DAX Studio
freeOpen-source tool for writing, executing, formatting, and tuning DAX queries against tabular models in Power BI, Analysis Services, and Power Pivot.
- Category
- dax-performance
- Type
- desktop-app
- Language
- C#
- Maintainer
- community
- Author
- Darren Gosbell
- Added
- Jun 1, 2026
What it does
DAX Studio is the de facto tool for writing, executing, formatting, and tuning DAX queries against tabular models — in Power BI Desktop, Power Pivot for Excel, Azure Analysis Services, and Power BI Premium / Fabric. It includes Server Timings, query plan capture, View Metrics (VertiPaq Analyzer), and query benchmarking for performance analysis.
Why use it
Use DAX Studio to author and profile DAX, diagnose slow measures, inspect storage-engine vs formula-engine behavior, and analyze model size and cardinality. It is a staple of serious Power BI performance work.
Getting started
Download the installer or portable build from https://daxstudio.org/downloads (also available via Chocolatey and Winget). It connects to Power BI Desktop as an external tool.