Forum Discussion
Fabric Capacity Utilization - SharePoint Files in Semantic Model
Lacking PBI admin access here
We have a SPO list connected to a personal cloud connection loading into a semantic model refreshing x amount of times.
Simple question, does this consume capacity CU by using this cloud connection.
If the workspace is on a Fabric F-SKU or Premium capacity, yes, every semantic model refresh and query consumes CUs against that capacity, and this is independent of whether the data source uses a personal cloud connection, a shared cloud connection, or an on-prem gateway. The billing tracks the operation running on the capacity (dataset refresh, interactive query, background query), not the source or connection type.
Personal vs shared cloud connections only affect credential ownership and reusability, not consumption. So even though the SPO list is small, each of the X scheduled refreshes will appear in the capacity metrics app as a background operation on that workspace's capacity.
If this helped, kindly mark it as the accepted solution and give a thumbs up.
Best regards,
Shai Karmani
4 Replies
If the workspace is on a Fabric F-SKU or Premium capacity, yes, every semantic model refresh and query consumes CUs against that capacity, and this is independent of whether the data source uses a personal cloud connection, a shared cloud connection, or an on-prem gateway. The billing tracks the operation running on the capacity (dataset refresh, interactive query, background query), not the source or connection type.
Personal vs shared cloud connections only affect credential ownership and reusability, not consumption. So even though the SPO list is small, each of the X scheduled refreshes will appear in the capacity metrics app as a background operation on that workspace's capacity.
If this helped, kindly mark it as the accepted solution and give a thumbs up.
Best regards,
Shai KarmaniHi,
Yes, the semantic model refresh will consume Fabric Capacity Units (CUs), regardless of whether the source is a SharePoint Online list accessed through a personal cloud connection.
The cloud connection itself doesn't consume CUs. The capacity consumption comes from the work performed during the refresh, such as:
Connecting to the SharePoint list.
Reading and transforming the data (Power Query).
Processing and loading the data into the semantic model.
Updating indexes and model metadata.
The amount of CU consumed depends on factors like the size of the SharePoint list, the complexity of the Power Query transformations, the semantic model size, and how frequently it refreshes.
If your goal is to understand the impact, the best place is the Fabric Capacity Metrics app, where you can correlate semantic model refresh operations with CU consumption over time. Even without Power BI admin access, your Fabric or Capacity admin should be able to review those metrics for you.
Hi worldpay-unr,
Have you had a chance to review the solution shared by Shai_Karmani sannavajjala? If the issue persists, feel free to reply so we can help further.
Thank you.
Hi worldpay-unr,
Checking in to see if your issue has been resolved. let us know if you still need any assistance.
Thank you.
