Forum Discussion
Question About Dataset Refresh Behavior in Power BI
I want to clarify how dataset refresh works in Power BI in the following scenarios:
If multiple users trigger a manual refresh at the same time, are the refresh requests queued, or do they run in parallel?
If a single user triggers a refresh, does it update all other users’ sessions automatically?
Hi zaidsaeh
That's correct. Only one refersh operation on one semantic model can be performed at a given time. If this operation is triggered through the workspace, you'll receive the following error:
If you're doing this through Power Automate or via the API, you'll receive a bad request error.
4 Replies
The Power BI Service warns if a refresh is already running. A new refresh can’t start until the current one finishes.
I’m reviewing the Power BI documentation and found the statement:
“Remember that Power BI accepts only one refresh operation at a time per dataset.”
My understanding from this is:
Dataset refreshes do not run in parallel for the same dataset.
If a manual refresh is triggered while another refresh is already in progress, the new request is not automatically queued and must be retried after the current refresh completes.
Could you please confirm if this interpretation is correct for the Power BI Service?
Hi zaidsaeh
That's correct. Only one refersh operation on one semantic model can be performed at a given time. If this operation is triggered through the workspace, you'll receive the following error:
If you're doing this through Power Automate or via the API, you'll receive a bad request error.
Hi zaidsaeh,
If multiple users trigger refresh at the same time-
Refresh requests are queued, not run in parallel. Only one refresh runs at a time per dataset.
If one user triggers a refresh-
Yes, refresh updates the dataset in service, so all users automatically see the updated data once the refresh completes.
