Looker vs Tableau vs Power BI: Picking the Right BI Certification

Only Two of These Three Still Certify

Any comparison that puts Looker, Tableau, and Power BI side by side as three certification programs is describing a market that no longer exists. Google offers no Looker certification. The Google Cloud certification catalog contains fifteen credentials and not one of them is Looker-specific, and looker.com/certification now redirects into that Looker-free catalog. The retired Looker Business Analyst and LookML Developer credentials were not replaced.

So the real choice is between two credentials, and they differ in ways that matter more than price: one is cheap with a free retake and no renewal treadmill, the other expires every twelve months but renews at no cost. Here is what each actually involves.

Tableau: Salesforce Certified Tableau Desktop Foundations

The credential most people still call the "Tableau Desktop Specialist" has been renamed and moved. It is now Salesforce Certified Tableau Desktop Foundations, administered through Salesforce Trailhead Academy rather than tableau.com, whose certification URLs now redirect there.

• Format: 40 multiple-choice or multiple-select questions, plus up to five unscored items that are randomly mixed in and carry no weight
• Time: 70 minutes
• Passing score: 48% on the English version, and 55% on the Japanese version
• Cost: US$75 plus applicable tax, or JPY¥10,000 — and the retake fee is free
• Prerequisite: none, though Salesforce recommends about three months of hands-on Tableau Desktop experience
• Skills tested: Data Integration, Data Management, Data Analysis, and Data Visualization

Two details deserve emphasis because they change how you should prepare. The passing score of 48% is unusually low for a technology certification, and it differs by language — a genuine asymmetry Salesforce publishes openly. And the exam is currently testing on Tableau 2022.3, so practising exclusively in a much newer build can leave you fluent in features the exam does not ask about.

Power BI: Microsoft Certified Power BI Data Analyst Associate (PL-300)

The Power BI credential is Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate, earned through exam PL-300.

• Time: 100 minutes, proctored, with possible interactive components
• Assessed on: preparing the data, modelling the data, visualising and analysing the data, and managing and securing Power BI
• Renewal: every 12 months — Microsoft role-based certifications expire, and are renewed at no cost by passing an online assessment on Microsoft Learn
• Retake: permitted 24 hours after a first failed attempt; longer waits apply after that
• Languages: ten, including English, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese
• Cost: Microsoft prices the exam by country or region and does not publish a single figure — check at registration rather than trusting a quoted price

Microsoft expects proficiency in Power Query and DAX. That is the substantive difference in preparation load: DAX is a formula language with Excel-like syntax but BI-specific evaluation rules, and it is where most candidates spend the bulk of their study time.

The Comparison That Actually Matters

Set against each other, the two live credentials differ less in difficulty than in ownership cost over time.

• Up-front cost: Tableau is US$75 with a free retake. Microsoft does not publish PL-300 pricing, so budget from your regional figure at registration.
• Failure cost: Tableau charges nothing to retake. Microsoft allows a retake 24 hours later, but each attempt is a fresh purchase.
• Ongoing cost: this is the real divergence. PL-300 expires after 12 months and must be renewed annually, though renewal is free and done online. The Tableau credential carries no equivalent annual assessment.
• Currency of the exam: Tableau is testing on a 2022 product build; PL-300 tracks a product Microsoft updates continuously and renews the credential yearly to match.

If you want a credential you can earn cheaply, fail without penalty, and not think about again, Tableau is the lighter commitment. If you want one that stays demonstrably current, PL-300's annual renewal is a feature rather than a tax — it is the mechanism that keeps the certification meaningful.

What to Do About Looker

Looker skill is still worth building; it simply cannot be certified. Google now hosts Looker learning on Google Skills, where training.looker.com redirects, with courses including Get Started with Looker, Build LookML Objects in Looker, and Manage Data Models in Looker. None of them awards a credential.

The useful reframe is that the absence is symmetrical. Nobody competing for a Looker-heavy role holds a Looker certification either, because none is available — so the comparison falls back to demonstrable work. An Explore you built and can explain, a LookML model you can walk through and justify, a dashboard where you can say why each visualisation answers a specific stakeholder question. If you need a certification on paper alongside Looker skill, the live Google Cloud data credentials are Data Practitioner at associate level and Professional Data Engineer at professional level.

The Decision Framework

Platform adoption at your target employer still drives this decision more than any feature comparison, because BI credentials derive their value from tool-specific knowledge. Check job postings for the roles and companies you are actually targeting, and count which tool appears in the requirements.

If those postings name Tableau, take the Foundations exam — it is inexpensive and forgiving of a first failure. If they name Power BI, take PL-300 and plan for the annual renewal. If they name Looker, build a portfolio instead of shopping for an exam, because there is nothing to buy.

SimpuTech's AI tutor can drill the platform concepts behind whichever path you choose. See the full Tableau Desktop Foundations breakdown →

Also see our guide to what replaced Looker certification for the full record of what happened to that program.

Verified on August 30, 2026 against the Google Cloud certification catalog, Salesforce Trailhead Academy and the Salesforce Tableau Desktop Foundations exam guide, and Microsoft Learn's PL-300 certification page. This article previously described a Looker Certified Explorer exam with a specific price and format; no such exam exists, and those details have been removed. Certification requirements change — confirm current details with the issuing body before registering.