Is Power BI Down? How to Check Power BI Status in Real-Time
Is Power BI Down? How to Check Power BI Status in Real-Time
Quick Answer: To check if Power BI is down, visit apistatuscheck.com/api/power-bi for real-time monitoring, or check the official Microsoft 365 Service Health Dashboard. Common signs include dashboard refresh failures, data source connectivity errors, gateway timeout issues, and embedded report rendering problems.
When your executive dashboards stop refreshing or critical reports fail to load, every minute of downtime affects business decision-making. Power BI serves as the analytics backbone for millions of organizations worldwide, making any service disruption a blocker for data-driven insights. Whether you're experiencing dataset refresh failures, gateway errors, or capacity throttling, knowing how to quickly verify Power BI's operational status can save hours of troubleshooting and help you communicate effectively with stakeholders.
How to Check Power BI Status in Real-Time
1. API Status Check (Fastest Method)
The quickest way to verify Power BI's operational status is through apistatuscheck.com/api/power-bi. This real-time monitoring service:
- Tests actual service endpoints every 60 seconds
- Shows response times and latency trends across regions
- Tracks historical uptime over 30/60/90 day periods
- Provides instant alerts when degradation is detected
- Monitors multiple components (Service, Gateways, Embedded, Premium)
Unlike status pages that depend on manual updates from Microsoft's operations team, API Status Check performs active health checks against Power BI's production infrastructure, giving you the most accurate real-time picture of service availability before official incidents are declared.
2. Microsoft 365 Service Health Dashboard
Microsoft maintains the Microsoft 365 admin center Service Health dashboard as their official communication channel for all Microsoft 365 services, including Power BI. The dashboard displays:
- Current service status for Power BI components
- Active incidents with impact assessment
- Ongoing investigations and root cause analysis
- Scheduled maintenance notifications
- Historical incident timeline and postmortems
- Component-specific health (Power BI Service, Gateways, Dataflows, Premium Capacities)
Access requirement: You need Microsoft 365 admin credentials to access the full service health dashboard. For public status updates, check status.cloud.microsoft/.
Pro tip: Configure email or Microsoft Teams notifications in the admin center to receive immediate alerts when Power BI incidents are reported.
3. Power BI Community and Social Media
The Power BI community is highly active and often reports issues before official acknowledgment:
- Power BI Community Forums - Check the "Service" section
- Twitter/X @MSPowerBI - Official Microsoft Power BI account
- Twitter/X search: "Power BI down" or "#PowerBIDown"
- Reddit r/PowerBI - User-reported issues and workarounds
- LinkedIn Power BI groups - Enterprise user discussions
When multiple users across different organizations report identical symptoms simultaneously, it's a strong indicator of a platform-wide outage rather than an isolated environment issue.
4. Test Power BI Service Directly
Access app.powerbi.com and verify basic functionality:
- Login speed - Delays may indicate authentication service issues
- Workspace loading - Slow or failed workspace enumeration
- Report rendering - Open a simple report to test visualization engine
- Dataset refresh - Trigger a manual refresh on a small dataset
- Gateway connectivity - Check gateway status in gateway management
Pay attention to specific error codes, which often indicate the affected component (discussed in detail below).
5. Power BI REST API Health Check
For developers and DevOps teams, testing the Power BI REST API provides definitive confirmation:
# Get an access token first (requires Azure AD app registration)
curl -X POST https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant-id}/oauth2/v2.0/token \
-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
-d "client_id={client-id}&scope=https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/.default&client_secret={client-secret}&grant_type=client_credentials"
# Test API availability - list workspaces
curl -X GET https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups \
-H "Authorization: Bearer {access-token}"
Expected behavior: HTTP 200 response with JSON workspace list within 2-3 seconds.
