Power Query specifications and limits are different from Excel specifications and limits.
| Feature | Limitation |
|---|---|
| Query name length | 80 characters |
| Invalid characters in a query name | Double quotes (“), periods (.), leading or trailing whitespaces |
| Number of cells in a Query Editor data preview | 3,000 cells |
| Navigation pane items displayed per level: databases per server and tables per database. | First 1,000 items in alphabetical order. You can manually add a non-visible item by modifying the formula for this step |
| Size of data processed by the Engine | Limited to available virtual memory (for 64-bit version) or about 1GB for 32-bit version, if data cannot be fully streamed, such as when sorting the data set locally before filling it |
| Number of columns per table | 16,384 |
| Maximum size of text in a preview cell | 1M characters |
| Maximum size of text filled to Excel or data model | Not limited by Power Query |
| Maximum number of rows filled to worksheet | 1,048,576 |
| Soft limit of persistent cache. A soft limit can be exceeded for periods of time. | 4GB |
| Individual entries in the cache | 1GB |
| Compressed query and dependencies as stored in the connection string. For more information about how to display connection information, see Display connection information. | 64K characters |
| Import from .xls and .xlsb workbooks. | 255 columns |
| Import from xlsx workbooks. | No limit |
See also
Tips for improving Excel's performance
Refresh an external data connection
Create, edit, and manage connections to external data