Power BI visual shows wrong percentage format in Excel export

[Mukund1234]

I have published an SLA report in Power BI Service where I’m showing the SLA Met % by Technician. Now, the end user wants to export this visual to Excel. However, when they export the data, the percentage values like 100%, 65%, and 35% are appearing as 1, 6, and 3 in the Excel file.

I want the exported data to show the percentage values exactly as they appear in the visual (e.g., 100%, 65%, 35%). How can I achieve this?

@suparnababu8 

[rohit1991 · Accepted solution]

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Hi @Mukund1234 ,

This issue occurs because when Power BI exports data to Excel, it often exports the raw underlying values rather than the formatted display values shown in the visual. In your case, the percentage values are likely stored as decimal numbers (e.g., 1 for 100%, 0.65 for 65%, etc.), and Excel is simply displaying them as whole numbers since it doesn't automatically apply the percentage formatting from Power BI. Unfortunately, Power BI’s default export does not carry over the visual formatting.

As a workaround, you can either pre-format the measure in Power BI as text (e.g., using a DAX formula like FORMAT([SLA Met %], "Percent")) so that it exports exactly as shown, or instruct the end users to manually apply percentage formatting to the exported columns in Excel. Keep in mind that formatting the measure as text may limit certain aggregation capabilities in Power BI visuals, so it’s best to weigh the pros and cons based on your reporting needs.

[Poojara_D12 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mukund1234 

In Power BI, when users export data from a visual to Excel, the exported values often reflect the raw underlying numbers rather than the formatted appearance shown in the visual. This is especially noticeable with percentage values—for example, a value displayed as 65% in the report might appear as 6 or 0.65 in Excel, depending on how Power BI handles the export. This happens because Power BI exports the numeric value used in calculations without retaining the formatting applied in the visual. To address this, a practical workaround is to create a new measure that formats the percentage as text using the DAX `FORMAT` function—for example, `FORMAT([SLA Met %], "0.00%")`. By replacing the original numeric measure with this text-based measure in the visual, the export will show percentage values exactly as they appear (e.g., 65.00%) because text formatting is preserved during export. Alternatively, if your organization has Power BI Premium or Fabric capacity, you could use a paginated report built in Power BI Report Builder, which retains all formatting when exported to Excel. However, in the absence of Premium, formatting the percentage as text is the most reliable way to ensure consistent and accurate exports for end users.

[BhavinVyas3003]

Option 1: Format it as a text field in DAX (Best for exports)

Create a separate measure or calculated column that converts the percentage to text:

SLA Met % (Formatted) = FORMAT([SLA Met %], "0.00%")

Use this new measure in your visual if the primary use is export.

Option 2: Use Table or Matrix visual (not card/bar)

Export from a Table or Matrix visual. this ensures better alignment between visual and export values.

[rohit1991 · Accepted solution]

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Hi @Mukund1234 ,

This issue occurs because when Power BI exports data to Excel, it often exports the raw underlying values rather than the formatted display values shown in the visual. In your case, the percentage values are likely stored as decimal numbers (e.g., 1 for 100%, 0.65 for 65%, etc.), and Excel is simply displaying them as whole numbers since it doesn't automatically apply the percentage formatting from Power BI. Unfortunately, Power BI’s default export does not carry over the visual formatting.

As a workaround, you can either pre-format the measure in Power BI as text (e.g., using a DAX formula like FORMAT([SLA Met %], "Percent")) so that it exports exactly as shown, or instruct the end users to manually apply percentage formatting to the exported columns in Excel. Keep in mind that formatting the measure as text may limit certain aggregation capabilities in Power BI visuals, so it’s best to weigh the pros and cons based on your reporting needs.