Documentation

InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated

Use Power BI to visualize data

  • SQL

Use Microsoft Power BI Desktop with the This guide includes Windows (64‑bit) installation steps for the Arrow Flight SQL ODBC driver and the InfluxDB 3 Power BI connector.

Microsoft Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights.

– Microsoft Power BI documentation

These instructions are for Power BI Desktop only; it uses a custom connector.

  1. Prerequisites
  2. Install the Arrow Flight SQL ODBC driver
  3. Install the Power BI connector
  4. Enable the connector in Power BI
  5. Connect Power BI to InfluxDB
  6. Query and visualize data

Prerequisites

  • Windows operating system: The custom connector requires Windows (macOS users can use virtualization software like Parallels)
  • Power BI Desktop: Download and install Power BI Desktop (A free trial is available)
  • InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated: A running instance with data to query
  • Database token: Your database token

Install the Arrow Flight SQL ODBC driver

The InfluxDB 3 custom connector for Power BI requires the Arrow Flight SQL ODBC driver. Install the driver before installing the Power BI connector.

Download the Arrow Flight SQL ODBC driver

  1. Run the downloaded .msi installer.
  2. Follow the installation wizard using default settings.
  3. Complete the installation.

Verify driver installation

  1. Open the Windows application ODBC Data Source Administrator (64-bit).
  2. Open the ODBC Data Source Administrator (64-bit) Windows component
  3. Navigate to the Drivers tab
  4. Verify Arrow Flight SQL ODBC Driver appears in the list.

Install the Power BI connector

After installing the ODBC driver, download and install the InfluxDB 3 custom connector for Power BI Desktop.

Download the InfluxDB 3 Power BI connector

Move the connector to the custom connectors directory

  1. Create the custom connectors folder if it doesn’t exist:

    mkdir "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors"

  2. Move the connector file to the custom connectors folder:

    Move-Item "C:\Users\
    YOUR_USER
    \Downloads\InfluxDB.pqx"     `

"$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors"

Replace the following:

Enable the connector in Power BI

To use custom connectors, you must adjust Power BI Desktop’s security settings:

  1. Open Power BI Desktop
  2. Select File > Options and settings > Options
  3. Navigate to Security under GLOBAL
  4. Under Data Extensions, select (Not Recommended) Allow any extension to load without validation or warning
  5. Click OK
  6. Restart Power BI Desktop for the changes to take effect

Security considerations

Enabling uncertified extensions allows any custom connector to load. Only enable this setting if you trust the connectors you’re installing.

Connect Power BI to InfluxDB

After installing the connector and restarting Power BI Desktop:

  1. Open Power BI Desktop

  2. Click Get Data > More

  3. Search for InfluxDB 3 and select it

  4. Click Connect

  5. In the InfluxDB 3 connection dialog, configure the following:

    • Server: Your InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated URL without the port, (for example,

https://cluster-id.a.influxdb.io

)

)

  1. Select DirectQuery as the Data Connectivity mode

  2. Click OK

  3. When prompted for credentials:

    • Select Basic authentication
    • Username: Leave blank or enter any value
    • Password: Enter your database token

  4. Click Connect

  5. Preview your data and click Load

Limit query size for optimal performance

InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated can handle high throughput and dimensional data. To ensure Power BI can successfully process data, limit query size by:

  • Using a LIMIT clause
  • Specifying time ranges with WHERE time >= ...
  • Filtering by specific columns or tags

Query and visualize data

Use Native Queries

When connecting to InfluxDB 3, you can use the Native Query option to execute custom SQL queries:

  1. In the connection dialog, enable Native Query

  2. Enter your query in the provided field:

    SELECT
  time,
  temp,
  room
FROM
  home
WHERE
  time >= now() - INTERVAL '7 days'
ORDER BY
  time DESC
LIMIT 1000

  3. Select DirectQuery as the connectivity mode

  4. Click OK to load the data

Create visualizations

After loading data, Power BI displays your dataset in the Fields pane.

View data in a table

  1. In the Visualizations pane, select the Table visualization
  2. In the Fields pane, select the columns to display:
    • time: Timestamp column
    • room: Tag column
    • temp: Field column
  3. By default, Power BI summarizes numeric fields. To display raw values:
    • Select the field in the Fields or Visualizations pane
    • Go to the Modeling tab
    • Change Default Summarization to Don’t Summarize

Create time series visualizations

  1. In the Visualizations pane, select a visualization type (for example, Line chart)
  2. Drag fields to the appropriate areas:
    • X-axis: time field
    • Y-axis: Measurement fields (for example, temp)
    • Legend: Tag fields (for example, room)
  3. Use the Filters pane to apply additional filters
  4. Configure visualization properties in the Format pane
  5. Save your report

Time series best practices

Troubleshooting

Driver not found

If Power BI or other applications can’t find the Arrow Flight SQL ODBC driver:

  1. Open the ODBC Data Source Administrator (64-bit) Windows component
  2. Navigate to the Drivers tab
  3. Verify Arrow Flight SQL ODBC Driver appears in the list
  4. If not listed, reinstall the driver

Connector not found

If Power BI Desktop doesn’t show the InfluxDB 3 connector:

Connection errors

If you encounter connection errors:

Authentication errors

If authentication fails:

Query errors

If queries fail or return errors:

Query performance

For better query performance:

Was this page helpful?

Thank you for your feedback!

© 2026 InfluxData, Inc.

What is your InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated cluster URL?

Enter your InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated cluster URL and we’ll update code examples for you.

Enter cluster URL

Thank you for your feedback!

Let us know what we can do better:

Thank you!

No thanks

InfluxDB 3.9: Performance upgrade preview

InfluxDB 3 Enterprise 3.9 includes a beta of major performance upgrades with faster single-series queries, wide-and-sparse table support, and more.

InfluxDB 3 Enterprise 3.9 includes a beta of major performance and feature updates.

Key improvements:

  • Faster single-series queries
  • Consistent resource usage
  • Wide-and-sparse table support
  • Automatic distinct value caches for reduced latency with metadata queries

Preview features are subject to breaking changes.

For more information, see:

Telegraf Enterprise now in public beta

Get early access to the Telegraf Controller and provide feedback to help shape the future of Telegraf Enterprise.

See the Blog Post

The upcoming Telegraf Enterprise offering is for organizations running Telegraf at scale and is comprised of two key components:

  • Telegraf Controller: A control plane (UI + API) that centralizes Telegraf configuration management and agent health visibility.
  • Telegraf Enterprise Support: Official support for Telegraf Controller and Telegraf plugins.

Join the Telegraf Enterprise beta to get early access to the Telegraf Controller and provide feedback to help shape the future of Telegraf Enterprise.

For more information:

InfluxDB Docker latest tag changing to InfluxDB 3 Core

On May 27, 2026, the latest tag for InfluxDB Docker images will point to InfluxDB 3 Core. To avoid unexpected upgrades, use specific version tags in your Docker deployments.

If using Docker to install and run InfluxDB, the latest tag will point to InfluxDB 3 Core. To avoid unexpected upgrades, use specific version tags in your Docker deployments. For example, if using Docker to run InfluxDB v2, replace the latest version tag with a specific version tag in your Docker pull command–for example:

docker pull influxdb:2