Tableau Public

What it is

Tableau Public is a free version of Tableau. You build workbooks either in the browser or in Tableau Desktop Public Edition (available for Windows and Mac), and publish them to your own profile on public.tableau.com. It also hosts a large gallery of other people's work, including a "Viz of the Day", which is one of the best places to see what good dashboards look like.

The limits that matter (as of 2026-09)

From Tableau's own Public FAQ (help.tableau.com):

• Everything you publish is public. As soon as a workbook is published, anyone on the internet can view it. You can hide a viz from your profile, but anyone with the link can still see it. By default, others can also download the workbook and its data, though you can turn that off.
• Storage and size: 10 GB of storage and up to 15 million rows of data per workbook.
• Data sources are limited compared with paid Tableau: Excel, text files, statistical files and a few connectors such as Google Drive. You cannot connect to company servers.

The rule that follows: only use public or made-up data. Never publish work data, client data or anything with personal information.

Is it worth your time?

Yes, if you chose Tableau. It costs nothing, the skills transfer directly to paid Tableau at work, and a profile with two or three well-designed dashboards is a stronger signal than a certificate. Recruiters for analyst roles do click through to Tableau Public links on resumes.

How to use it well

• Start from Tableau's free "Get Started" tutorial in the Tableau help docs, then rebuild it with a dataset you care about.
• Join community projects such as Makeover Monday to practise on a new dataset each week and see how others solved the same brief.
• For each portfolio viz, write a short description: the question, the data source with a link, and what the viewer should notice.

Common questions

Can I use it for work? Only for public data. For private company data, companies use paid Tableau licences.

Are students eligible for more? Tableau has academic programmes for students and teachers; check tableau.com for current eligibility.

Mac or Windows? Both are supported for Tableau Desktop Public Edition, which makes Tableau a good choice if you do not have a Windows machine for Power BI.