Outage indicators:
- Connection timeouts (no response after 30+ seconds)
- HTTP 503 Service Unavailable
- HTTP 502 Bad Gateway
- HTTP 429 Too Many Requests (capacity overload)
- Authentication failures (500 errors from login.microsoftonline.com)
Common Power BI Issues and How to Identify Them
Dashboard Refresh Failures
Symptoms:
- Scheduled refresh stuck in "In Progress" state for hours
- Manual refresh triggers immediate failure with generic error
- "Unable to connect to data source" errors across multiple datasets
- Refresh history showing success rate dropping from 100% to 0%
What it means: When dataset refreshes fail en masse across different workspaces and data sources, it typically indicates backend processing infrastructure issues rather than individual data source problems. During partial outages, Power BI's refresh scheduler may be degraded while the front-end service remains accessible.
How to distinguish from configuration issues:
- Check multiple datasets with different data sources
- Test datasets that previously refreshed successfully
- Verify credentials are still valid in data source settings
- Check if on-demand refresh fails identically to scheduled refresh
Data Source Connectivity Problems
Common error messages during outages:
- "We can't connect to your data source" (generic connectivity failure)
- "Timeout expired" - Backend services unable to reach data sources
- "Unable to connect: connection was forcibly closed by the remote host"
- "Failed to save modifications to the server" (when editing data source credentials)
Gateway-specific errors:
- "On-premises data gateway is unreachable"
- "Gateway cluster has no active members" (when all gateways are online)
- "The gateway didn't receive any data from the data source within the expected time"
Critical distinction: If a single dataset fails consistently while others succeed, it's likely a configuration or permissions issue. When all datasets using different gateways and data sources fail simultaneously, it indicates a platform problem.
On-Premises Data Gateway Errors
The gateway is often the first component affected during Azure infrastructure issues:
Status page indicators:
- Gateway shows "Offline" in Power BI Service despite running locally
- Gateway cloud service status shows "Could not connect to gateway service"
- Multiple gateways across different networks showing identical behavior
Gateway error patterns during outages:
DM_GWPipeline_Gateway_ServiceUnreachable
DM_GWPipeline_Gateway_ConnectionTimeout
DM_GWPipeline_UnableToConnectToCloud
DM_ErrorDetail_ODBC_Generic_Error (when gateway can't reach backend)
Validation test: If your gateway can successfully ping/connect to your local data sources but fails to connect to Power BI Service, the issue is on Microsoft's side.
Premium Capacity Throttling and Performance Degradation
Power BI Premium and Premium Per User (PPU) capacities may experience performance issues during high load periods:
Symptoms:
- Reports loading extremely slowly (30+ seconds for simple visuals)
- "Capacity has reached its resource limits" notifications
- Queries timing out with "ResultSetTooLarge" errors
- Embedded reports failing to render with timeout errors
Monitoring indicators:
- Premium Capacity Metrics app showing CPU >100% sustained
- Memory pressure approaching limits
- Queries queuing excessively
- Eviction rate increasing dramatically
Platform vs. capacity issues: Check if other organizations are reporting identical symptoms. If widespread, it may indicate backend issues with Premium capacity infrastructure rather than your specific capacity being undersized.
Embedded Report Rendering Issues
Organizations using Power BI Embedded in custom applications face unique failure modes:
Common errors:
// Embed API errors during outages
{
"message": "LoadReportFailed",
"detailedMessage": "Get report failed",
"errorCode": "TokenExpired" // or "ServiceUnavailable"
}
Symptoms:
- Embed tokens failing to generate (powerbi.embedservice.js errors)
- Reports embedded in iframe showing infinite loading spinner
- "This content isn't available" error in embedded container
- JavaScript console errors:
Failed to load resource: net::ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT
Distinguish from integration issues:
- Test embedding in Power BI's embed playground: Microsoft Power BI Embedded Playground
- Check if reports load normally in app.powerbi.com
- Verify embed token expiration and permissions are correct
Power BI Mobile App Problems
The Power BI mobile app (iOS/Android) may exhibit unique symptoms:
- Login failures or infinite authentication loops
- "Cannot connect to Power BI service" despite network connectivity
- Reports in app showing stale data while web shows current data
- Push notifications for data alerts not delivering
Mobile-specific outage indicators: Check app store reviews and community forums for sudden spike in connectivity complaints.
