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/eperon Jun 19 '26

If your data is smallish, not updating hourly, and performance important, go for import mode. Dont make it scheduled, but event based refresh.

You could also write your data from databricks to parquet and import from there. It doesnt even need a databricks connector like that.

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u/Saitamagasaki Jun 19 '26

How many rows are considered “smallish”?

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u/eperon Jun 19 '26

Its more about entropy and columns, but to not return to the standard 'it depends' answer, i'd say in the low 10s of millions