Connect to Looker

Add a Looker Explore as a data source.

Looker is an enterprise platform for business intelligence, data applications, and embedded analytics that helps you explore data and share insights in real time. The Looker connector allows you to add a Looker Explore as a data source so that you can analyze Looker data from within Looker Studio.

This article describes how to add a Looker Explore as a data source for a Looker Studio report.

In this article:

Before you begin
Connect to a Looker instance
Select a Looker model and Explore
Add the Looker data source to a report
Related resources

Before you begin

Your Looker instance must fulfill certain requirements to be eligible to connect to Looker Studio. Additionally, a Looker Admin must enable the Looker Studio BI connector in the Platform section of the instance's Admin panel.

To add a Looker Explore as a data source in Looker Studio, you must have explore permissions for the model that contains the Explore.

A Looker data source uses viewer's data credentials, so any user viewing Looker data in Looker Studio must have at least access_data and clear_cache_refresh permissions for the model that contains the data source's Looker Explore.

Learn more about the Looker permissions that are required to enable the Looker connector, create a Looker data source, and view Looker data in Looker Studio.

Use the Looker connector to add a Looker Explore as a data source

To add a Looker Explore as a data source for a Looker Studio report, you must complete the following tasks:

Connect to a Looker instance and link your Looker and Google accounts.
Select a Looker model and Explore.

Each Looker data source represents a single Looker Explore. You can add multiple Explores to a Looker Studio report, even those that don't belong to the same Looker model.

Connect to a Looker instance

To connect to a Looker instance, follow these steps:

Sign in to Looker Studio.
On the Looker Studio home page, in the top left, click Create, and then select Data Source.
Select the Looker connector.
Enter the URL for the Looker instance that contains the Looker Explore that you want to connect to. This is the URL that you use to access Looker on your browser.
1. If the instance URL belongs to a Looker instance that doesn't meet the Looker connector requirements, Looker Studio displays the message "Invalid Looker URL or the Looker URL does not support account linking. Please use different Looker URL."
2. If you have previously connected a Looker instance as a data source, that Looker instance name appears under Saved Looker Instances. You can click the name of a Looker instance and proceed to the section on selecting a model.
Click Connect Looker Account.
In the authorization pop-up menu, click Agree and continue to link your Google account credentials to your Looker account credentials. You can link one Google account to one Looker account for each Looker instance that you connect to Looker Studio.
In the Looker instance pop-up menu, click AUTHENTICATE .

When you link your accounts, the instance URL is stored by Google outside of the Looker environment. You can unlink your Google and Looker accounts from the Account Linking page in your Google Account profile. Unlinking your accounts will prevent the data source from connecting to Looker data.

Now you're ready to select a model–Explore pair to connect to as a data source for your report.

Select a model and an Explore

Once you have connected to a Looker instance, a list of models that are defined in that instance automatically populates a new panel that is called Models in the Add data to report windows.

To select a model, follow these steps:

In the Models panel, scroll the list of pre-populated models, or click the magnifying glass icon to open a search field where you can enter the name of a specific model. Hover over a model name to see the model filename as it appears in the Looker project. Click the model name to select the model. A new panel will populate with the list of Explores that are defined within that model.
To select an Explore, scroll the list or click the magnifying glass icon to open a search field where you can enter the name of a specific Explore. Hover over an Explore name to see the explore parameter value as it's declared in the model file. Click the Explore name to select the Explore.
Click CONNECT.

It may take a few minutes to connect to the Looker Explore. Once it is connected, the data source has the format Explore – model. Learn more about how Looker Explores appear and behave in Looker Studio reports.

Add the Looker data source to a report

Once you have created your Looker data source, Looker Studio displays a list of the fields that are associated with the Looker Explore. From this list, you can perform the following tasks:

Change the data source type from an embedded data source to a reusable data source.
Update the data source's data freshness. The the default data freshness value for a Looker data source is 12 hours.
Manage whether other report editors can edit the field definitions at the chart level for reports that use this data source.
Make a copy of the data source.
Select CREATE REPORT to create a report that includes a chart that is pre-populated with some fields from this data source.
Select EXPLORE to open a blank report that uses the Looker data source.

Related resources

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?