The Real Impact When Power BI Goes Down
Executive Dashboard Unavailability
Power BI has become mission-critical infrastructure for executive decision-making:
- C-suite dashboards offline - Leadership unable to view KPI metrics for board meetings
- Sales pipeline visibility lost - Revenue forecasting and team performance tracking disrupted
- Financial reporting blocked - Month-end/quarter-end close processes delayed
- Operational dashboards dark - Supply chain, inventory, and production monitoring unavailable
Real-world impact: A CFO presenting quarterly results to the board with outdated data or reverting to static Excel spreadsheets erodes confidence in the analytics platform investment.
Real-Time Analytics Interruption
Organizations relying on near-real-time data streaming and DirectQuery:
- Live transaction monitoring halted - E-commerce, point-of-sale, and payment tracking goes blind
- IoT sensor dashboards frozen - Manufacturing floor monitoring, fleet tracking, utility management
- Customer behavior analytics lost - Website traffic analysis, user engagement metrics, A/B testing results
- Fraud detection delays - Security operations center (SOC) dashboards showing stale threat data
Cascading failures: When Power BI serves as a data hub, downstream systems consuming embedded reports or exported data also fail.
Data-Driven Decision Paralysis
Modern businesses have built operational workflows around Power BI insights:
- Marketing campaigns paused - Unable to track ROI, conversion rates, or attribution
- Inventory decisions delayed - Purchasing teams lack stock level visibility
- Customer service impacted - Support teams missing customer 360° views
- Resource allocation frozen - Project managers unable to view utilization dashboards
Opportunity cost: Every hour of downtime represents decisions made on gut instinct rather than data, potentially costing thousands in suboptimal choices.
Failed Automated Workflows and Integrations
Power BI connects to broader automation ecosystems:
- Power Automate flows fail - Workflows triggered by data alerts stop executing
- Azure Logic Apps timeout - Integrations calling Power BI REST API receive errors
- Third-party BI tools disconnected - Systems embedding Power BI or consuming datasets via XMLA endpoints
- Scheduled report distribution halted - Paginated reports, email subscriptions, and exports queue up
Recovery complexity: After resolution, organizations face backlog of missed automation runs and manual reconciliation work.
Premium Capacity Waste
Organizations paying for Premium capacity ($4,995-$49,995/month) experience financial impact:
- Capacity running but unusable - Paying for resources that can't process workloads
- SLA credits required - Enterprise agreements may include uptime guarantees
- Productivity losses - Hundreds of users idle, unable to perform analytical work
- Migration considerations triggered - Extended or frequent outages prompt evaluation of alternatives (Tableau, Looker, Qlik)
Trust erosion: Each outage reduces stakeholder confidence in the "cloud migration" decision, especially for organizations that migrated from on-premises SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).
Incident Response Playbook: What to Do When Power BI Goes Down
1. Verify the Outage Scope
Immediate triage steps:
# PowerShell script to test Power BI API availability
$tenantId = "your-tenant-id"
$clientId = "your-app-client-id"
$clientSecret = "your-app-secret"
# Get access token
$tokenEndpoint = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/$tenantId/oauth2/v2.0/token"
$tokenBody = @{
client_id = $clientId
scope = "https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/.default"
client_secret = $clientSecret
grant_type = "client_credentials"
}
try {
$tokenResponse = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $tokenEndpoint -Method Post -Body $tokenBody
$accessToken = $tokenResponse.access_token
Write-Host "✓ Authentication successful" -ForegroundColor Green
# Test Power BI API
$headers = @{
Authorization = "Bearer $accessToken"
