About the Looker Studio Explorer (Labs)

Explorer is a new tool designed to help you find insights faster. The Explorer streamlines the editing, viewing and data visualization experience. Apply filters quickly. Export your explorations to new or existing reports. You can even access the Explorer from any report to start exploring your data without modifying your report.

How the Explorer works

The Explorer lets you examine your data using a single chart. You can easily switch between the same visualizations available in a report. All of the same styling options available in reporting are also available in the Explorer.

Get started with the Explorer

1. Sign in to Looker Studio.
2. On the left, click EXPLORER.
3. On the Looker Studio home page, in the top left, click Create and then select Data Source.
4. Select a data source you'd like to explore.
5. In the top right, use the toolbar to select different chart types.
6. To filter your data, drag dimensions and metrics from the Available Fields panel on the right to the filter bar at the top of the Explorer.
7. In the top right, click SAVE to preserve your work.
8. View your exploration in a report:
   1. In the upper right, click .
   2. Select Create new report.
   3. Click ADD TO REPORT.
   4. In the top right, click View.
   5. To return to the Explorer, hover over the chart to display the More menu, then select Explore.

Differences between reports and explorations

There are a lot of similarities between reports and explorations. But there are several key differences, as well:

Explorations are temporary unless you save them

Since the Explorer is a scratch pad, Looker Studio doesn't save your explorations automatically. To preserve your work so that you can revisit it later, click SAVE in the upper right of the exploration.

You can find your saved explorations in the EXPLORER Home page.

Explorations are private to you

Only you can see the explorations you create. There is currently no option to share explorations directly. However, you can export your explorations to reports and share them indirectly.

Explorations are optimized for filters

You can easily apply a filter to your explorations by dragging dimensions and metrics from the properties panel to the filter area at the top of the Explorer.

Exploration charts are copies

There is no link between charts in an exploration and charts in reports. If you export a chart from an exploration to a report, you’re exporting a copy of the chart. Similarly, when you open a report chart in the Explorer, you're making a copy of the chart.

Limits of the Explorer

• Explorations can't be shared directly. However, you can export your explorations as charts into new or existing reports.
• Imported data sources can contain up to 100MB of data.