Power BI Copilot: What It Is, How Much It Costs, and Whether It’s Worth It in 2026

TL;DR: Power BI Copilot is Microsoft’s new bet on conversational analytics with generative AI. Since April 2025, you can use it starting from F2 (~$263/month), but there’s fine print. This post tells you the truth: what it does well, what it doesn’t, and whether Fabric’s cost is worth it.

What Power BI Copilot Is (and What It’s NOT)

Power BI Copilot is the generative AI integration in Power BI that lets you:

Ask questions in natural language about your data and receive visualizations
Generate DAX from text descriptions
Create reports automatically by describing what you want to see
Get narrative summaries of your dashboards
Explore data conversationally without writing code

What it’s NOT:

It’s not magic. It doesn’t “understand” your business—it understands your data model (if it’s well documented)
It doesn’t replace an analyst. It accelerates tasks, doesn’t make decisions
It doesn’t work equally well in all cases. It heavily depends on how well your semantic model is prepared

Copilot vs Q&A: The Mandatory Transition

If you use Q&A (the natural language tool that existed before), take note: Microsoft will deprecate it in December 2026. There’s no alternative: Copilot is the future.

The fundamental difference:

Q&A: Rule-based with predefined synonyms. No generative AI
Copilot: Uses LLMs (large language models) to understand more complex questions and generate DAX code

Microsoft argues Copilot offers a more “modern, intuitive, and consistent” experience. In practice, it means you need Fabric capacity to do what you used to do for free with Q&A.

Requirements and Licensing (The Painful Part)

Here’s the real problem with Copilot: you need Microsoft Fabric.

Before April 2025

You needed F64 or P1 minimum
F64 cost ~$5,000/month
Out of reach for most small and medium businesses

Since April 2025 (The Good News)

Microsoft removed the restriction. You can now use Copilot starting from F2, the smallest capacity.

Current Fabric Pricing (January 2026)

SKU	Capacity Units	PAYG Price/month (US West 2)	1-Year Reserved
F2	2 CUs	~$263/month	~$156/month
F4	4 CUs	~$525/month	~$312/month
F8	8 CUs	~$1,050/month	~$624/month
F32	32 CUs	~$4,200/month	~$2,500/month
F64	64 CUs	~$8,400/month	~$5,000/month

Important cost notes:

Prices vary by region (±10-15%). Europe is usually more expensive (~$0.22/CU/hour in West Europe vs $0.18 in US)
The price includes Copilot at no additional cost
If you have less than F64, every user who creates content needs a Pro license ($14/month)
OneLake storage is billed separately (~$0.023/GB/month)

The Real Math for a Small Business

Let’s say a team of 5 analysts creating reports:

With F2:

F2 PAYG: ~$263/month
5 Pro licenses: 5 × $14 = $70/month
Total: ~$333/month

With F64 (eliminates Pro for consumers):

F64 PAYG: ~$8,410/month
No Pro needed for consumption
Only worth it if you have 250+ report consumers

For small teams, F2 + Pro is the most economical option.

How to Enable It (and Why It’s Grayed Out)

The Copilot button appears but is disabled. Common problem. Here’s the checklist:

1. Verify Your Workspace Capacity

The workspace must be assigned to a Fabric capacity (F2+) or Power BI Premium (P1+)
Go to Workspace Settings → License → Should say “Fabric” or “Premium”

2. Admin Must Enable Copilot

In the Fabric admin portal:

Tenant settings → “Users can use Copilot and other features powered by Azure OpenAI” → Enabled

3. Supported Region

Copilot only works in certain regions. If your tenant is outside the US or France:

Admin must enable: “Data sent to Azure OpenAI can be processed outside your tenant’s geographic region”

4. Doesn’t Work in Trials

Copilot is not available in trial capacities. Paid SKUs only.

5. In Power BI Desktop

You need access to at least one workspace with Fabric capacity
First time you open Copilot, it asks you to choose a compatible workspace
If you don’t have access to any, the button stays grayed out

Real Use Cases: What Works and What Doesn’t

I’ve tested Copilot extensively. Here’s my honest experience:

What Works Well

1. Generate Basic DAX

Prompt: "Calculate total sales from last year"
Result: Correctly generates CALCULATE + SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR

2. Explore Data with Simple Questions

Prompt: "Show me sales by region"
Result: Creates a correct bar chart if you have "Sales" and "Region" fields

3. Explain Existing DAX Select a complex measure and ask “What does this do?”. Copilot explains it step by step. Very useful for learning or understanding legacy code.

4. Create Report Pages from Scratch Describe what you want: “Create a sales dashboard with revenue, margin, and units KPIs, with monthly trend and category breakdown”

Works surprisingly well if your model has good names and descriptions.

What Works So-So

1. Complex DAX with Variables Copilot sometimes generates poorly used variables. It tries to filter or group an already declared variable (which isn’t valid in DAX).

2. Models with Ambiguous Names If you have “Name” in Customers table and “Name” in Products table, Copilot gets confused. Solution: detailed descriptions in the model.

3. Questions Requiring Business Context

Prompt: "Why did sales drop in March?"
Copilot: Can't do causal analysis. Only shows data, doesn't explain causes

What Does NOT Work

1. Forecasting or Predictions Copilot can’t project future data. If you ask “How many sales will we have next quarter?”, it won’t respond. (Power BI has native forecasting in line charts, but Copilot doesn’t generate it.)