}
$workspaces = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups" -Headers $headers
Write-Host "✓ Power BI API responding - $($workspaces.value.Count) workspaces accessible" -ForegroundColor Green
} catch {
Write-Host "✗ Power BI connectivity failed: $($_.Exception.Message)" -ForegroundColor Red
# Log for incident tracking
$incidentLog = @{
Timestamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
Error = $_.Exception.Message
StatusCode = $_.Exception.Response.StatusCode.value__
}
$incidentLog | ConvertTo-Json | Out-File -Append "powerbi-outage-log.json"
}
Multi-component health check:
import requests
import time
from datetime import datetime
def check_powerbi_health():
"""Comprehensive Power BI health check"""
results = {
"timestamp": datetime.now().isoformat(),
"components": {}
}
# 1. Check Power BI Service web interface
try:
response = requests.get("https://app.powerbi.com", timeout=10)
results["components"]["web_interface"] = {
"status": "up" if response.status_code == 200 else "degraded",
"response_time_ms": response.elapsed.total_seconds() * 1000
}
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
results["components"]["web_interface"] = {
"status": "down",
"error": str(e)
}
# 2. Check Power BI REST API (requires valid token)
# Note: Implement OAuth flow for production use
api_token = "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
try:
response = requests.get(
"https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_token}"},
timeout=10
)
results["components"]["rest_api"] = {
"status": "up" if response.status_code == 200 else "degraded",
"response_time_ms": response.elapsed.total_seconds() * 1000,
"status_code": response.status_code
}
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
results["components"]["rest_api"] = {
"status": "down",
"error": str(e)
}
# 3. Check Azure AD authentication (required for Power BI)
try:
response = requests.get(
"https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/v2.0/.well-known/openid-configuration",
timeout=5
)
results["components"]["azure_ad_auth"] = {
"status": "up" if response.status_code == 200 else "degraded"
}
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
results["components"]["azure_ad_auth"] = {
"status": "down",
"error": str(e)
}
# Determine overall status
statuses = [comp["status"] for comp in results["components"].values()]
if all(s == "up" for s in statuses):
results["overall_status"] = "operational"
elif any(s == "down" for s in statuses):
results["overall_status"] = "major_outage"
else:
results["overall_status"] = "degraded_performance"
return results
# Run health check
health = check_powerbi_health()
print(f"Power BI Status: {health['overall_status']}")
for component, status in health['components'].items():
print(f" {component}: {status['status']}")
2. Implement Graceful Degradation
For embedded reports:
// Power BI Embed graceful failure handling
const embedConfig = {
type: 'report',
id: reportId,
embedUrl: embedUrl,
accessToken: embedToken,
settings: {
filterPaneEnabled: false,
navContentPaneEnabled: false
}
};
// Wrap embed in timeout and error handling
const embedTimeout = setTimeout(() => {
showFallbackMessage();
}, 15000); // 15 second timeout
try {
const report = powerbi.embed(embedContainer, embedConfig);
report.on('loaded', () => {
clearTimeout(embedTimeout);
console.log('Report loaded successfully');
});
report.on('error', (event) => {
clearTimeout(embedTimeout);
const errorDetail = event.detail;
// Log detailed error
logPowerBIError({
message: errorDetail.message,
detailedMessage: errorDetail.detailedMessage,
errorCode: errorDetail.errorCode,
timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
});
// Show user-friendly fallback
showFallbackMessage(errorDetail.errorCode);
});
} catch (error) {
clearTimeout(embedTimeout);
showFallbackMessage();
}
function showFallbackMessage(errorCode = null) {
const fallbackHTML = `
<div class="powerbi-unavailable">
<h3>Dashboard Temporarily Unavailable</h3>
<p>We're experiencing connectivity issues with our analytics platform.
