How to connect Power BI with Azure Blob Storage with Service Principal authentication?

Hello @Santhoshsivan Murali,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Platform. Thank you for reaching out & hope you are doing well.

I understand that you are trying to connect Power BI to Azure Blob Storage to access data, and for authentication, you only see four options: Anonymous, Organizational Account, Account Key, and SAS token. It looks like you can't find the Service Principal authentication option.

Since you are using the Power BI Desktop app, the service principal option is not available, and the Service Principal authentication is only supported in the cloud version (Power BI Service). This is by design.

Power BI supports Service Principal authentication through Azure Active Directory (AAD) and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), However, at present, there is no direct user interface in Power BI Desktop or Power BI Service for Service Principal authentication when connecting to Azure Blob Storage.

In Power BI, selecting Organizational Account allows you to authenticate with an Azure AD service principal instead of a user account. To set this up, register an app in Azure Entra ID, assign the necessary Storage Blob Data Contributor or Reader role to the storage account or container, and use the service principal’s credentials (Client ID and Client Secret) for authentication.

Service principal authentication is mainly available in the Power BI service for scheduled refreshes and dataset connections, which you can set up using Power BI data source settings or Azure Resource Manager connections. In Power BI Desktop, there isn't a specific "Service principal" option in the authentication menu. Instead, you use the Organizational Account option or configure the connection in the Power BI service after publishing.

Reference links,

Azure Blob Storage - Power Query | Microsoft Learn

Authentication Method - service principal | Microsoft Learn

Kindly let us know if the above helps or you need further assistance on this issue.

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Hello Santhoshsivan Murali,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A and thank you for posting your questions here.

I understand that you would like to connect Power BI with Azure Blob Storage with Service Principal authentication.

Irrespective of the document, if you can provide the link, that will be better. However,

• You cannot pick “Service principal” for Azure Blob Storage in Power BI Desktop.
• You can use Service principal in Power Query Online (Dataflows / Fabric), then consume that dataflow from Desktop (if needed, this might be a better option for your case).
• Be aware of gateway and same-region firewall limitations and ensure RBAC is correctly set for the SP. - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/connectors/azure-blob-storage

If you want, tell me your exact workspace setup (Service vs Fabric), storage firewall status, and whether a gateway is mandated. I’ll map your path 1:1 to the steps above.

I hope this is helpful! Do not hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions or clarifications.

Please don't forget to close up the thread here by upvoting and accept it as an answer if it is helpful.