Reporting on Microsoft 365 App and Feature Usage

Glenn Maxwell 14,206 Reputation points
2026-09-20T15:21:54.68+00:00

Hi All,

We are currently using Microsoft 365 E5 licenses for all users, along with Microsoft Entra ID P2.

Our management has requested a report that provides visibility into the adoption and usage of specific Microsoft 365 tools, applications, and features across the organization.

The objective is to identify which groups, teams, or departments are using specific Microsoft 365 tools, apps, and features.

Could you please advise whether this level of reporting is possible using the available Microsoft 365 admin center reports, Microsoft Graph, Viva Insights, or Power BI?

Specifically, we would like to understand:

  • Whether usage data can be mapped to specific users, groups, teams, or departments.
  • Which Microsoft 365 tools, applications, and features are being actively used.
  • Whether this data can be exported or consolidated into a Power BI report.
  • What licensing, permissions, or additional configuration may be required.

Any guidance, recommended reporting solutions, or documentation would be greatly appreciated.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Microsoft Viva | Viva Insights
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  1. AI answer

    2026-09-20T15:22:17.18+00:00

    Yes. This is possible with Microsoft 365 usage reports, Microsoft 365 usage analytics in Power BI, and Microsoft Graph usage reports, with some important limits.

    • User, group, site, and department mapping: Supported to a degree.
      • Microsoft 365 usage reports can show user, group, or site details, but these are hidden by default for privacy. A Global Administrator can enable identifiable details if organizational privacy practices allow it.
      • The privacy setting applies to Microsoft 365 admin center reports, Microsoft Graph usage reports, Power BI usage analytics, and some Teams admin center reports.
      • Microsoft 365 usage analytics in Power BI includes Active Directory attributes in its data model, specifically location, department, and organization, which allows pivoting reports by those attributes.
      • For SharePoint and OneDrive style reporting, site-level details are also supported in the relevant reports.
    • Which tools, apps, and features are being used: Supported, but coverage depends on the report.
      • The Microsoft 365 admin center provides usage reports across services and apps, including reports such as Active Users, Microsoft 365 apps, browser usage, Copilot usage, Teams usage, Outlook activity, OneDrive activity, and others depending on environment.
      • The Microsoft 365 apps Usage report helps understand how licensed users engage with core Microsoft 365 apps across Windows, Mac, web, and mobile.
      • Microsoft 365 usage analytics provides a cross-product view of the last 12 months with prebuilt reports.
      • User-specific information in usage analytics is available for the last full calendar month.
    • Export and Power BI consolidation: Supported.
      • In the admin center, service reports can be exported to Excel or Power BI.
      • Microsoft 365 usage analytics is designed for Power BI, with a prebuilt dashboard and support for creating custom reports and sharing insights.
      • If more customized filtering or consolidation is needed, Microsoft recommends using the Microsoft 365 usage report Graph API and joining that data with organizational data sources in Power BI or another visualization tool.
      • Starting in March 2026, the Company, City, and ProxyAddresses field filters in the User Activity tab of usage analytics will no longer be supported. For those scenarios, the recommended approach is to join Graph API report data with internal data sources and build a custom dashboard.
    • Licensing, permissions, and configuration:
      • To view usage reports, one of these roles is required: Global Administrator, Exchange Administrator, SharePoint Administrator, Usage Summary Reports Reader (no user details), Reports Reader, Teams Administrator, Teams Communications Administrator, User Experience Success Manager (no user details), or AI Administrator.
      • Microsoft recommends least-privilege roles instead of Global Administrator where possible.
      • To start collecting Power BI-based usage analytics data, usage analytics must be enabled.
      • Usage reports do not include perpetual license models.
      • Usage reports are generally available for the last 7, 30, 90, and 180 days in the admin center, while usage analytics provides a 12-month cross-product view.
    • Important reporting limitation:
      • There is no single report where a user account can be entered to get a complete list of all services that user is using and how much. Service-specific reports must be used, or data must be exported and consolidated externally.

    A practical approach for management reporting is:

    1. Use Microsoft 365 admin center > Reports > Usage for built-in service and app adoption views.
    2. Enable identifiable user details only if privacy policy allows it.
    3. Use Microsoft 365 usage analytics for cross-product Power BI dashboards and department/location/organization pivots.
    4. For more advanced reporting by department, group, or custom business attributes, use Microsoft Graph usage reports and join them with organizational data in Power BI.
    5. If the requirement is specifically app usage across platforms, include the Microsoft 365 apps Usage report.

    One limitation in the available material is that it does not document Viva Insights-specific reporting for this scenario, so the supported guidance here is centered on Microsoft 365 admin center reports, Graph usage reports, and Power BI usage analytics.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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  2. Jayden-P 2,855 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-09-20T15:35:40.9+00:00

    Hi @Glenn Maxwell

    The AI answer is generally correct and aligns with the documented capabilities of Microsoft 365 reporting. Please give it a check.

    As additional information, while the built-in reports can provide visibility into user activity across services such as Teams, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Microsoft 365 Apps, there is no single built-in report that provides a complete cross-service usage profile for an individual user. Organizations that require reporting by department, group, or other custom business attributes typically export the data or use Microsoft Graph usage reports together with Power BI for consolidation and analysis.

    For management-level adoption reporting, Microsoft generally recommends using Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics in Power BI, which provides a cross-product view of Microsoft 365 usage and includes organizational attributes such as department, location, and organization that can be used for filtering and segmentation.

    One additional consideration is that user-identifiable information is hidden by default in usage reports for privacy purposes. If your organization's policies allow it, a Global Administrator can enable identifiable user information to provide more detailed reporting.

    Overall, the combination of Microsoft 365 Admin Center usage reports, Microsoft Graph reporting APIs, and Power BI provides the most comprehensive solution for tracking Microsoft 365 adoption and usage across users, departments, groups, and teams.

    References:

    I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

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