Your data is safe and we're working to restore access.</p>
<p>Last successful refresh: <strong>${lastRefreshTime}</strong></p>
<button onclick="location.reload()">Retry</button>
<a href="/reports/static-export">View Latest Static Report</a>
</div>
`;
embedContainer.innerHTML = fallbackHTML;
// Notify monitoring
if (errorCode) {
fetch('/api/monitoring/powerbi-embed-failure', {
method: 'POST',
body: JSON.stringify({ errorCode, timestamp: new Date() })
});
}
}
Dataset refresh queue for delayed processing:
# Queue refresh requests during outages
from datetime import datetime
import json
import os
class PowerBIRefreshQueue:
def __init__(self, queue_file='powerbi_refresh_queue.json'):
self.queue_file = queue_file
self.load_queue()
def load_queue(self):
if os.path.exists(self.queue_file):
with open(self.queue_file, 'r') as f:
self.queue = json.load(f)
else:
self.queue = []
def save_queue(self):
with open(self.queue_file, 'w') as f:
json.dump(self.queue, f, indent=2)
def add_refresh_request(self, dataset_id, workspace_id, priority='normal'):
"""Queue a dataset refresh for later processing"""
request = {
'dataset_id': dataset_id,
'workspace_id': workspace_id,
'priority': priority,
'requested_at': datetime.now().isoformat(),
'retry_count': 0,
'status': 'queued'
}
self.queue.append(request)
self.save_queue()
print(f"Queued refresh for dataset {dataset_id} (priority: {priority})")
def process_queue(self, powerbi_client):
"""Process queued refreshes when service is restored"""
processed = 0
failed = 0
# Sort by priority (high first) then by requested time
priority_order = {'critical': 0, 'high': 1, 'normal': 2, 'low': 3}
sorted_queue = sorted(
[q for q in self.queue if q['status'] == 'queued'],
key=lambda x: (priority_order.get(x['priority'], 2), x['requested_at'])
)
for request in sorted_queue:
try:
# Attempt refresh
powerbi_client.datasets.refresh_dataset(
group_id=request['workspace_id'],
dataset_id=request['dataset_id']
)
request['status'] = 'completed'
request['completed_at'] = datetime.now().isoformat()
processed += 1
print(f"✓ Refreshed dataset {request['dataset_id']}")
except Exception as e:
request['retry_count'] += 1
if request['retry_count'] >= 3:
request['status'] = 'failed'
request['error'] = str(e)
failed += 1
print(f"✗ Failed dataset {request['dataset_id']} after 3 retries")
else:
print(f"⚠ Retry {request['retry_count']} for dataset {request['dataset_id']}")
self.save_queue()
return {'processed': processed, 'failed': failed, 'remaining': len([q for q in self.queue if q['status'] == 'queued'])}
# Usage during outage
queue = PowerBIRefreshQueue()
queue.add_refresh_request(
dataset_id='abc-123-def',
workspace_id='workspace-xyz',
priority='critical' # Executive dashboard
)
3. Communicate with Stakeholders
Status page template:
# Power BI Service Status
**Current Status:** Degraded Performance
**Last Updated:** 2026-02-04 14:23 UTC
**Affected Components:** Dataset Refresh, On-Premises Gateway Connectivity
## What's Happening
We're experiencing intermittent failures with scheduled dataset refreshes and on-premises gateway connections. Microsoft has confirmed they're investigating infrastructure issues in the East US 2 region.
## Impact
- Scheduled refreshes may fail or show "In Progress" indefinitely
- Some reports may display stale data from the last successful refresh
- On-premises data gateway connections timing out intermittently
## What We're Doing
- Monitoring Microsoft's official status page for updates
- Manually refreshing critical executive dashboards every 30 minutes
- Queuing failed refresh requests for automatic retry when service restores
## Workarounds
- **Urgent reports:** Contact the analytics team for manual CSV exports
- **Executive dashboards:** Static PDF versions available at [link]
- **Real-time data:** Temporarily use direct database queries (credentials in team vault)
## Estimated Resolution
Microsoft estimates service restoration within 2-4 hours (by 18:00 UTC).
Next update: 15:00 UTC or when status changes.
Automated notification script:
def send_stakeholder_notifications(status, affected_components):
"""Send targeted notifications based on affected components"""
# Map components to stakeholder groups
notification_rules = {
'dataset_refresh': ['analytics-team@company.com', 'data-engineering@company.com'],
'embedded_reports': ['product-team@company.com', 'customer-success@company.com'],
'premium_capacity': ['executive-team@company.com', 'finance@company.com'],
'gateway': ['it-ops@company.com', 'analytics-team@company.com']
}
notifications = []
for component in affected_components:
if component in notification_rules:
for recipient in notification_rules[component]:
notifications.append({
'to': recipient,
'subject': f'Power BI {status}: {component} Affected',
'body': generate_notification_body(status, component)
})
# Send via your notification system (email, Slack, Teams, etc.)
for notification in notifications:
send_email(notification)
post_to_slack(notification) # Dual notification
4. Prepare Alternative Data Access Methods
Static report export automation:
# Export critical reports to PDF during outages
# Requires Power BI PowerShell module: Install-Module -Name MicrosoftPowerBIMgmt
Connect-PowerBIServiceAccount
$criticalReports = @(
@{ReportId="abc-123"; WorkspaceId="xyz-789"; Name="Executive Dashboard"},
@{ReportId="def-456"; WorkspaceId="xyz-789"; Name="Sales Pipeline"},
@{ReportId="ghi-789"; WorkspaceId="xyz-789"; Name="Finance Summary"}
)
$exportPath = "C:\PowerBI-Exports\Outage-$(Get-Date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd-HHmm')"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $exportPath -Force
foreach ($report in $criticalReports) {
try {
Write-Host "Exporting $($report.Name)..."
