Email subscriptions for reports and dashboards in the Power BI service, don't have XLS format

[RahulRahul]

HI 

Currently the Email subscriptions for reports and dashboards in the Power BI service only formets in PDF and PPT.

Any way to get in XLS or CSV format?

I know that Power BI Report Builder does that. But I am after Power BI desktop generated report if can cater XLS format subcription.

Ref link: Email subscriptions for reports and dashboards in the Power BI service - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Thanks

[Olufemi7 · Accepted solution]

Hello @RahulRahul, 

Power BI Service subscriptions for reports and dashboards only support PDF and PowerPoint.

To deliver Excel (XLS/XLSX) or CSV:

• Use Paginated Reports (Power BI Report Builder) – supports Excel/CSV exports and subscriptions. Docs
• Use Power Automate – schedule exports from datasets and email as XLS/CSV. Docs

There’s no direct XLS/CSV subscription for standard Power BI Desktop reports.

[v-veshwara-msft]

Hi @RahulRahul ,


We wanted to kindly follow up regarding your query. If you need any further assistance, please reach out.
Thank you.

[v-veshwara-msft]

Hi @RahulRahul ,
Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community.

Just wanted to check if the responses provided were helpful. If further assistance is needed, please reach out.
Thank you.

[cengizhanarslan]

Standard Power BI report/dashboard subscriptions do not support Excel or CSV attachments. The only alternatice I could think of is using Power Automate. With Power Automate:

• Export report data

• Send email attachment

• Can output Excel/CSV

[MohdZaid_ · Accepted solution]

Hey @RahulRahul , 

You’re correct — in the Power BI Service, email subscriptions for reports and dashboards only support PDF and PowerPoint (PPT) attachments. Unfortunately, Excel (XLS/XLSX) or CSV formats are not supported for subscriptions created from Power BI Desktop reports.

At the moment, there isn’t a built-in way to schedule an email subscription in XLS or CSV format directly from a standard Power BI report.

Possible Alternatives

1. Paginated Reports (Power BI Report Builder)
As you mentioned, this is currently the only native Microsoft solution that supports exporting to:

• Excel (XLSX)
• CSV
• Word
• XML
• PDF

If Excel subscription delivery is a strict requirement, Paginated Reports are the recommended approach.

2. Power Automate workaround
You can create a Power Automate flow that:

• Exports data from a Power BI visual or dataset
• Saves it as a CSV or Excel file
• Sends it via email on a schedule

This works well if you only need the underlying data rather than a formatted report.

3. Analyze in Excel / Dataset connection
If users primarily need the data in Excel, you can connect the dataset to Excel using “Analyze in Excel” and refresh it directly from Excel instead of relying on email subscriptions.

If it solved your issue, feel free to mark it as the solution so others can benefit too.

Thanks for being part of the community.

[Olufemi7 · Accepted solution]

Hello @RahulRahul, 

Power BI Service subscriptions for reports and dashboards only support PDF and PowerPoint.

To deliver Excel (XLS/XLSX) or CSV:

• Use Paginated Reports (Power BI Report Builder) – supports Excel/CSV exports and subscriptions. Docs
• Use Power Automate – schedule exports from datasets and email as XLS/CSV. Docs

There’s no direct XLS/CSV subscription for standard Power BI Desktop reports.

[Natarajan_M]

Hi @RahulRahul  , The email subscription currently supports only PPT / PDF . 
I have a question on your requirement you wanted the underlying data of a particular visual in the excel/csv or you want all the visuals (as image) to be arranged in the excel sheet as a reprot? 
Can you please eloborate your expectations ?

Thanks