2. Anomaly Detection or Deep Insights Doesn’t identify outliers, doesn’t automatically find “key influencers”.

3. Complex Filters in Reports Can’t interpret “last 30 days” as a date filter. Doesn’t apply slicers based on the prompt.

4. Very Large Models Documented limits:

500 tables max
1,000 columns per table (10,000 total)
3,000 measures per table (5,000 total)
5,000 characters per DAX expression
256 characters max per name

If your model exceeds these limits, Copilot may degrade or become disabled.

5. Very New DAX Functions Recently added functions (like User-Defined Functions) may not be recognized correctly.

Copilot in DAX Query View: The Most Useful Use Case

For me, the best use of Copilot is in DAX Query View in Desktop:

Ctrl+I to invoke Copilot
Write what you want in natural language
Copilot generates the DAX query
Review, adjust if needed, execute

Real example:

Prompt: "Show me the top 10 product categories by margin,
including total sales and percentage of total"

Copilot generates something like:

EVALUATE
TOPN(
    10,
    SUMMARIZECOLUMNS(
        'Product'[Category],
        "Sales", [Total Sales],
        "Margin", [Margin %],
        "% of Total", DIVIDE([Total Sales], CALCULATE([Total Sales], ALL('Product')))
    ),
    [Margin], DESC
)

Tips for better results:

Use exact column and table names
Be specific: “Total Sales” better than “sales”
If it fails, ask it to explain the error and retry
ALWAYS review before adding to the model

Copilot vs ChatGPT + Manual DAX

Legitimate question: Why pay for Fabric if I can paste my schema into ChatGPT and ask for DAX?

Copilot Advantages

Integrated context: Already knows your model, no need to explain it
Direct execution: Generates and tests in the same environment
Automatic updates: If Microsoft improves the model, you benefit

ChatGPT/Claude + Manual DAX Advantages

Cost: If you already pay for ChatGPT Plus ($20/month), you don’t need Fabric just for this
Flexibility: You can ask for more detailed explanations, alternative examples
No model limits: You’re not affected by Copilot’s size limits

My Recommendation

If you already have Fabric for other reasons (Data Factory, Real-Time Intelligence, Warehouse, etc.), use Copilot
If you just want help with DAX and don’t need Fabric, ChatGPT/Claude is more economical
If you’re learning DAX, the combination of both is ideal

Preparing Your Model for Copilot

Copilot works as well as your model is prepared. Checklist:

1. Descriptive Names

❌ Fact_SLS_001 → ✅ Sales
❌ DIM_CUST → ✅ Customers

2. Field Descriptions

In Power BI Desktop, add descriptions to tables, columns, and measures. Copilot uses them to understand what each field represents.

3. Configured Synonyms

If your team says “revenue” but the column is “Income”, add synonyms.

4. Data Categories

Mark date columns as “Date”, geographic ones as “Country/Region”, etc.

5. AI Instructions (New)

You can add specific instructions for Copilot in your semantic model. For example:

"When the user asks about 'margin', use the [Gross Margin %] measure.
For time analysis, always use the Calendar table."

Honest Limitations

Being realistic, this is what Copilot cannot do (yet):

Limitation	Impact
English is the officially supported language	Other languages may work but without guarantee
Doesn’t apply report filters	Can’t interpret “last 30 days”
Doesn’t create complex conditional measures	Long switch statements fail
Doesn’t connect to SSAS on-premise	Only models in Fabric/Premium
Doesn’t work in sovereign clouds	Azure Gov, China, etc. not supported
Throttling under intensive use	Many requests = degradation

Verdict: Is It Worth It in 2026?

YES, it’s worth it if:

You already pay for Fabric for other workloads (Data Factory, Synapse, Warehouse, etc.)
You have a team of analysts who write DAX frequently
You want to replace Q&A before its deprecation
Your semantic model is well documented

NO, it’s not worth it if:

You only use Power BI Pro and don’t need Fabric
Your team already masters DAX and doesn’t need assistance
You have limited budget and ChatGPT covers your needs
Your model has thousands of tables/measures (Copilot limits)

The Economic Calculation

Scenario: Small team (5 analysts)

F2 + Pro: ~$333/month
Estimated savings: 10 hours/month on DAX? 20?
ROI depends on how much time you actually save

Scenario: Medium team (20 analysts, 100 consumers)

F64: ~$8,400/month (eliminates Pro for consumers)
vs 100 Pro licenses: ~$1,400/month
Only worth it if you need the capacity for other things

My conclusion: Copilot is a “nice to have”, not a “must have”. If you’re already on Fabric, enable it and use it. If not, don’t buy Fabric just for Copilot.

Next Steps If You Decide to Try It

Check if you already have Fabric: Ask your admin if there’s capacity available
Start with F2 on PAYG: You can pause it when not in use
Prepare a pilot model: Choose one with good names and descriptions
Document what works: Create a list of useful prompts for your team
Train your team: Copilot requires knowing what to ask

Additional Resources

This post is part of my series on BI tools. You can also read Power BI vs Tableau in 2026 for a complete comparison.

Keep learning

What is DAX in Power BI? - Master the calculation language Copilot generates
What is Power Query? - Clean your data before Copilot sees it
Power BI debugging guide - When Copilot’s DAX doesn’t work as expected