FabCon Europe 2026: what Barcelona means for UK SMEs
Easy Insight Team ·
For a UK SME, FabCon Europe 2026 comes down to four things. Check one setting now: capacity overage is generally available and on by default for new Fabric capacities, billed at three times the normal rate. Apps are coming to Power BI Pro. Copilot can reach your Power BI models by default. And moving off Azure Data Factory is optional.
FabCon Europe ran in Barcelona from 28 September to 1 October. This covers Microsoft's own announcement posts, read on 9 October 2026. Our September 2026 update already covers F0, on-demand billing, Power BI answers in Copilot Chat and the per-model Copilot switch, so those get a line here at most.
Why should you check your capacity settings this week?
Microsoft's platform announcement says capacity overage "is now generally available". Instead of throttling when a capacity runs out, Fabric buys extra compute. According to Microsoft Learn, "when you create a new Fabric capacity, capacity overage is enabled by default", with a default threshold of 25% extra consumption over a rolling 24 hours, charged at three times the pay-as-you-go rate.
What that means for the smallest capacity, using UK South list prices from the Azure Retail Prices API as of October 2026:
| F2 figure | |
|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go rate | £0.1585 per capacity-unit hour |
| Overage rate (3×) | £0.4755 per capacity-unit hour |
| F2 on pay-as-you-go, 730 hours | about £231 a month |
| Default overage allowance per day (25% of 48 CU hours) | 12 CU hours, about £5.71 |
| Default allowance used every day for 30 days | about £171 a month on top |
That is our arithmetic on Microsoft's published rates, and Learn warns that "actual charges can exceed" the threshold because running jobs finish before throttling starts. For a small firm, an occasional spike costing a few pounds is a fair trade. Paying for it every day is a sign the capacity is too small. Decide which you want and set the threshold accordingly. Our Fabric pricing guide has the full F SKU price list.
Microsoft also says workspace-level surge protection "will be generally available soon", letting you cap one workspace so a runaway job cannot throttle the rest. New F4096 and F8192 SKUs are generally available but irrelevant at SME scale.
What is coming to Power BI Pro?
Arun Ulag's FabCon hero blog announces app building in Power BI Desktop: start from a semantic model, describe the app in plain English, then publish it to Fabric. Apps in Power BI arrive in preview "in the coming weeks" for Pro, Premium Per User and Fabric capacity customers. Pro and PPU customers will get Fabric Apps and Fabric Database capabilities "at no additional cost", up to 1 GB per app.
This is announced, not shipped. In our view it could replace some of the small internal tools SMEs build on spreadsheets, but wait for the documentation before planning around it. See our licensing guide for what Pro covers today.
Is Copilot reading your reports by default?
Yes. Microsoft's 28 September announcement says Fabric IQ in Copilot Chat and Cowork is generally available and "on by default". The Fabric Analytics post adds that Fabric data agents are generally available in Copilot Studio, and that sensitivity labels and DLP policies now flow into Copilot. Users still only see data they already have permission to see, but if a payroll or customer model should stay out, use Restrict from Copilot. Our Copilot in Power BI guide and GDPR and AI guide cover the wider checks.
Do you have to leave Azure Data Factory?
No. Microsoft Learn says Azure Data Factory pipelines "keep running exactly as they do today" with "no forced upgrade and no deadline", although new features go into Fabric. A preview assessment marks each pipeline as ready or needing review before anything moves (upgrade guide).
One SME-specific catch: Learn lists the HubSpot, QuickBooks, Shopify and Xero connectors as not supported by the upgrade today. If your pipelines pull from those, stay put. Our Fabric vs Synapse comparison covers the wider decision.
What else was announced?
| Announcement | Status | SME relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment plans: ordered deployments with pre and post steps | Preview | Useful once you run deployment pipelines |
| Selective branching and change comparison in Git integration | Generally available | Cleaner reviews for teams already using Git |
| Data engineering agent | Preview | Aimed at larger migrations |
| F0 and on-demand billing | Coming weeks | Covered in our September update |
Statuses are from Microsoft's FabCon posts, as of 9 October 2026. On-demand meters have appeared in Azure's public price list, but Microsoft has not yet published a pricing page that explains them, so we are not quoting them.
What would we do now?
Check the overage setting and threshold on every Fabric capacity. Decide which semantic models Copilot should not reach. Leave ADF pipelines alone unless a feature you need lives only in Fabric. For help, our Power BI consultancy, data engineering and wider data practice do this work.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fabric capacity overage switched on by default?
Yes, on new capacities. Microsoft Learn says overage is enabled by default when you create a Fabric F capacity, with a default threshold of 25% extra consumption over a rolling 24 hours. It is billed at three times the pay-as-you-go rate. You can opt out or change the threshold.
Will Fabric Apps be included with Power BI Pro?
Microsoft says so. At FabCon Europe 2026 it announced that Pro and Premium Per User customers will get Fabric Apps and Fabric Database capabilities at no additional cost, up to 1 GB per app. The apps in Power BI preview is due "in the coming weeks", so it is not available yet.
Do we have to move off Azure Data Factory?
No. Microsoft Learn says Azure Data Factory remains fully supported with no forced upgrade and no deadline, though new features are being built into Fabric Data Factory. A built-in, preview assessment shows which pipelines are ready to move before anything changes.
Is Fabric IQ in Copilot Chat on by default?
Yes. Microsoft's 28 September 2026 announcement says Fabric IQ in Microsoft Copilot Chat and Cowork is generally available and on by default for Fabric and Power BI customers. Use the Restrict from Copilot control on any semantic model that should stay out of it.
Easy Insight is a UK consultancy for AI, web, apps and data — senior specialists only, no juniors.
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