Power BI September 2026 update: what matters for SMEs
Easy Insight Team ·
September's Power BI release is huge, but three items matter for a small business. Subscription emails are changing sender, so check your mail rules. Fabric has a new F0 capacity with no upfront compute charge, in preview. And Copilot can now answer from Power BI inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, with a new switch to keep it out of a model.
This covers Microsoft's Power BI September 2026 feature summary and the Fabric September 2026 feature summary, published around FabCon Europe. Our 25 September roundup covers earlier changes.
What has to be done this month?
Two October deadlines carry over. Power BI Desktop builds from March 2026 or earlier can no longer save files to OneDrive and SharePoint, so update Desktop (see our August update). And Microsoft still plans to start switching ADBC drivers on by default in phases, affecting Snowflake, BigQuery and Databricks connections (Microsoft Learn).
Why are report emails coming from someone else?
Power BI is moving email subscriptions to a new delivery platform in phases. Nothing needs recreating; the sender changes. According to Microsoft Learn (updated 28 September 2026), when the new platform handles a send, "the subscription owner appears as the sender". Fallback sends still come from no-reply-powerbi@microsoft.com.
In our view this is the item most likely to bite a small firm, because mail rules for report emails are rarely documented. Check inbox rules, safe-sender lists and any Power Automate flow that looks for the old address. Allow both senders, and keep the old rule: Microsoft says not to remove it during the rollout.
Is Fabric getting cheaper to start?
Potentially. Microsoft has announced a zero-provisioned F0 capacity, in preview, with "no upfront compute-capacity charge". Supported workloads are billed on demand for what they use, and Microsoft pitches it at evaluation, development and early production. Workloads on an F2 or larger capacity can also be moved onto on-demand billing so a spike doesn't throttle everything else.
Two cautions. On-demand pricing "uses a multiplier of the pay-as-you-go capacity price", so a busy workload could cost more than a provisioned F2. And administrators can cap usage over a rolling 24 hours, after which new operations pause: if you try F0, set that limit on day one. Our Fabric pricing guide has the UK F-SKU prices to compare against.
What changed for Copilot?
In order of how much they matter to an SME:
- Power BI answers in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat are generally available. Staff can ask plain-English questions of a report, within their existing permissions.
- A new switch on each semantic model lets anyone with write access stop read-only users reaching it through Copilot and Microsoft's MCP tools. It is on by default. For models holding payroll or customer data, decide whether it should be (our GDPR and AI guide covers the wider checks).
- Microsoft 365 Copilot inside Power BI is in preview, off by default, and initially only for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.
Our Copilot in Power BI guide covers the standalone experience.
What are the quieter wins?
| Change | Status | Why an SME cares |
|---|---|---|
| Export to Excel from table visuals (data with current layout) rises from 150,000 to 500,000 rows | Generally available | Fewer split exports for finance teams |
| Create and edit DirectQuery semantic models in the Power BI service | New this month | Mac users can model in the browser, no Desktop needed |
| New Power Query editor with folding indicators and a query plan | Preview | Shows where a slow query stops folding |
| Power BI Projects (PBIP) generally available; PBIR is now the default report format | Generally available | Reports can live in Git like code |
| Mirroring for SharePoint lists into Fabric | Generally available | List data reaches reports without a pipeline |
All five are from the two feature summaries, as of October 2026. New to Power Query? Start with our beginners' guide.
What would we do this week?
Check mail rules for both subscription senders, update Power BI Desktop, and decide whether any sensitive semantic model should have Copilot access turned off. Try F0 only with a test workload and a spend limit.
For help with any of it, our Power BI consultancy and wider data practice do this work.
Frequently asked questions
Why are our Power BI subscription emails coming from a different sender?
Microsoft is moving subscriptions to a new delivery platform in phases. New-platform emails show the subscription owner as sender; fallback sends still come from no-reply-powerbi@microsoft.com. Allow both in inbox rules and safe-sender lists, and keep the old rule.
What is the Fabric F0 capacity?
F0 is a zero-provisioned Fabric capacity, in preview from September 2026, with no upfront compute-capacity charge. Supported workloads are billed on demand at a multiplier of the pay-as-you-go rate, and administrators can set a rolling 24-hour spend limit.
Can we stop Copilot reading a semantic model?
Yes. Anyone with write permission on a semantic model can turn off a setting that lets read-only users reach it through Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Cowork, data agents and Microsoft's MCP tools. It is on by default.
Easy Insight is a UK consultancy for AI, web, apps and data — senior specialists only, no juniors.
Next step
Want a number before you talk to anyone?
The free Power BI & Fabric Pricing Estimator gives you a first-pass licensing cost in two minutes, and it doesn't ask for an email. When you're ready, a free data review is one call with the consultant who would deliver it; EasyStart Power BI builds are fixed from £4,950.