Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. Generally, the described techniques provide for efficiently reporting channel state information (CSI) with limited overhead. In one aspect, if a user equipment (UE) is configured to transmit data and CSI to a base station periodically, the UE may transmit the CSI when the UE has data to transmit to the base station. In particular, the UE may transmit data and a CSI report during a transmission opportunity if the UE has data to transmit in the transmission opportunity. Otherwise, the UE may suppress transmission of the CSI report. In another aspect, a UE may be configured to transmit CSI to abase station when downlink channel conditions change. In particular, the UE may request to report CSI to the base station when channel conditions change, and the base station may trigger the UE to report the CSI after receiving the request.