatenation so the Power BI Service doesn't drop the credentials during a cloud refresh. If you are using Power Automate, you will hit the exact same barrier with the standard flow actions, so the proven workaround there is to utilize the premium HTTP action block to manually construct your GET or POST requests directly against the api.smartsheet.au endpoint, using your token in the headers field. The biggest hidden gotchas you will encounter with this setup are that tokens generated in the US or EU environments will not work for the AU instance, data cannot be shared across different regional boundaries, and you may need to configure an On-premises Data Gateway or explicitly check the "Skip test connection" toggle in the Service dataset credentials pane to get the web-based API queries to authenticate seamlessly on a schedule.

[v-karpurapud · Accepted solution]

Hi @MattB-Motive 

We understand your concern. With AU-hosted Smartsheet, the connection works differently because it’s considered a separate regional instance, so native connectors aren’t applicable.

You’ll need to use the AU-specific API endpoint and token, since there’s no cross-region connectivity between AU and US/EU environments. Most setups use the REST API instead of the standard connector.

For Power Automate, the HTTP action works with the AU endpoint, but it’s generally used for simpler cases.

Here are some community threads where API-based solutions have been implemented:
Solved: Connecting Multiple Smartsheets - Microsoft Fabric Community
Solved: Connect Smartsheet Resource Management API to PBI - Microsoft Fabric Community

I hope this clarifies the situation. If I’ve misunderstood any part of your situation, please let us know.

 Regards,
Microsoft Fabric Community Support Team.
 

[v-karpurapud]

Hi @MattB-Motive 

We were following up to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

Thank You.

[v-karpurapud]

Hi @MattB-Motive 

Thank you for submitting your question to the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum, and thanks to  @Shai_Karmani  and  @oussamahaimoud  for sharing helpful suggestions.

Could you let us know if the suggested solution resolved your issue? If not, please share any additional details so we can assist further.

Best regards,
Community Support Team.

[MattB-Motive]

Both Shai and Oussama gave well-crafted, AI answers. However, I was asking for some human experience. We can all go and ask AI a question (or actually read the documentation). I hope the forum doesn't just become a repo of AI output.

They were both comprehensive answers that summarised everything you can find on the Smartsheet docs. Just not quite what I was after.

[oussamahaimoud]

Hi @MattB-Motive,

Hope you are doing well!

Smartsheet REST API via Power Query Web Connector
The AU region API base URL is https://api.smartsheet.au/2.0 (Smartsheet), this is the key piece. Since it's a standard REST API, you can call it directly from Power BI using the Web connector in Power Query:
Generate an API token from your AU Smartsheet account
Use Web.Contents() in Power Query M, passing the AU base URL with Authorization: Bearer <token> in the headers
Call endpoints like /sheets, /sheets/{id}, /reports/{id} etc.
This is the most reliable, no-third-party-dependency solution and is fully supported in both Power BI Desktop and the Service (via On-premises Data Gateway or callable directly from Power BI Service with web credentials).
Note: AU accounts use a separate API token from your Smartsheet.com credentials, you must generate a token specifically within the AU instance. (Smartsheet)

Power Automate HTTP Action (for AU Region)

As a workaround for the standard connector's limitations, making direct REST API calls via Power Automate's HTTP step works well, you build each call manually and handle Bearer token auth in the headers. (Smartsheet Community) Point this at https://api.smartsheet.au/2.0/... instead of the standard URL. This is confirmed working for AU.

Remember:

For Power BI, go with the REST API via Web connector approach because it's free, maintainable, and gives you full control. For Power Automate, use the HTTP action with the AU base URL and Bearer token. Avoid the native connector entirely for AU-hosted data.

For more information :

No cross-region sharing: The AU instance is a completely isolated data island, you cannot share assets between AU and US/EU instances. (Smartsheet)

Gateway requirement: If using the Web connector approach in Power BI Service scheduled refresh, you'll need an On-premises Data Gateway configured with stored credentials (Bearer token), or use Fabric Dataflow Gen2 with the anonymous/API key web source.

Token management: AU API tokens expire/rotate and need to be managed separately from any US Smartsheet credentials your org may also use.

SDKs need reconfiguring: If you use a Smartsheet SDK, you must modify the standard config to point to smartsheet.au. (Smartsheet)

Hope this helps! Don't forget to mark as solution and thumbs up, that's motivate me to keep helping 🙂 

[Shai_Karmani]

Hey, the native Power BI and Power Automate Smartsheet connectors are US/EU only and the regions are fully separate islands with their own tokens.

A few options that should work:

Power Query against the AU API (https://api.smartsheet.au/2.0) with a PAT from inside the AU instance:

e.g.

Web.Contents("https://api.smartsheet.au", [    RelativePath = "/2.0/sheets/" & SheetId,    Headers = [ Authorization = "Bearer " & Token ]])

Use BaseUrl + RelativePath (not string concat) or Service refresh breaks. Set creds to Anonymous + Skip test connection.

Past a few sheets, I'd skip Power Query and load to a Lakehouse via a Fabric notebook (smartsheet-python-sdk

takes an api_base override), then go Direct Lake. Cleaner and you get proper backoff for the 300 req/min limit.

Power Automate: HTTP action (premium) with a Bearer token. You lose the native triggers, so pair with a Smartsheet webhook into a Logic App if you need push.

Third-party: CData and ZappySys let you set the base URL, just verify they officially support AU before paying.

Gotchas: AU PAT only sees AU data, multi-contact and formula columns are painful to flatten, Direct Query over the API isn't realistic so plan on Import or land-to-warehouse.

Worth raising a Fabric Ideas post for an AU toggle. The EU one has been sitting there forever, but more noise can't hurt.

If this helped, a thumbs up and accepting the solution would be appreciated.

Best,
Shai Karmani

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