What Is the Best Way to Learn Power BI?

The best way to learn Power BI depends on the specific applications you will use it for, such as developing reports or evaluating sales progress, and your preferred learning methods. Business intelligence skills are in high demand across a range of industries, such as finance, health care, and manufacturing, making now a great time to learn Power BI.

Use this guide to learn more about Power BI, including some of the ways you can develop Power BI skills, and careers where you can use Power BI while earning a competitive salary. Power BI specialists, for example, earn an average annual salary of $94,503 [1].

What is Power BI?

Power BI is a business intelligence platform from Microsoft that hosts various applications and software services you can use to transform data into valuable insights. It was first released in 2015 and quickly grew to reach over 500,000 users from more than 45,000 organizations around the world, all within its first year, establishing itself as a leader in the business intelligence space [2]. Power BI relies on five key elements:

• Power BI Desktop is an application for your computer that helps you combine data sources, build visualizations, and create reports.

• Power BI service is Power BI’s software as a service (SaaS) that provides you with access to reports directly from a web browser.

• Power BI mobile applications are available for devices using iOS, Windows, and Android, allowing you to view and engage with your data directly from your smartphone or tablet.

• Power BI Report Builder is where you can create paginated reports to share in the Power BI service. 

• Power BI Report Server is another location where you can share your reports. However, rather than doing so on the cloud, the Power BI report server does this from your organization's infrastructure.

Who uses Power BI?

Businesses and organizations throughout a wide range of industries create value from data analysis and visualizations, making Power BI a useful tool across different sectors for data-driven decision-making. For example, financial institutions can use Power BI to monitor cash flow, perform profit and loss analysis, and observe key metrics. Even health care providers can utilize Power BI to improve patient outcomes by making treatment decisions based on data and consulting experts remotely about patient care. For manufacturers, Power BI provides access to insights relating to inventory levels, warehouse usage, and other logistical data, enabling smooth supply chain operations.

Is Power BI easy to learn?

Power BI is beginner-friendly and relatively easy to learn, even if you don’t have much prior experience with data analysis, thanks to its intuitive interface. Microsoft also directly offers a variety of learning materials you can use for support as you go about learning Power BI. If you already have prior experience with other Microsoft tools, such as Excel, it can make learning Power BI feel even more manageable.

What is the best way to learn Power BI?

The best way for you to learn Power BI depends on your unique circumstances, such as what you plan on using Power BI for; ultimately, different roles can use Power BI to serve different purposes. Additionally, you have access to several training options so you can select the one that best fits your current situation. You may choose online courses where you can learn at your own speed or earn a Power BI certification once you develop a solid grasp of Power BI. Take a look at how you can get your start with Power BI.

Download the Power BI Desktop.

In order to start learning Power BI, you should first install Power BI Desktop on your device. You can install Power BI Desktop for free in the Windows Store or by visiting the Power BI Desktop download page. Here you can converge your various data sources, create reports and visualizations, and put together business intelligence projects.

Access free Microsoft resources.

You can access several free learning modules directly from Microsoft, beginning with practicing fundamental data analytics skills in Power BI Desktop using Power Query. Microsoft offers many learning modules in both beginner and intermediate skill ranges. Once you’ve learned some of the basic concepts through these Power BI tutorials, you can move on to intermediate courses where you will need some familiarity with data analysis and reporting before beginning.

If having an instructor better suits your learning style, Microsoft also offers instructor-led training where you still have the flexibility of creating your own schedule. After taking advantage of the learning modules or instructor-led training (or both), you can consider taking the Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification exam. To make sure you have developed the necessary knowledge for the exam, you can first take a practice assessment and see where your skills currently stand. To pass the exam, you will need to know how to use Power BI to analyze, model, and visualize data, and if you don’t succeed on your first attempt, you can retake it 24 hours after your first try.

Take an online course.

You can learn Power BI on Coursera, with a wide range of online courses available. For example, earning a Microsoft Data Visualization Professional Certificate, which includes the Visualization for Data Analysis with Power BI course, will provide you with the opportunity to learn to use Power BI to transform real-world data into visualizations and generate valuable insights that you can use to inform decision-making processes.

Microsoft’s Harnessing the Power of Data with Power BI is also available on Coursera and covers concepts such as the role of data in supporting positive business outcomes and the skills you should know to work as a Power BI analyst. Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate will help you gain skills in data analysis, data visualization, and report building.

Jobs with Power BI

Business intelligence knowledge and skills apply to a number of different career paths. Explore some of the roles relating to business intelligence that you can pursue, as well as their average annual salaries:

• Business intelligence analyst: $93,879

• Market research analyst: $72,040

• Data scientist: $113,730

• Data analyst: $73,799

• Data engineer: $104,865

• Business analyst: $83,429

• Financial analyst: $84,883

• Data architect: $132,960

*All annual base salary data is sourced from Glassdoor as of April 2025 and does not include additional pay, such as commission and benefits.

Learn Power BI with Coursera

By considering your career goals and ideal learning method, you can find the best way for you to learn Power BI, such as Microsoft’s training modules or online courses. You can find highly rated courses on Coursera to learn more about Power BI and business intelligence. Earn a Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate, where you will have the opportunity to learn how to prepare Excel data for analysis in Power BI, create visualizations, and more. The IBM Business Intelligence Analyst Professional Certificate is another option if you’re considering a career in business intelligence. With this 10-course series, you can build skills in data analysis and reporting, as well as SQL and Excel.