Power BI Card Visual [Updated for the New Card Visual 2025]

You’re building a Power BI report, and all your stakeholders want to see is one number — Total Revenue, Units Sold, or Average Discount. No chart, no table, just the number front and center. That’s exactly what the Power BI Card visual is built for.

But here’s what most tutorials won’t tell you: Microsoft completely redesigned the Card visual in November 2025. The old Card visual and the Multi-row Card are both on their way out. If you’re following a 2021 or 2022 tutorial, you’re learning a tool that’s already being replaced.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through everything — how the new Card visual works, how to format it, how to use conditional formatting, number formats, drill-through, tooltips, and more. I’ll also show you when to use the old Card visual vs. the new one, and how to migrate if you’re already using the legacy visual.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What the Power BI Card visual is and when to use it
• Old Card vs. New Card visual — what changed
• How to create a Card visual in Power BI Desktop
• How to format a Card visual
• Conditional formatting on Card visuals
• Number formatting (including how to fix rounded numbers)
• Tooltips and the Card Browser
• Real-world scenario examples
• FAQs

What Is a Power BI Card Visual?

A Card visual in Power BI displays a single metric or KPI — like Total Sales, Profit, Headcount, or a date — in a clean, prominent format. It’s one of the most-used visuals in any dashboard because it gets straight to the point.

Think of it as the “headline” of your report page. Before a stakeholder looks at your bar charts or trend lines, they glance at your cards first.

You can display:

• Numbers (e.g., Total Revenue: $4.2M)
• Dates (e.g., Last Refresh Date: March 10, 2026)
• Text (e.g., Top Product: Contoso Chair)

⚠️ Important: The Card Visual Got a Major Redesign in 2025

Before we go further, you need to know this: Microsoft released a brand-new Card visual that became Generally Available (GA) in November 2025. This new visual replaces both the classic Card and Multi-row Card visuals.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what changed:

If you created reports before November 2025, your old Card visuals will remain as-is —they won’t auto-convert. But any new Card you drop onto a canvas will use the new design.

My recommendation: Start using the new Card visual for all new reports. For older reports, plan a migration — especially if you’re using Multi-row Cards, since that visual is being deprecated.

Which Card Visual Should You Use?

Use this simple decision guide before you start:

Do you need to show ONE single KPI?
   → Yes → Use the new Card visual (single callout)

Do you need multiple KPIs side-by-side in one visual?
   → Yes → Use the new Card visual (add multiple fields)

Do you need the same KPI broken down by category (e.g., Sales per Region)?
   → Yes → Use the new Card visual + Small Multiples

Do you want to show product images or branding alongside numbers?
   → Yes → Use the new Card visual with Hero Images

Are you maintaining a legacy report and can't change the layout yet?
   → Yes → Keep the old Card for now, but plan to migrate

How to Create a Card Visual in Power BI Desktop

Here I will show you how to create a card visual in Power BI Desktop.

Step 1: Open Power BI Desktop and load your data using Home > Get Data.

Step 2: On your report canvas, click the Card visual icon in the Visualizations pane. It looks like a square with a number inside.

Step 3: From the Data pane, drag a numeric field into the Value field well. For example, drag Total Sales or Profit.

Your card will now show the total aggregated value for that field, something like $2,300,000.

Step 4: If your number looks wrong (e.g., it shows an average instead of a sum), click the dropdown arrow next to the field in the well and select Sum.

How to Format a Power BI Card Visual

Once your Card is on the canvas, click it and go to the Format pane (the paint roller icon) to start customizing. Here’s what each section does:

Size & Style

Controls the overall container and appearance of the card visual.

• Size & position: Adjust the width, height, and placement of the card
• Padding: Control the space between the card content and its edges
• Background: Set the card’s background color and transparency
• Visual border: Add and style a border around the card
• Shadow: Apply a shadow effect to give depth to the card

Title

By default, the card has no title — you need to toggle this on.

