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Use Copilot in Power BI Desktop

To use Copilot in Power BI Desktop, you need admin, member, or contributor access to at least one workspace that's assigned to a paid Fabric capacity (F2 or higher) or Power BI Premium capacity (P1 or higher) that has Copilot enabled. For information about enabling Copilot for your organization, see Enable Fabric Copilot for Power BI.

Important

In addition to capacity-level enablement, Copilot in Power BI Desktop requires that the tenant-level Fabric Copilot setting is enabled. If the tenant-level setting is off, the Copilot button appears in the ribbon but remains disabled. This behavior differs from Power BI service, which checks Copilot availability at the workspace level.

Start Copilot in Power BI Desktop for the first time

Note

The Copilot button in Desktop always appears in the ribbon. To use Copilot, you must be signed in and have access to a workspace that's in Premium or Fabric capacity.

When you use Copilot in Power BI Desktop for the first time and select the Copilot button in the ribbon, Copilot prompts you to pick a Copilot-compatible workspace. The workspace you select doesn't need to be the same as the workspace where you plan to publish your report.

  1. Open a Power BI report and select Copilot in the ribbon. The Copilot pane appears and prompts you to select a workspace.

    Screenshot of the Copilot pane in Power BI Desktop.

  2. Select the workspace to associate this report with for Copilot use. Only workspaces that support Copilot appear.

    Screenshot of the workspace picker in Power BI Desktop that appears to enable you to select a Copilot supported workspace.

    Use the Settings gear in the bottom-right corner of Power BI to switch the associated workspace or check your report's associated workspace.

    Screenshot of the workspace settings in Power BI Desktop.

    This action opens the Options window, where you can go to the Copilot (preview) settings to see which workspace you're working with and select a new workspace.

    Screenshot of the Power BI Desktop options window, Copilot settings.

    If you don't have access to any workspaces that are in the correct capacity to use Copilot, you see the following message in the Copilot (preview) settings: Either none of your workspaces have the right capacity to use Copilot, or you don't have the right permission to use them.

    Screenshot of the Copilot settings with the error message.

  3. Now you're ready to create a report with Copilot in Power BI.

Limitations

  • Copilot doesn't support workspaces that use Power BI Premium Per User (PPU).
  • Power BI Desktop versions dated January 2025 and earlier don't support the report view Copilot pane. Update to the latest version to access this feature.
  • Copilot doesn't support sovereign cloud environments. In these environments, you might see a 403 Forbidden error when you try to use Copilot in Power BI Desktop. For more information, see Copilot for Power BI Overview.

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