# Export to PDF (requires Premium capacity or PPU)
$export = Export-PowerBIReport `
-WorkspaceId $report.WorkspaceId `
-ReportId $report.ReportId `
-Format PDF `
-OutFile "$exportPath\$($report.Name).pdf"
Write-Host "✓ Exported $($report.Name) to $exportPath" -ForegroundColor Green
} catch {
Write-Host "✗ Failed to export $($report.Name): $_" -ForegroundColor Red
}
}
# Upload to accessible location (SharePoint, blob storage, etc.)
Write-Host "Uploading exports to SharePoint..."
# Add your file distribution logic here
5. Post-Outage Recovery and Analysis
Refresh backlog processor:
import requests
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
def analyze_refresh_backlog(workspace_id, hours_back=24):
"""Identify datasets that need refresh after outage"""
# Get all datasets in workspace
datasets_url = f"https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups/{workspace_id}/datasets"
response = requests.get(datasets_url, headers=get_auth_headers())
datasets = response.json()['value']
needs_refresh = []
cutoff_time = datetime.now() - timedelta(hours=hours_back)
for dataset in datasets:
# Check refresh history
refresh_url = f"https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups/{workspace_id}/datasets/{dataset['id']}/refreshes?$top=1"
refresh_response = requests.get(refresh_url, headers=get_auth_headers())
if refresh_response.status_code == 200:
refreshes = refresh_response.json().get('value', [])
if refreshes:
last_refresh = datetime.fromisoformat(refreshes[0]['endTime'].replace('Z', '+00:00'))
if last_refresh < cutoff_time or refreshes[0]['status'] != 'Completed':
needs_refresh.append({
'dataset_id': dataset['id'],
'dataset_name': dataset['name'],
'last_refresh': last_refresh.isoformat(),
'last_status': refreshes[0]['status'],
'priority': determine_priority(dataset['name'])
})
return sorted(needs_refresh, key=lambda x: x['priority'])
def determine_priority(dataset_name):
"""Assign refresh priority based on dataset importance"""
critical_keywords = ['executive', 'ceo', 'board', 'revenue', 'sales']
high_keywords = ['daily', 'operational', 'customer', 'finance']
name_lower = dataset_name.lower()
if any(keyword in name_lower for keyword in critical_keywords):
return 1 # Critical
elif any(keyword in name_lower for keyword in high_keywords):
return 2 # High
else:
return 3 # Normal
# Run post-outage analysis
backlog = analyze_refresh_backlog('your-workspace-id', hours_back=6)
print(f"Found {len(backlog)} datasets requiring refresh")
for dataset in backlog:
print(f"Priority {dataset['priority']}: {dataset['dataset_name']} (last refresh: {dataset['last_refresh']})")
6. Implement Proactive Monitoring
Continuous health monitoring with alerting:
// Node.js monitoring script with multi-channel alerting
const axios = require('axios');
const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
class PowerBIMonitor {
constructor(config) {
this.config = config;
this.consecutiveFailures = 0;
this.lastAlertTime = null;
}
async checkHealth() {
const checks = [
this.checkWebInterface(),
this.checkRestAPI(),
this.checkGatewayConnectivity()
];
const results = await Promise.allSettled(checks);
const failures = results.filter(r => r.status === 'rejected' || !r.value.success);
if (failures.length > 0) {
this.consecutiveFailures++;
// Alert after 3 consecutive failures (3 minutes)
if (this.consecutiveFailures >= 3) {
await this.sendAlert({
severity: failures.length >= 2 ? 'critical' : 'warning',
message: `Power BI health check failed: ${failures.length} components affected`,
details: failures
});
}
} else {
// Service recovered
if (this.consecutiveFailures >= 3) {
await this.sendAlert({
severity: 'info',
message: 'Power BI service restored',
details: 'All health checks passing'
});
}
this.consecutiveFailures = 0;
}
}
async checkWebInterface() {
try {
const response = await axios.get('https://app.powerbi.com', { timeout: 10000 });
return { success: response.status === 200, component: 'web_interface' };
} catch (error) {
return { success: false, component: 'web_interface', error: error.message };
}
}
async checkRestAPI() {
try {
const token = await this.getAccessToken();
