MySQL and Power BI Integration - Performance Optimization Tips

[jess_brown]

I’m working with Power BI connected to a MySQL database and running into some performance issues. When I execute queries directly in MySQL Workbench or similar tools, they complete in about 5 minutes. But the exact same queries take more than 20 minutes when run through Power BI.

My current setup uses direct SQL queries in Power BI to fetch data from MySQL. For longer operations, I have backend processes that pre-populate tables, then I just pull everything with basic SELECT statements.

I’ve tried the usual troubleshooting steps like turning off automatic type detection and disabling background data refresh, but the performance gap is still huge.

What strategies work best for improving Power BI query performance with MySQL connections? Are there specific configuration changes or architectural approaches that help reduce this kind of slowdown?

Any advice from people who have dealt with similar MySQL-Power BI performance problems would be really helpful.

[Emma_Galaxy]

Check your MySQL ODBC driver version first - older versions create major bottlenecks with Power BI. I had the same problem and upgrading to the latest 8.0 driver cut my query times in half. Also look at your MySQL connection string parameters. Set UseCompression=true and enable SSL if you haven’t already. Another thing that helped was adjusting Power BI’s timeout settings in advanced options during data source setup. The default timeout might be killing queries early and forcing retries. Finally, check if your MySQL server has query_cache_size tuned properly - Power BI’s way more sensitive to this than direct Workbench connections.

[MiaDragon42]

i struggled with this too! switching to import mode instead of direct query really boosted my speed. don’t forget to check if query caching is turned on in mysql – it made a big diff for me. good luck!