• Title: Main heading displayed at the top of the card
• Subtitle: Secondary text below the title for additional context
• Divider: A line that separates the title section from the card content
• Spacing: Controls the space between the title, subtitle, and the card content

Multi-card Layout

Controls how multiple cards are arranged and spaced within the visual.

• Layout: Defines the arrangement (grid, horizontal, or vertical)
• Padding: Controls space inside each card
• Gap: Sets spacing between multiple cards
• Border: Adds and styles borders around individual cards
• Background: Sets the background color for each card
• Overflow: Handles how extra content is displayed (scroll or clip)

Cards (Container Styling)

Controls the appearance and styling of individual cards.

• Layout: Defines how content is aligned inside the card
• Shape: Adjusts corner style (e.g., rounded corners)
• Padding: Controls space between content and card edges
• Border: Adds and styles a border around the card
• Divider: Inserts a line to separate elements inside the card
• Background: Sets the card’s background color
• Accent bar: Adds a highlight strip for emphasis
• Shadow: Applies a shadow effect for depth
• Glow: Adds a glow effect around the card

Callout

Controls the main value display area of the card.

• Layout: Defines how the value and elements are arranged
• Padding: Controls space inside the callout area
• Value: Displays and formats the main number
• Label: Shows the category text for the value
• Image: Adds an icon or image alongside the value
• Background: Sets the background color for the callout area

Pro tip from my experience: Always set Display Units explicitly — never leave it on Auto. “Auto” can show $1,200,000 as “1.2M” sometimes and “1,200,000.00” other times depending on the value range. It confuses stakeholders. Set it to Millions or Thousands and be consistent across all cards.

Image

Controls the image or icon displayed in the card.

1. Image: Add and configure the image or icon
2. Padding: Control space around the image within the card

Reference Labels

This is one of the most useful new features. You can add a second (or third) data field below the main number to show context — like “vs. Last Year” or “vs. Budget.”

For example:

• Main callout: $4.2M (Total Sales)
• Reference label: ▲ 12% vs. LY

To add one:

1. In the Data pane, drag a field into the Reference label 1 field well
2. In the Format pane, go to Reference labels to style the font, color, and position

Power BI Card Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting on a Card is one of the most powerful things you can do. It lets the card visually communicate whether a metric is good, bad, or needs attention — no extra charts needed.

You can apply conditional formatting to:

• Data label (font color)
• Card background color
• Title font color and background color
• Reference label color (new Card visual)

How to Set Up Conditional Formatting

Step 1: Select your Card visual, and go to the Format pane.

Step 2: Find the property you want to format (e.g., Data label > Color). Click the “fx” button next to it.

Step 3: In the dialog, set your rules:

• If Total Sales is less than 1,000,000 → Color: Red
• If Total Sales is greater than or equal to 1,000,000 → Color: Green

Step 4: Click OK and test it by using a slicer to change the filtered value.

Conditional Formatting Scenarios

Here are some real situations where I use this:

• Sales Dashboard: Background turns red when revenue drops below target, green when it’s above. Stakeholders can see the status at a glance without having to read the number.
• HR Headcount: Font color turns orange when headcount exceeds the budget threshold — acts like an early warning.
• Finance Report: Background changes based on the selected region — lighter tones for underperforming regions.

Power BI Card Number Format

This is probably the most common question I get: “Why is my card showing a weird number?”

The answer is almost always the Display Units setting.

How to fix it:

1. Select the Card visual
2. Go to Format pane > Data label > Display units
3. Change the value:

My rule of thumb:

• For exact counts (headcount, order count): use None
• For revenue in millions: use Millions with 1 decimal place
• For revenue in thousands: use Thousands with no decimal

You can also control decimal places under Value decimal places in the same section.

Power BI Card Tooltip

A tooltip appears when someone hovers over your card. By default, it shows the field name and value. But you can customize it to add more context.

