Power BI for Azure Cost Savings

Azure generates tons of billing and usage data across your subscriptions. But analysing this data inside the Azure portal alone can feel limiting. That’s where Power BI comes in to turn raw Azure cost data into insightful, interactive dashboards for better financial decisions.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to use Power BI for Azure Cost Analysis, from connecting your data to building cost visualizations. We’ll also explore when to use it , various options to create dashboards, its pitfalls and how to fix them.

Why Use Power BI for Azure Cost Analysis?

You can use Power BI when you want to create executive dashboards tailored to your organization’s reporting style. It’s also a good choice when you need to combine Azure cost data with data from other sources, such as Salesforce or internal financial systems. Power BI works well if you have an internal team capable of maintaining and updating the reports regularly. Lastly, it’s ideal in scenarios where visualization of cost data to be made in less complex environment.

Step 1: Understand the Data Sources Available

Azure cost data can be pulled into Power BI from multiple sources:

Depending on your account type (EA, MCA, CSP), choose the most appropriate source.

Step 2: Enable Cost Export from Azure Portal

Let’s go with the Azure Cost Management exports, which is the most accessible and recommended way for most users.

2.1 Navigate to Cost Management + Billing

• Sign in to Azure Portal
• Go to Cost Management + Billing > Cost Management > Exports

2.2 Create a New Export

• Click + Add
• Fill in:
  • Name: e.g., “PowerBIExport”
  • Export Type: Daily or Monthly
  • Export Scope: Subscription or management group
  • Storage account: Select or create a Storage Account where the data will go

2.3 Review and Create

• Click Review + Create
• Azure will begin exporting daily usage data as .csv files into a storage container

Step 3: Connect Power BI to Azure Export Data

3.1 Open Power BI Desktop

• Download from Power BI site
• Open Power BI Desktop

3.2 Get Data from Azure Blob Storage

• Click Home > Get Data > More
• Search for Azure Blob Storage
• Enter your Storage Account name/key
• Browse to the container where the cost exports are stored
• Choose your desired .csv file (usually ends with usage.csv)

3.3 Transform and Clean the Data

• Click Transform Data to open the Power Query Editor
• Use filters, column renaming, or data type changes as needed
• Important columns:
  • MeterCategory
  • ResourceGroup
  • UsageDate
  • PreTaxCost
  • ConsumedService
• Click Close & Apply once ready

Step 4: Build Visualizations and Reports

4.1 Key Charts to Start With

• Total Cost by Resource Group
  • Use Clustered Bar Chart
  • Axis: ResourceGroup | Value: PreTaxCost
• Cost Trend Over Time
  • Use Line Chart
  • Axis: UsageDate | Value: PreTaxCost
• Cost by Meter Category or Service
• Custom filters
  • Add slicers for Subscription, Tag, Region

4.2 Save and Publish Report

• Save your .pbix file locally
• Click Publish to upload to Power BI Service for web access and sharing

Step 5: Automate Data Refresh

To keep your dashboards always up to date:

5.1 Configure Scheduled Refresh

• In Power BI Service, go to your report > Settings
• Under Dataset Settings, configure:
  • Refresh frequency: daily or multiple times per day
  • Credentials for Azure Storage access

This ensures your cost data reflects the latest exports from Azure.

If you want to save time, explore ready-made templates:

• Azure Cost Management Power BI App
• GitHub repositories like Azure-Samples often have .pbix templates with visuals already created
• Customize these with your own dimensions and branding

Pro Tips for Getting the Most Out of Power BI + Azure

• Tag your resources in Azure for better filtering and cost attribution
• Use Azure Budgets + Power BI to visualize against spend thresholds
• Create different dashboards for finance and leadership teams

Pitfalls with Power BI Azure cost reporting

In this section, we will see what the pitfalls are in implementing Power BI dashboard in complex Azure environments and how Turbo360 which is a third-party Azure cost management tool which fixes the gaps.

Case Study: How Wortell Outgrew Power BI for Azure FinOps

Let’s take the example of Wortell, a leading Microsoft partner and cloud services provider.

They started by offering FinOps services using self-made Power BI reports for their customers. But as their cloud operations scaled, so did the cracks in their approach:

We had to consolidate data manually, and the reports were always a snapshot—never real-time. Moreover, our customers couldn’t access their own data, making it hard for them to understand their costs. — Alex, Wortell

Key pain points they faced:

• Limited cost visibility with static reports
• Time-consuming manual effort to manage multiple tenants
• No real-time insights or alerting
• Lack of self-service access for customers

This made it difficult to offer scalable, proactive FinOps services — until they implemented Turbo360.

Fixing the Gaps: Why Turbo360 Complements or Replaces Power BI

Turbo360 was built to solve exactly the kind of challenges Wortell (and many Azure users) face. It delivers out-of-the-box cost visibility, intelligent alerts, and multi-tenant FinOps — with zero manual reporting overhead.

With Turbo360, FinOps became a core part of our managed services — not an add-on. It helped us empower our customers and scale our services efficiently. — Alex, Wortell

Conclusion

Power BI is great for custom data visualizations, especially for executive reporting. But when it comes to real-time, actionable, and scalable Azure cost management, Turbo360 is the purpose-built alternative that removes the need for manual effort and unlocks true FinOps automation.