Drill-Down and Drill-Through

Drill-down and drill-through let users move from summarized information to more detailed analysis.

What Is Drill-Down?

Drill-down allows users to explore multiple levels of a hierarchy within the same visual.

For example, a date hierarchy may contain:

Year → Quarter → Month → Day

A user can start with annual revenue and move into quarterly or monthly results.

To use drill-down:

1. Create a visual with a hierarchical field, such as a date hierarchy.
2. Add a measure, such as total sales.
3. Enable drill-down using the visual's drill controls.
4. Select a data point to explore the next level.
5. Use the drill-up control to return to a higher level.

You can also build hierarchies using related fields, such as Category and Product, when the model and visual support the intended structure.

Drill-down is useful when users want to explore details without leaving the current report page.

What Is Drill-Through?

Drill-through allows users to navigate from a summary visual to a separate report page containing more detailed information about a selected data point.

For example, a sales overview page may show revenue by product category. A drill-through page can display the individual products, orders, and sales figures associated with the selected category.

To configure drill-through:

1. Create a new report page for detailed analysis.
2. Add the relevant field, such as Category, to the page's drill-through field area.
3. Add detailed visuals to the page, such as a transaction table and sales summary.
4. Return to the overview page.
5. Right-click a suitable data point and select the drill-through destination, when available.
6. Verify that the destination page displays the expected filtered data.

Power BI passes the selected field context to the destination page.

When Should You Use Each Feature?

Use drill-down when users need to move between hierarchy levels within a visual.

Use drill-through when users need a separate page dedicated to detailed information about a selected record or category.

Both features reduce the need to place every detail on the main report page.