Forum Discussion
Dataset refresh via Power Automate Flow - clarifications
Hi mollycat ,
Unfortunately, there’s no sneaky way around this one in Premium capacity, anything that refreshes your dataset via Power Automate (or any other API) does count toward the 48-per-day limit for that dataset, even if you trigger it manually with a button inside the report. The only refreshes that don’t count are when you (or someone with permission) click REFRESH NOW in the Power BI Service. The good news is you can add a Power Automate button in the report so end users can kick off a refresh themselves it just means each click will still eat into that 48-refresh daily quota. If you really need more than 48 automated/API refreshes a day, the only real workaround today is to go through the XMLA endpoint, which doesn’t have the same cap.
More details here in Microsoft’s official documentation: Data refresh in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Hope that clears things up. If the above solution works for you, please accept it as the solution so that other community members with similar issues can benefit.
Regards,
Akhil.
Hi mollycat ,
No problem at all, happy to keep the conversation going.
On the Direct Query vs Import part you’ve described exactly the trade-off most folks run into. Direct Query avoids refresh limits, but the report experience can really drag because every click is hitting the source system. Even if your data isn’t huge, the constant back-and-forth kills performance. Import mode almost always gives a snappier user experience, and since your refresh is only ~20 seconds, that’s actually a great sign that Import is the better fit here.
If you do stick with Import, then yes the 48/day refresh limit is the ceiling using the “standard” methods. The Fabric Data Pipelines (Preview) option you found is interesting, because it’s designed for more robust, automated data movement/orchestration. But right now, it doesn’t magically bypass the 48/day cap for dataset refreshes – it still calls the same underlying refresh process. So, from a limits perspective, you’d be in the same place as with Power Automate.
Long-term, if you expect to need more than 48 refreshes, XMLA endpoint is still the only truly “out of the box” way to get around that cap today. It does add a bit of setup and scripting, but it’s reliable once in place.
so to summarize.
- Direct Query: avoids refresh limits but will stay slow unless your model is extremely simple and the source DB is lightning fast.
- Import: better performance, fast refreshes in your case, but subject to the 48/day limit.
- Data Pipelines (Preview): great for orchestration, but doesn’t bypass the refresh cap.
- XMLA endpoint: only current way to go past 48/day refreshes.
If performance is the bigger pain point (sounds like it is), I’d lean Import mode + plan around the 48 limit (or XMLA if you truly need more.
Regards,
Akhil.
Hi Anonymous, apologies for the delayed response. Thank you, as always, for your very helpful insight.
In my last reply, I hadn't been able to try the Data Pipeline option yet as it was not showing as available. I have since been able to set up a semantic model refresh and wanted to post here in case anyone in the future may have this same question. Using the "create advance refresh" option as shown here: Refresh a Semantic Model Using Data Pipelines (Preview) - Power BI | Microsoft Learn, I was able to set up a refresh that runs every 2 minutes, just to test. It has been running for several hours and I have not yet received a refresh failure. In the semantic model refresh history, this is showing as "Data Factory". I do wonder if the seemingly unlimited refresh capacity is only available since this is in Preview mode? But for now, it is allowing me to refresh more than 48 times and is showing as "Completed". I may be missing something here in terms of the 48-refresh limit, but wanted to share this update.