The previous limitation preventing drillthrough (via Excel’s Show Details feature when using Analyze in Excel) on Direct Lake and DirectQuery semantic model has been removed.
What Changed
Historically, the Show Details feature in Excel relies on the MDX DRILLTHROUGH statement, which was only supported for Import models. Direct Lake and DirectQuery models returned an error or no rows.
With recent updates, Power BI now supports drillthrough for Direct Lake and DirectQuery semantic models, enabling you to double‑click a PivotTable cell and retrieve the underlying detail rows—even when connected live to these types of models. Users can now enjoy a consistent drillthrough experience across Import, Direct Lake, and DirectQuery. You no longer need to switch to Import mode to support detailed analysis in Excel. And the drillthrough works seamlessly with existing RLS/OLS security configurations. Drillthrough respects all applied filters and security roles.
How to Use
Support for drillthrough is now available to Excel users out of the box. Just connect to your semantic model as always using Analyze in Excel. Ensure you’re using explicit measures or fields that support detail rows. Double‑click a leaf‑level cell in your PivotTable to view the underlying data.
Additional Notes
Keep in mind that drillthrough performance depends on the underlying source system and query complexity. This is especially important for semantic models in DirectQuery mode connecting to external data sources. For more details, refer to Create Excel workbooks with refreshable Power BI data.