How do I drill down in Tableau?

Dates drill down automatically: click the plus sign on a Year pill to go to quarters, then months. For other fields, drag one dimension onto another in the Data pane to create a hierarchy.

Is drill-down available in Tableau Public?

Yes. Hierarchies and date drill-down work in Tableau Public.

What is a drill-down report?

A report designed to start at a summary and let the reader expand into detail, rather than listing every row up front.

What is drill-down in a BI dashboard?

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Quick answer

Drill-down is moving from a summary to more detail in a chart, such as from year to quarter to month, or from region to store to salesperson, usually by clicking. It lets one chart answer both "how are we doing?" and "where exactly?".

Last updated October 22, 2026

Updated October 22, 2026 · By Robert Breen

Why it matters

Summaries hide causes. Revenue being down 4% for the quarter does not tell you whether every store slipped a little or one store collapsed. Drill-down lets the viewer follow the number down to the level where the cause is visible.

It keeps dashboards short. Instead of separate charts for every level, one chart with a hierarchy covers them all.

A worked example

A restaurant group’s dashboard shows Q3 food cost at 33% of sales against a 30% target. The area manager clicks the plus sign on Region to expand to locations: 11 of 12 are between 29% and 31%, and one is at 44%.

Drilling into that location by week shows the jump started the week a new supplier began. One click path took the meeting from "food costs are up" to "check the new supplier invoice for location 7".

Often confused with

Drill-down vs filter

A filter removes rows from view. Drill-down keeps everything and shows more levels of detail.

Drill-down vs drill-through

Drill-through (common in Power BI) jumps to a separate detail page for the item you clicked. Drill-down expands within the same chart.

Drill-down vs a hierarchy

A hierarchy (Region > Location > Week) is the setup; drill-down is the action of moving through it.

Tips

Build hierarchies in the order people investigate: place first, then time, or the reverse.
Keep the top level meaningful on its own; many viewers never click.
Show the target line at every level, so outliers stand out.

Dashboard Filter Dimension Aggregation

Learn it in a free lesson

Tableau Public Tutorial: Your First Chart and Dashboard (about 15 minutes)

Frequently asked questions

How do I drill down in Tableau?: Dates drill down automatically: click the plus sign on a Year pill to go to quarters, then months. For other fields, drag one dimension onto another in the Data pane to create a hierarchy.
Is drill-down available in Tableau Public?: Yes. Hierarchies and date drill-down work in Tableau Public.
What is a drill-down report?: A report designed to start at a summary and let the reader expand into detail, rather than listing every row up front.

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