The same Excel file, the same data, the same network, and nearly identical hardware, yet one person refreshes in 20 seconds while everyone else waits two minutes. That gap is not random, and it is not magic. It is the difference between how your machine is configured to handle Power Query and how your coworker's machine is not. The file is not the variable. The environment is.
Here is what is likely happening: Power Query's refresh speed is heavily influenced by the data privacy settings, query options, and even the version of the Excel engine each person is running. If you have disabled the "always ignore privacy settings" prompt or set your data to load directly into the data model without a staging step, you skip the extra checks that force your coworkers to wait. They might be running an older Excel build, or they might have a default prompt asking them to confirm data source permissions on every refresh. That alone can add a minute or more to a query that touches 300,000 rows. It is not their computer being slow. It is their settings being cautious.
The practical takeaway here is not about chasing a faster machine. It is about standardizing the refresh experience. If you are the person who owns the file, you should export your query options and share those settings with your team. Tell them to check their privacy levels, confirm they are using the same Excel version, and, if possible, run the refresh from the same network path without any VPN overhead. The file is a tool, but the tool's performance is only as good as the environment it is dropped into. Your coworkers are not doing anything wrong. They are just carrying default settings that slow them down.
This matters because it exposes a common myth: that a slow refresh means a bad query. Here, the query is fine. The problem is invisible configuration drift. So before you rewrite your Power Query logic or split your data into smaller chunks, check the basics. Compare your Excel options side by side. Look at the privacy settings. Confirm the data load method. You might find that a single checkbox is the difference between 20 seconds and two minutes. That is a fix worth sharing, because it costs nothing and saves everyone on your team a lot of waiting.