Dashboard subscriptions

Automatically send dashboard results via email or Slack to keep your team informed with scheduled updates.

Dashboard subscriptions deliver question results to people on a schedule - via email or Slack. Recipients don’t need a Metabase account to receive subscription updates.

What are dashboard subscriptions?

Subscriptions automatically send dashboard data to stakeholders:

Email subscriptions

Send dashboard charts and data tables to email addresses on a schedule

Slack subscriptions

Post dashboard results to Slack channels or direct messages

Whenever you update the dashboard, subscriptions automatically reflect those changes in the next delivery.

You can create multiple subscriptions for the same dashboard - for example, one daily email to executives and one weekly Slack message to the team.

Prerequisites

Before you can use subscriptions, an administrator must configure:

• For email: Email server settings
• For Slack: Slack integration

Creating an email subscription

1. Open the subscriptions panel

   1. Navigate to your dashboard
   2. Click the Sharing icon in the top right
   3. Select Subscriptions
   4. Click Email it
2. Add subscribers

   Enter email addresses for recipients. Press Enter or comma after each address.

   On paid plans, admins can restrict recipients to approved email domains and configure suggested recipients.
3. Set the schedule

   Choose when to send:

   • Hourly: Every hour, on the hour
   • Daily: Once per day at a specific time
   • Weekly: Specific day(s) of the week at a set time
   • Monthly: Specific day of the month at a set time

   Select the time zone for delivery timing.

4. Configure options

   Additional settings:

   • Don’t send if there aren’t results: Skip sending if no data is returned
   • Attach results: Include data files with the email
   • Filter values: Set specific filter values for this subscription (paid plans)
5. Save the subscription

   Click Done to activate the subscription.

Email subscription options

Frequency and timing

Set how often the subscription sends:

Hourly

• Every hour on the hour
• Useful for real-time monitoring

Daily

• Once per day at your chosen time
• Most common for regular reports

Weekly

• Select specific days (Monday, Friday, etc.)
• Set the time of day
• Good for weekly reviews

Monthly

• Choose day of month (1st, 15th, last day, etc.)
• Set the time
• Perfect for monthly reports

Attachments

Include data files with the email:

File format:

• CSV (comma-separated values)
• XLSX (Excel format)

Questions to attach:

• Select which cards to include as attachments
• Can choose all, some, or none
• Each question becomes a separate file

Options:

• Use unformatted values: Strip visualization formatting, send raw data
• Send only attachments: Skip embedded charts, only send files

Attachments include up to 1,048,575 rows by default (Excel’s limit). Self-hosted instances can adjust this with the MB_ATTACHMENT_ROW_LIMIT environment variable.

Skip if empty

Control whether to send when there’s no data:

Toggle Don’t send if there aren’t results to:

• Avoid sending empty reports
• Only notify when data exists
• Reduce inbox clutter

Useful for:

• Alert-style subscriptions (only send when something happens)
• Data that doesn’t always exist
• Exception-based monitoring

Filter values

This feature is available on paid plans.

Set specific filter values that apply when this subscription runs:

• Override dashboard default filters
• Send different data to different recipients
• One dashboard, multiple perspectives

Example: Send the same sales dashboard to each regional manager, but filter to their specific region for each subscription.

Send now button

Test your subscription or send an immediate update:

1. Open the subscription in edit mode
2. Click Send now
3. Email is sent immediately to all subscribers

Use this to:

• Test before the scheduled time
• Send urgent updates
• Verify recipients and formatting

Creating a Slack subscription

1. Open the subscriptions panel

   1. Navigate to your dashboard
   2. Click the Sharing icon
   3. Select Subscriptions
   4. Click Send it to Slack
2. Choose destination

   Select where to send:

   • Channel: Public or private Slack channels (e.g., #general, #analytics)
   • Person: Direct message to a Slack user

   Use the Slack username, not the display name. These can be different.
3. Set the schedule

   Choose frequency:

   • Hourly
   • Daily
   • Weekly
   • Monthly

   Select the time and time zone.

4. Configure options

   • Don’t send if there aren’t results: Skip posting if no data
   • Set filter values: Apply specific filters (paid plans)
5. Save the subscription

   Click Done to activate.

Slack subscription details

Public channels

Send to any public channel:

1. Type the channel name (including #)
2. Select from the dropdown
3. Metabase will post as a bot

Channel members will see:

• Dashboard name and link
• Chart images
• Filter values applied

Private channels

To send to private channels:

1. Invite the Metabase bot to the private channel in Slack
2. Use the channel name in Metabase
3. If the bot isn’t in the channel, the subscription will fail

See Slack configuration docs for details.

