How to Save a Power BI Report as Template

Updated on:

May 12, 2026

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Use this interactive demo to learn how to export and save a Power BI report as a reusable template.

Quick summary

Saving a Power BI report as a template lets you reuse your report structure and data connections without starting from scratch. This step-by-step guide shows how to export a Power BI template file directly from Power BI Desktop in just a few clicks.

Steps

Open your report in Power BI Desktop and click 'File'.
Select 'Export' from the File menu options.
Choose 'Power BI template' from the export submenu.
Add a template description in the empty description field.
Click 'OK' to confirm the template details.
Click 'Save' to complete the export and store your Power BI template.

📌 Why this matters

Saving a Power BI report as a template allows analysts and BI teams to standardize report structures, reuse data model configurations, and speed up the creation of new reports. Power BI templates (.PBIT files) preserve queries, relationships, and report layouts while stripping out the underlying data, making them safe to share across teams. This feature is essential for organizations that need consistent reporting frameworks without duplicating manual setup work. Teams that use Power BI templates reduce onboarding time and ensure governance across all their business intelligence workflows.

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