How to Use Power BI Desktop for Mac (Easy Workaround)

Power BI is a potent business intelligence tool by Microsoft.

It helps you connect data from multiple data sources to your report. Then transform this data, visualize it using top-notch visuals, create interactive dashboards, perform data analytics and data modeling, and generate reports.

But wait – are you a Mac user? 💻

If yes, I regret to inform you that Power BI is unavailable for Mac users (but only Windows users). Check this out.

And as of 2024, Microsoft has no plans of developing Power BI that’s natively compatible with Mac.

Sure, that’s not very good news but that’s not the end of the world. Fortunately, we have several workarounds to help you run Power BI on Macintosh without lagging in performance 🤷‍♂️

Excited to learn these? Read this tutorial with me till the end.

Table of Contents

Running Power BI on a Mac

The simple answer to running Power BI on Mac organically is – no, you cannot do that.

Power BI is not compatible with macOS. That makes Windows users luckier but as a Mac user, you still have scope 😎

There are three main Power BI products on the market.

• Power BI Desktop
• Power BI Mobile
• Power BI Service

You’ll not be able to install Power BI Desktop on your Mac machine as you don’t fit the system compatibility requirements 🤯

To run Power BI on your Macintosh, you can opt for one of the many cloud-based solutions available out there. Check them out in the next section.

Cloud-based Solutions

The market has got many cloud-based solutions and here I have compiled a handful of the best ones for you.

• Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines
• Amazon Web Series (AWS) EC2
• Parallels
• Turbo.net

Let me walk you through them all to help you pick the best one for yourself 🚀

Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines

Azure VM is a cloud-based service by Microsoft that allows you to create and run virtual machines for Windows and Linux. You can use it to run Power BI on your Mac computer.

What do we like about it?

It offers multiple VM types (e.g., DSv5, NV series) for various workloads 👩‍💻

Perfect for handling complex Power BI reports and large datasets.

Ideal for:

Since it’s a product of Microsoft itself, it is ideal for users seeking deep integration with Microsoft products like Power BI.

Pricing Plan:

Azure has a free and pay-as-you-go model to speak in general 💲

With the Pay-as-you-go model, users are charged per second of use with no upfront cost.

Pricing for general-purpose VMs starts at around $0.008/hour for the B1S instance.

Different VM sizes (e.g., general-purpose, compute-optimized, memory-optimized) come with varying CPU, RAM, and disk performance and different prices.

Whereas, high-performance VMs (e.g., D-series) can range from $0.1 to several dollars per hour depending on specs 😁

Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2

Next on the list, we have Amazon AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) which offers scalable virtual computing resources in the cloud, allowing users to run custom Windows or Linux instances.

What do we like about it?

It provides flexibility to run applications like Power BI with customizable performance and pricing options. So, you get customizable window instances (CPU, RAM, storage, etc.) ☁

Ideal for:

Users who need a scalable and versatile cloud-based infrastructure.

Pricing Plan:

Amazon EC2 is free to try.

There are multiple ways to pay for EC2 instances 👇

• On-Demand: On-demand instances let you pay for computing capacity by the hour or second with no long-term commitments.
• Savings Plans: Savings Plans is a flexible pricing model that can help you reduce your bill by up to 72% compared to On-Demand prices, in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of usage (measured in $/hour) for a 1- or 3-year term.
• Amazon EC2 Spot Instances: Amazon EC2 Spot Instances let you take advantage of unused EC2 capacity in the AWS cloud, and are available at a discount of up to 90% compared to On-Demand prices.

Parallels

Parallels, as they say, “Get more out of your Mac”, is another desktop virtualization software that can help Mac users to run Windows applications (like Power BI) 📉

This gives you a virtual environment with the ease of switching between operating systems.

What do we like about it?

Parallels is the most user-friendly option on this list to run Windows operating system on a Macbook. You can do so through local virtualization or via cloud-based deployment like the Parallels Desktop app 📑

Ideal for:

Users looking out for a simple solution with a dedicated cloud service and a Mac-friendly interface.

Pricing Plan:

No complexities. It has a one-time purchase model and a subscription model for Windows.

The subscription model has a Standard and a Pro Edition that retails for $99.99 and $89.99 (discounted price) 💰

Whereas, the Standard Edition one-time purchase model retails for a flat $129.99.

Choose the one that suits your needs after you’ve compared the features of each model.

Turbo.net

As the name says, Turbo.net is a URL more than the name of a software.

You caught that right. Turbo.net allows Mac users to run apps like Power BI and other Windows-based apps directly from the browser in a cloud-based environment 💭

This means you can directly virtualize the application from your Mac rather than having to virtualize the entire Windows environment. No need for complete operating system emulation.

What do we like about it?

• It is a lightweight solution.
• Zero setup requirements.
• No need to run an entire virtual machine.
• Just log in to Turbo.net and start running Power BI directly.

Ideal for:

Turbo.net is a fantastic option for those who only want to run Power BI on their Mac devices without managing the whole Windows Virtual machine 💡

Pricing Plan:

Here’s what the pricing plan for Turbo.net looks like.

Whereas, the Standard Edition one-time purchase model retails for a flat $129.99.

Other Solutions

Other than running a virtual machine, you can also check the following solutions.

Boot Camp:

Boot camp is a built-in utility of macOS that enables users to download Windows alongside macOS on their Mac devices 🌠

So once you’ve installed Windows on your Mac, you can dual-boot into the Windows partition and run Power BI functionalities natively.

Remote Desktop

Under this method, you can install Power BI on any of your Windows-based devices (can be local or virtual).

Then access that device remotely from your Mac using different tools like AnyDesk, Team Viewer, or Microsoft Remote Desk 👩‍🎓

Try alternative Business Intelligence tools.

This is not a solution to run Microsoft Power BI on your Mac device. But just to mention that Power BI is not the only business intelligence tool out there and if you don’t want to go the extra mile, you can try using other business intelligence solutions on your Mac device. Try these:

• Looker
• Tableau
• Google Data Studio

Conclusion

Yes, macOS doesn’t natively support Power BI but there’s always a hack to every problem (and all you need is a tech wiz to take you there) 💪

In the guide above, I have shown you multiple ways and cloud-based solutions that you can opt to leverage the Power BI capabilities on your Mac.

You do not need to switch your operating system or give up on your Mac (that cost you an arm and a leg :D).

Give the above solutions a try to see which sits the best with you to create, analyze, and model data in Power BI. And if you’re here to learn more such tips about using Power BI, I highly recommend reading the following tutorials by Spreadsheeto.

• Power BI Best Practices: 10 Guidelines to Always Follow
• Power BI vs Excel: When to Use Excel and When Power BI Is Better
• How to Set up Data Refresh in Power BI (Automatic & Manual)