Direct messages

Send to individual users:

1. Enter the Slack username (not display name)
2. User receives a DM from Metabase bot

Good for:

• Personal reports
• Manager-specific metrics
• Individual alerts

If you rename a Slack channel after creating a subscription, update the subscription in Metabase to point to the new channel name. Otherwise, it will fail to deliver.

Managing subscriptions

Viewing all subscriptions

See all subscriptions for a dashboard:

1. Open the dashboard
2. Click the Sharing icon
3. Select Subscriptions
4. All subscriptions are listed in the sidebar

Editing a subscription

1. Open the subscriptions panel
2. Click on the subscription you want to edit
3. Modify settings
4. Click Done to save changes

Deleting a subscription

1. Open the subscription

   Click on the subscription in the subscriptions panel.

2. Delete

   Scroll to the bottom and click Delete this subscription.

3. Confirm

   Confirm deletion in the modal that appears.

Deleting a subscription is permanent and cannot be undone. All scheduled deliveries will stop immediately.

Subscription permissions

See Notification permissions for complete details on who can create and receive subscriptions.

Key permission concepts:

• Creating subscriptions: Need curate access to the dashboard’s collection
• Receiving subscriptions: Can receive dashboards you have permission to view
• Managing others’ subscriptions: Admins can edit/delete any subscription
• Data access: Recipients only see data they have permission to view in Metabase

Be careful when sending subscriptions to people without Metabase accounts. They’ll receive all data in the dashboard without any data access restrictions applied.

Customizing filter values per subscription

This feature is available on Pro and Enterprise plans.

Send the same dashboard to different audiences with different filters:

1. Create or edit a subscription

   Open the subscription in edit mode.

2. Set filter values

   Find the Set filter values for when this gets sent section.

3. Choose values for each filter

   • Set specific values for dashboard filters
   • Leave filters unset to use default values
   • Override defaults as needed
4. Save the subscription

   The subscription will apply these filters every time it runs.

Example use case

Sales performance dashboard with a Region filter:

• Subscription 1: Daily email to East Coast manager, filter = “East”
• Subscription 2: Daily email to West Coast manager, filter = “West”
• Subscription 3: Weekly email to executives, filter = “All Regions”

One dashboard maintains three different perspectives automatically.

Viewing all subscriptions across Metabase

This feature requires Pro or Enterprise plans with usage analytics enabled.

Admins can view all dashboard subscriptions and alerts:

1. Navigate to the Usage analytics collection
2. Look for subscription and alert reports
3. See who created what, when it runs, and who receives it

Useful for:

• Auditing notification setup
• Finding unused subscriptions
• Understanding notification patterns
• Cleanup and optimization

Embedded dashboard subscriptions

Subscriptions from embedded dashboards work differently:

• No Metabase links: Since recipients may not have access to Metabase, links to Metabase items are excluded
• Same functionality: Otherwise works identically to regular subscriptions
• Permission handling: Recipients receive all data visible in the embed

See Embedded dashboards for more details.

Removing Metabase branding

Available on Pro and Enterprise plans.

You can remove Metabase branding from subscription emails to match your company’s identity.

See Remove Metabase branding from exports for configuration details.

Troubleshooting subscriptions

Subscription not sending

Check:

• Email/Slack is properly configured in admin settings
• For Slack: Bot is invited to the channel
• For Slack: Channel name hasn’t changed
• Subscription schedule is set correctly
• Dashboard hasn’t been deleted or moved
• Questions on dashboard don’t have errors

Empty subscriptions

If you’re receiving emails but they’re empty:

• Verify dashboard filters have correct default values
• Check that questions return data with current filters
• Ensure “Don’t send if there aren’t results” is off
• Test queries manually to confirm they return data

Wrong data in subscriptions

If the data doesn’t match expectations:

• Review filter values set on the subscription
• Check dashboard default filters
• Verify questions are using the correct data sources
• Test the subscription with “Send now” to see immediate results

Can't create subscription

Possible reasons:

• Email/Slack not configured by admin
• Don’t have curate access to dashboard’s collection
• Dashboard is in your personal collection (some restrictions apply)
• Browser extensions blocking the form

Best practices

Test before scheduling

Use “Send now” to verify formatting, data, and recipients before setting up a schedule.

Choose appropriate frequency

Match delivery frequency to how often data updates and how often people need to see it.

Use clear subject lines

Name subscriptions descriptively so recipients know what they’re receiving.

Set meaningful defaults

Use filter values that provide useful data immediately. Avoid empty or meaningless defaults.

Consider time zones

Schedule deliveries for appropriate times in recipients’ time zones.

Monitor subscription list

Periodically review and clean up unused subscriptions to reduce system load.

Next steps

Dashboard filters

Learn how to add filters to dashboards for more flexible subscriptions

Alerts

Set up alerts to get notified when metrics reach important thresholds

Creating dashboards

Build better dashboards for subscriptions