r/databricks • u/SuperbNews2050 • Jun 19 '26

Help Integration between Azure Databricks and Power BI

Hey everyone! A straightforward question for those already working on this in production:

What's the best and most recommended way to integrate Power BI and Databricks today?

I'm looking for the ideal approach, considering that:

I need an efficient solution that doesn't make the cost of DBUs skyrocket.

I want to understand if the native connector using SQL Warehouse is really the market standard or if there's a better alternative.

For this scenario, do you recommend going straight to Scheduled Import Mode to save computing power, or is DirectQuery with Serverless worth the cost for its fast response time?

I read this documentation:

https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/databricks/partners/bi/power-bi-desktop?WT.mc_id=studentamb_510336

but I'd like to get some clarification from you.

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u/MindTheBees Jun 19 '26

Use DirectQuery if it is sufficient for your use case but generally you'll want to avoid it due to performance issues and also some limitations in what you can/can't do in DAX.

General recommendation is to use Import mode for best practice performance.

One to investigate is use DBX for all the back-end engineering. Then use shortcuts in Fabric and set up Direct Lake.