const response = await axios.get(
'https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups',
{
headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}` },
timeout: 10000
}
);
return { success: response.status === 200, component: 'rest_api' };
} catch (error) {
return { success: false, component: 'rest_api', error: error.message };
}
}
async sendAlert(alert) {
// Prevent alert spam - min 15 minutes between alerts
const now = Date.now();
if (this.lastAlertTime && (now - this.lastAlertTime) < 900000) {
return;
}
this.lastAlertTime = now;
// Send to multiple channels
await Promise.all([
this.sendEmail(alert),
this.sendSlackNotification(alert),
this.sendWebhook(alert)
]);
}
async sendSlackNotification(alert) {
const color = alert.severity === 'critical' ? 'danger' :
alert.severity === 'warning' ? 'warning' : 'good';
await axios.post(this.config.slackWebhook, {
attachments: [{
color: color,
title: `Power BI ${alert.severity.toUpperCase()}`,
text: alert.message,
footer: 'Power BI Monitor',
ts: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)
}]
});
}
}
// Run monitor every 60 seconds
const monitor = new PowerBIMonitor({
slackWebhook: process.env.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL,
emailRecipients: ['ops@company.com', 'analytics@company.com']
});
setInterval(() => monitor.checkHealth(), 60000);
Related Service Monitoring
Power BI dependencies and related services to monitor:
- Azure Status - Power BI runs on Azure infrastructure
- Microsoft 365 Status - Shared authentication and admin services
- OneDrive Status - Used for Excel data sources and file storage
- SharePoint Status - Common data source for Power BI datasets
- Azure SQL Status - Frequently used as dataset source
- Dynamics 365 Status - Common enterprise data integration
For organizations using alternative BI platforms:
- Tableau Status - Primary Power BI competitor
- Looker Status - Google Cloud BI platform
- Qlik Status - Enterprise analytics alternative
Frequently Asked Questions
How often does Power BI go down?
Power BI maintains strong uptime (typically 99.9%+), but experiences service disruptions several times per year. Major outages affecting all users globally are rare (1-3 annually), while regional or component-specific issues occur more frequently. Premium capacity users generally experience better reliability than shared capacity users. Most incidents are resolved within 2-4 hours, though complex infrastructure issues can extend to 8+ hours.
What's the difference between Power BI status page and API Status Check?
The official Microsoft 365 Service Health dashboard requires admin access and is manually updated by Microsoft's operations team, which can lag behind actual issues by 15-60 minutes. API Status Check performs automated health checks every 60 seconds against live Power BI endpoints, often detecting degradation before Microsoft declares an incident. For comprehensive monitoring, use both: API Status Check for early warning and the official status page for detailed incident communications and ETAs.
Can I get SLA credits for Power BI outages?
Power BI Premium and Premium Per User (PPU) include financial SLA commitments (99.9% uptime). If monthly uptime falls below this threshold, customers can request service credits (typically 25-100% of monthly fees depending on downtime severity). Shared capacity (free/Pro without dedicated capacity) does not include SLA guarantees. To claim credits, open a support ticket through the Microsoft 365 admin center within 30 days of the incident with documentation of the outage impact.
Should I use Premium capacity to avoid Power BI outages?
Premium capacity provides dedicated resources and better performance, but doesn't eliminate outage risk since all Power BI tiers share backend infrastructure. During platform-wide outages, Premium users are affected similarly to Pro users. However, Premium does reduce issues caused by shared resource contention (throttling, slow refreshes) and includes higher SLA guarantees. Consider Premium for performance and capacity needs, not solely for reliability.
