Tutorials › Power BI › Drill-Through in Power BI

Drill-Through in Power BI

Set up drill-through pages that give users detail views when they right-click a data point

Drill-through lets users right-click a data point (a bar, a row in a table, a point in a scatter chart) and navigate to a detailed report page filtered to that specific item. For example: right-click "Delhi" in a region chart → navigate to a Delhi detail page showing all orders, products, and customers for Delhi. Drill-through is one of the most powerful features for executive dashboards — summary on the main page, detail accessible on demand.

Example

Setting up a drill-through page
STEP 1 — Create a detail page:
  Right-click page tab → Add Page → name it "Order Detail"

STEP 2 — Add the drill-through field:
  On the "Order Detail" page
  Visualisations pane → Filters section → Drill through
  Drag the field to drill by (e.g., "Region")
  → A Back button appears automatically

STEP 3 — Add visuals to the detail page:
  Add charts, tables, cards — they will auto-filter
  to the Region the user drilled from

STEP 4 — Use it:
  Go back to main page
  Right-click "Delhi" bar in a chart
  → "Drill through" → "Order Detail"
  → Order Detail page loads filtered to Delhi

DRILL-THROUGH FILTERS:
  "Keep all filters" toggle in the Drill through field:
  ✓ On → carries over all page filters when drilling
  ✗ Off → only the drill-through field filter is applied

CUSTOMISE THE BACK BUTTON:
  Select the auto-generated Back button
  Format pane → Button style → change icon, fill, text

Key Points

  • ✓Drill-through field must be on the target page — not the source page
  • ✓Back button is auto-created when you add a drill-through field — do not delete it
  • ✓Users can only drill through if they right-click a data point — not by clicking a blank area
  • ✓Multiple drill-through pages can exist — right-click shows all available targets
  • ✓Cross-report drill-through: target page in a different .pbix file is also possible

Practice Question

Where do you drag the drill-through field when setting up a drill-through page in Power BI?

Related Topics

Bookmarks and Buttons in Power BICreate bookmarks to capture report states and build navigation with buttonsSlicers and Filters in Power BIAdd slicers and configure the filter pane to let users explore data interactivelyPower BI Service — Publishing and SharingPublish reports to Power BI Service, organise in workspaces, and share with colleagues