Power BI Developer Salary

Key takeaways

Various factors can impact your salary as a Power BI developer, including education and experience levels, skill set, and the company you work for.

• As a Power BI developer, you may earn a salary that ranges $88,726 to $132,000, according to data collected by several leading job aggregators [1, 2, 3, 4].

• In this role, you may design customized visuals, collaborate with other developers and business analysts, and help your organization gain the necessary insights from its data. 

• You can typically expect to earn a higher salary with more advanced educational credentials and experience. 

Explore the job skills, salary, and career outlook of a Power BI developer in more detail. If you’re ready to begin preparing to enter the field, consider enrolling in the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate. You can go from a beginner to career-ready in as few as three to five months, all while working at a flexible pace. This eight-course program offers an opportunity to learn how to use Power BI while building skills in business intelligence, data analysis, and working with the Microsoft Power Platform.

What is Power BI, and is Power BI a good career skill?

Power BI, owned by Microsoft, is a business analytics tool that converts disparate data sources into cohesive, visually rich, and interactive insights. Software services, apps, and connectors form the integral components of Power BI.

A multi-purpose tool, Power BI, accommodates diverse roles within a team. For example, a data analyst may use Power BI Desktop to crunch numbers and create reports. A marketing specialist, on the other hand, could use the Power BI Mobile app to track the performance of marketing campaigns and delve into the specifics of customer conversions. For developers, Power BI application programming interfaces (APIs) offer the capability to incorporate custom dashboards and reports into applications.

What is a Power BI developer?

A Power BI developer aids organizations in presenting intricate business data through captivating visualizations across applications, portals, websites, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams. Providing business intelligence services, Power BI developers run the development of BI software, using raw data to create reports for business decision-making.

Typical work duties of a Power BI developer include:

• Designing and testing custom visuals using Microsoft’s open-source software development kit (SDK)

• Automating application lifecycle management with representational state transfer (REST) APIs

• Collaborating with fellow developers, business analysts, and product teams to curate or refine data

• Translating business objectives into technical tasks, such as filtering outliers and normalizing data, using data to create algorithms that make predictions for the company

Did you know? As of May 2025, Power BI Desktop is supported on Windows 8 and newer versions and is no longer compatible with Windows 7 [5].

Average Power BI developer salary: How much can a Power BI developer make?

The average annual income for a Power BI developer ranges from $88,726 to $132,000, according to multiple job listing sites. The following table lists the average pay provided by Payscale, Salary.com, Zippia, and Glassdoor [1, 2, 3, 4].

*Glassdoor’s salary data represents the total median pay, which includes base salary plus bonuses, commissions, and other forms of additional compensation.

Factors that affect Power BI developer salary

As with most professions, your salary will vary depending on various factors. Explore how your education, experience, skills, industry, location, and company can determine your yearly Power BI developer salary. 

Education

Your education level can impact your salary as a Power BI developer. According to Zippia, a bachelor’s degree for a business intelligence (BI) developer allows for an average salary of $91,124, while a master’s degree yields an average of $97,865 annually [6]. Opting for a doctorate degree can offer you an even higher income of $104,598 on average [6].

The predominant academic qualification among BI developers is a bachelor's degree, with 66 percent obtaining this credential [6]. Following closely is a master's degree, accounting for 29 percent of BI developers [6]. Popular fields of study for BI developers include computer science, information technology, and computer engineering.

Experience

The more experience you accumulate as a Power BI developer, the greater the likelihood of unlocking higher pay scales. The following list details the median total pay range you can anticipate based on your number of years of experience, according to Glassdoor [5].

• 0–1 year: $82,000–$133,000

• 1–3 years: $89,000–$116,000

• 4–6 years: $100,000–$157,000

• 7–9 years: $105,000–$164,000

• 10–14 years: $110,000–$174,000

• 15 or more years: $120,000–$193,000

Skills

Apart from business intelligence, Power BI developers with skills in structured query language (SQL), extract, transform, and load (ETL), and Tableau software tend to receive above-average pay, according to Payscale [2]:

• Business intelligence: $90,728

• SQL: $90,553

• ETL: $91,746

• Tableau software: $90,465

Read more: 6 Essential Power BI Skills

Industry

The industry you opt to work in also shapes your annual income as a Power BI developer. Below is a compilation of Glassdoor's average base salaries highlighting the top-paying industries for Power BI developers [5]:

• Telecommunications: $123,866

• Information technology: $104,765

Location 

Salaries often reflect the cost of living in your specific location, and cities or regions with higher living costs may offer you a higher salary as a Power BI developer to compensate for increased expenses.

Highest-paying cities for BI developers

Here are some top-paying cities for BI developers in the United States, according to data aggregated by Indeed [7]:

• Washington, DC: $123,028

• Issaquah, WA: $122,424

• Melbourne, FL: $114,771

• Sparks, NV: $107,685

• Houston, TX: $98,823

• Denver, CO: $95,914

• New York, NY: $94,360

• Seattle, WA: $93,336

• Atlanta, GA: $81,218 

Company 

Firms heavily reliant on data analytics and business intelligence might offer lucrative salaries to attract and retain skilled professionals. Nevertheless, evaluating other benefits, such as growth opportunities and the overall work environment, is wise before accepting a job offer.

Highest-paying companies for Power BI developers 

According to Glassdoor, the following list underscores the top-paying companies for Power BI developers in the United States. Please note that these salary ranges include average base pay as well as average additional pay, such as cash bonuses, profit sharing, and commission [5]:

• LinkedIn: $152,000–$248,000

• Indeed: $139,000–$219,000

• Apple: $111,000–$173,000

• DO & CO: $107,000–$180,000

• Varis: $115,000–$164,000

• T-Mobile: $109,000–$173,000

• Adecco Group: $114,000–$162,000

• Chegg: $108,000–$165,000

• Amazon: $116,000–$168,000

Certification

Acquiring relevant certifications typically enhances your skill set and validates your expertise in data handling. This, in turn, usually makes you a valuable asset to employers, potentially leading to higher income. Here are two notable certifications you can pursue and their average salaries:

• Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP): $126,000 [8]

• Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP): $117,000 [9]

Job outlook: Is Power BI a good career option? 

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) anticipates a 15 percent growth in job opportunities for software developers from 2024 to 2034 [10]. This projection translates to an average of 129,200 new job openings annually throughout the forecasted period [10]. Overall, the job outlook for Power BI and other software developers is promising.

Explore more no-frills career guidance

Browse our Career Resources Hub to connect with skills assessments, career planning tools, and interview tips to begin or advance along your career path. Also, explore our other helpful resources, including: 

• Watch on YouTube: Can You Really Change Careers with Power BI? 

• Hear from a fellow learner: How One Software Developer’s Leadership Aspirations Led Her to Graduate School

• Bookmark for later: Power BI Terms and Definitions

Whether you want to become more familiar with Power BI, build a new skill, get comfortable with an in-demand technology, or advance your abilities, you can continue growing with a Coursera Plus subscription. With a monthly or annual subscription, you’ll unlock access to over 10,000 flexible courses from more than 350 leading institutions and organizations, including Microsoft.

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