How do I prevent data loss during Power BI outages?
Power BI itself doesn't store your source data—it connects to your data warehouses, databases, and files. During outages, your data remains safe in the source systems. To prevent "data loss" in the analytics sense: (1) Maintain local copies of critical datasets, (2) Export important reports to PDF/Excel during stable periods, (3) Implement dataset refresh queuing to automatically retry failed refreshes, (4) Document direct database access methods for urgent queries during extended outages.
What regions is Power BI available in?
Power BI operates in multiple Azure regions globally including North America (East US, West US, Central US), Europe (North Europe, West Europe), Asia Pacific (Southeast Asia, East Asia), and region-specific instances for government clouds. Your workspace is typically hosted in the region nearest your Microsoft 365 tenant location. Regional outages may affect only specific geographies while others remain operational. Check the Microsoft 365 admin center to confirm your tenant's region assignment.
How can I monitor Power BI gateway health?
On-premises data gateway health can be monitored via: (1) Gateway desktop app status indicator, (2) Power BI Service gateway management page showing last contact time, (3) Windows Event Viewer logs (Event ID 300 = gateway started, 700 = gateway connected to cloud), (4) Power BI REST API Get Gateway endpoint, (5) PowerShell cmdlets from the Power BI Management module. Set up automated monitoring that alerts when gateway shows "Offline" status or when last contact time exceeds 5 minutes.
What happens to scheduled refreshes during Power BI outages?
During outages, scheduled dataset refreshes either fail immediately or remain stuck in "In Progress" status. Power BI does NOT automatically retry failed scheduled refreshes after service restoration—you must manually trigger refreshes or wait for the next scheduled time. For critical datasets, implement your own retry queue or use Power BI's REST API to programmatically trigger refreshes post-outage. Consider increasing refresh frequency for important datasets to minimize data staleness after incidents.
Can I use Power BI Desktop during service outages?
Yes, Power BI Desktop continues to function during Power BI Service outages since it runs locally on your machine. You can create, edit, and refresh reports using Desktop even when cloud services are down. However, you cannot publish reports to the service or connect to datasets hosted in Power BI Service (shared datasets, DirectQuery to Power BI datasets). Local files using Import mode and DirectQuery to your own data sources work normally.
How do Power BI outages affect embedded analytics in my application?
Applications using Power BI Embedded are directly impacted by service outages. Embedded reports will fail to load, embed tokens cannot be generated, and REST API calls timeout. Implement graceful degradation: (1) Set embed timeout limits (15-30 seconds), (2) Display user-friendly error messages with retry options, (3) Provide static report exports as fallback, (4) Cache successfully loaded report configurations, (5) Log embed failures for post-incident analysis. Consider implementing a status banner in your app that automatically appears during detected Power BI outages.
What's the best way to get notified about Power BI outages?
Multi-channel notification strategies work best: (1) Subscribe to alerts at API Status Check for early automated detection, (2) Enable Microsoft 365 Service Health notifications in the admin center (email or Teams), (3) Follow @MSPowerBI on Twitter for informal updates, (4) Implement your own synthetic monitoring with REST API health checks, (5) Join the Power BI Community forums where users report issues in real-time. Avoid relying on a single notification source, as each has different detection latency and coverage.
Stay Ahead of Power BI Outages
Don't let dashboard downtime disrupt critical business decisions. Subscribe to real-time Power BI alerts and get notified instantly when issues are detected—before stakeholders start asking questions.
API Status Check monitors Power BI 24/7 with:
- 60-second health checks across all service components
- Instant alerts via email, Slack, Discord, Teams, or webhook
- Historical uptime tracking and incident timeline
- Multi-region monitoring (Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific)
- Gateway connectivity testing
- Premium capacity performance tracking
Start monitoring Power BI now →
Last updated: February 4, 2026. Power BI status information is provided in real-time based on active monitoring. For official incident reports, always refer to Microsoft 365 Service Health Dashboard at admin.microsoft.com.
Monitor Your APIs
Check the real-time status of 100+ popular APIs used by developers.
View API Status →