The MS Graph Reporting API is the newer reporting interface used to retrieve Microsoft 365 usage and activity data. It replaced many older reporting cmdlets that were deprecated, so it is now the preferred source for several tenant reports. Administrators use it when they need current reporting capabilities with longer-term platform support.
What the MS Graph Reporting API Is Used For
The MS Graph Reporting API is the modern Microsoft 365 reporting interface for tenant usage and activity data. It gives administrators a supported way to retrieve reports that used to depend on older, now-deprecated cmdlets, so it matters when the goal is continuity, coverage, and platform alignment.
Because it is a reporting surface rather than a control plane, the API is usually consumed for visibility, not for direct enforcement. That means its value comes from the quality, freshness, and completeness of the telemetry it returns, and from how well administrators integrate that data into operational review and governance processes.
How It Fits Into Microsoft 365 Administration
In practice, this API sits in the administration layer of Microsoft 365 and is part of a broader shift toward Graph-based access patterns. That shift reduces reliance on older reporting methods and helps standardize how tenant data is queried across products and workloads.
For practitioners, the important point is that reporting APIs are not interchangeable. The reporting schema, retention window, and available metrics determine what can be monitored, audited, or trended, so teams need to know which reports are exposed through Graph and which remain elsewhere in the platform.
When an organisation still depends on legacy scripts, the migration to Graph can become both an operational change and a reporting consistency issue. Historical comparisons, automation jobs, and downstream dashboards may need adjustment when field names, endpoints, or availability differ from older cmdlets.
Security and Operational Implications
Reporting interfaces often expose sensitive tenant insight, even when they do not expose customer content. Usage trends, activity counts, and administrative telemetry can reveal how services are being used, where adoption is weak, and where unusual patterns deserve closer review.
That makes access to reporting data a matter of least privilege and auditability. If reporting permissions are too broad, more administrators and automation paths can see tenant intelligence than is necessary, which increases the blast radius of compromise or misuse.
The API can also become an availability dependency for admin tooling. If a monitoring job, compliance export, or capacity dashboard assumes the reporting endpoint is always present and unchanged, platform updates or permission changes can silently break visibility.
Where reporting output feeds security review, the practical risk is not only loss of data, but also false confidence. Gaps in collection, delayed updates, or deprecated integrations can make a tenant look healthier than it is.
Migration and Support Considerations
The main reason this API matters is long-term supportability. Deprecated reporting cmdlets eventually become maintenance liabilities, while Graph-based reporting aligns with Microsoft’s current service direction and typically offers a better path for future updates.
That does not mean migration is trivial. Teams often need to validate that report logic, timestamps, filters, and tenant-scoped assumptions still produce the same business answer after an endpoint change. In reporting, subtle differences can matter more than obvious failures.
For administrators, the key question is not just “does it work?”, but “does it still answer the operational question we were asking before?”. If the answer changes, dashboards, alerts, and review routines may need to be re-baselined.
Standards & Framework Alignment
This section maps relevant standards and security frameworks to the operational risks and controls described in this guidance.
NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 and CIS Controls v8 set the technical controls, while ISO/IEC 27001:2022 defines the regulatory obligations.
| Framework | Control / Reference | Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 | AU-6 — Audit Review, Analysis, and Reporting | Graph reporting supports audit review and analysis of Microsoft 365 activity data. |
| AC-6 — Least Privilege | Access to tenant reporting data should be limited to the minimum administrators and automation needed. | |
| Recommendation — Use AU-6 to review reporting output for anomalies and investigate tenant activity trends. Apply AC-6 to limit who can query Microsoft 365 reporting data and related exports. | ||
| ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | A.8.15 — Logging | Reporting interfaces provide operational visibility that complements logging and monitoring controls. |
| A.5.18 — Access rights | Administrative access to reporting endpoints needs controlled assignment and review. | |
| Recommendation — Use A.8.15 to ensure reporting data is captured and retained for operational monitoring. Use A.5.18 to restrict and periodically review access to reporting capabilities. | ||
| CIS Controls v8 | CIS-8 — Audit Log Management | Tenant reporting is commonly consumed alongside audit evidence and operational review workflows. |
| Recommendation — Use CIS-8 to centralize, review, and retain reporting data for oversight and investigation. | ||
Related resources from NHI Mgmt Group
- What is the difference between a governed API source of truth and a reporting catalog?
- Who is accountable when automated API deletions remove reporting data unexpectedly?
- Why do API dashboards matter for both incident response and executive reporting?
- What are the signs that an API request to a program reporting endpoint is failing because of auth or parameter misuse?
Deepen Your Knowledge
Reviewed and updated by the NHIMG editorial team on September 26, 2026.
NHI Mgmt Group — the #1 independent authority on Non-Human Identity, IAM, and Agentic AI security. nhimg.org
