# Tableau

> Tableau builds visual analytics software for exploring data, creating interactive dashboards, preparing datasets, and sharing governed business metrics. Founded in 2003 from Stanford research and acquired by Salesforce in 2019, it serves business teams, analysts, public institutions, and a global community of visualization creators.

- **Founded:** 2003
- **Headquarters:** Seattle, United States
- **Founders:** Christian Chabot (Co-founder and founding CEO), Chris Stolte (Co-founder; foundational VizQL research and engineering), Pat Hanrahan (Co-founder; Stanford professor and foundational visualization research)
- **Products:** Tableau Desktop, Tableau Cloud, Tableau Server, Tableau Public, Tableau Prep
- **Notable:** Commercialized Stanford visual-query research as Tableau Desktop., Reached US$1.16 billion in ASC 606 revenue in 2018., Acquired by Salesforce in a transaction completed August 1, 2019.

## Products & services

- **Tableau Desktop** — Desktop visual analytics and dashboard authoring; current Free Edition supports local individual analysis, with paid options for enterprise sharing.
- **Tableau Cloud** — Fully hosted analytics, governed sharing, administration, and collaboration; originally launched as Tableau Online.
- **Tableau Server** — Self-managed deployment for organizations needing control over hosting, access, and infrastructure.
- **Tableau Public** — Free platform for creating, discovering, and publicly publishing interactive visualizations.
- **Tableau Prep** — Visual tools for combining, cleaning, and shaping data before analysis.
- **Tableau Pulse** — Personalized metric tracking and AI-assisted explanations delivered through Tableau Cloud.
- **Tableau Next** — Salesforce-native agentic analytics with a semantic layer and workflow integrations.
- **Tableau Knowledge** — Knowledge graphs connecting analytical assets and structured and unstructured data; listed as generally available in Cloud+ and Tableau+ in the 2026.3 release.

## Achievements

- Commercialized Stanford visual-query research as Tableau Desktop.
- Reached US$1.16 billion in ASC 606 revenue in 2018.
- Acquired by Salesforce in a transaction completed August 1, 2019.
- Foundational Polaris research received an IEEE VIS Test of Time Award in 2020.
- Tableau reported more than eleven million Tableau Public visualizations in November 2024.

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Tableau’s March 12 explanation of Next describes unmetered analytical queries, data transforms, and AI usage under revised per-user pricing; other Data 360 costs can still apply.
- **2026-08** — The August release highlighted Next Semantic Model Builder and MCP authoring.
- **2026-10** — Research check: the current 2026.3 release page lists Tableau Knowledge as generally available in Cloud+ and Tableau+, Agent in Dashboards as beta, and Proactive Intelligence for Next as coming soon. October is the verification month, not a claimed launch month.

## Links

- Website: https://www.tableau.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tableau-software/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/tableau
- GitHub: https://github.com/tableau
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/tableausoftware
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tableausw

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/tableau
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-22