How to customize:

1. Select the Card visual
2. Go to Format pane > Tooltip and toggle it on
3. Customize:
   • Label text color — the field name text
   • Value text color — the number
   • Background color — try dark background with light text for contrast
   • Text size — I recommend 12pt minimum for readability

You can also use Report Page Tooltips — where hovering a card shows an entire custom report page. This is advanced but very impressive in executive dashboards.

Power BI Card Drill-Through

Drill-through lets users right-click a Card visual and navigate to a detail page filtered by that card’s context. For example:

• A card showing Total Sales for Canada → drill through to a detailed Sales by Product table for Canada

How to set it up:

Step 1: Create a new report page (this will be your detail page).

Step 2: On the detail page, drag the field you want to filter by (e.g., Country or Product) into the Drill through field well in the Visualizations pane.

Step 3: Go back to your main page with the Card visual. Right-click the card → Drill through → select your detail page.

This works particularly well when your Card is inside a matrix or filtered by a slicer. Users can drill into the exact slice they’re looking at.

Power BI Card Browser (Custom Visual)

The Card Browser is a third-party custom visual from Microsoft AppSource. It’s different from the standard Card — it displays a collection of items as flippable, double-sided thumbnail cards. Think of it like a media browser or product catalog experience.

Since it’s not a built-in visual, you need to add it manually:

1. In the Visualizations pane, click the three dots (…) > Get more visuals
2. Search for Card Browser in AppSource
3. Click Add

It’s useful for browsing image-heavy data — like employee profiles, product catalogs, or real estate listings. It’s not the same as the standard KPI card, so don’t confuse the two.

Real-World Scenarios: How I Use Card Visuals

Here are four practical scenarios I’ve seen used effectively:

1. Executive Summary Page
Use 4–5 new Card visuals across the top of your report page — Total Revenue, Gross Margin, Active Customers, Orders This Month, and Return Rate. Apply consistent font styling, add conditional formatting for RAG (Red/Amber/Green) status, and use reference labels to show change vs. prior month.

2. Sales Leaderboard
Use the new Card visual with Categories and Hero Images. Add a salesperson name field as the category, revenue as the callout value, and profile photo URL as the hero image. Set the layout to Grid to show a team overview.

3. Finance Report with Budget Variance
Use the new Card visual’s reference labels to show Actual vs. Budget. The main callout shows Actual Spend, reference label 1 shows Budget, reference label 2 shows Variance %. Apply conditional formatting to turn variance red if it’s over budget.

4. Migrating from Multi-row Card
If you have an old Multi-row Card showing 5 KPIs, replace it with one new Card visual. Add all 5 metrics as separate callout fields. You get the same layout but with better formatting control, responsive resizing, and reference label support.

Common Issues and How to Fix Them

Card shows a rounded number instead of the exact value
→ Go to Format pane > Data label > Display units > set to None

Card shows blank
→ Check if the field well is empty, or if your slicer is filtering out all data. Also verify the field aggregation is correct.

New card visual looks different after publishing
→ This is a known issue for reports using the preview version of the new card. Open the report in Power BI Desktop (November 2025 or later) and re-publish.

Row or column count reset after November 2025 update
→ This is expected behavior. After the GA release, vertical and horizontal arrangements reset to 5 columns and 3 rows. Go into the Format pane and manually update the column/row settings, then re-publish.

Reference label area appears even when empty
→ Once any card in your visual uses a reference label area, all cards keep that area for visual consistency. You can adjust the Callout size % under Format pane > Cards > Layout to resize it.

FAQs

You may also like the following tutorials:

• Create a Power BI Slicer Panel
• Filter Dates in Power BI
• Create Ribbon Chart in Power BI
• Power BI Desktop (Step‑by‑Step Guide for Beginners)
• Power BI Row Level Security Tutorial (RLS) for Beginners

Bijay Kumar

After working for more than 18 years in Microsoft technologies like SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI), I thought will share my SharePoint expertise knowledge with the world. Our audiences are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. For my expertise knowledge and SharePoint tutorials, Microsoft has been awarded a Microsoft SharePoint MVP (12 times). I have also worked in companies like HP, TCS, KPIT, etc.