Limit Refresh Power BI Semantic Model Using Power Automate

[PIYUSHPRAJAPATI]

I have Power Automate flow, that refresh a Power BI Semantic model. Is there any refresh limit for Power BI semantic model from power automate. Because I get a email Alert Your Operation has been throttlet.

[v-pnaroju-msft]

Thankyou, @BhavinVyas3003, @arvindsingh802, and @Akash_Varuna, for your responses.

Hi PIYUSHPRAJAPATI,

We appreciate your inquiry via the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.

Based on my understanding, the error message "Your Operation has been throttled" during a Power BI Semantic Model refresh triggered from Power Automate typically occurs due to exceeding API or capacity refresh limits, especially when using shared (Pro) or oversubscribed Premium capacities. The throttling happens because of exceeding daily refresh limits (8 per day in shared Pro capacity), too many concurrent or large refreshes overloading Premium/Fabric capacity, or frequent API-triggered refreshes hitting backend resource thresholds.

Kindly follow the steps below, which might help to resolve the issue:

1. For Pro/shared capacity workspaces, the maximum refreshes allowed via API or scheduled refreshes is 8 per day, which cannot be increased. For Premium/Fabric capacities, up to 48 scheduled refreshes per day and unlimited API refreshes are allowed, subject to capacity throttling.
2. Use Incremental Refresh to reduce dataset size and refresh load, thereby minimizing resource usage.
3. Avoid concurrent refreshes by staggering Power Automate flows using delay actions or scheduling triggers to prevent overlapping refresh jobs.

Additionally, please refer to the following links for more information:
Power BI - Connectors | Microsoft Learn
Data refresh in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Datasets - Refresh Dataset In Group - REST API (Power BI Power BI REST APIs) | Microsoft Learn
Incremental refresh for semantic models in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

If you find our response helpful, kindly mark it as the accepted solution and provide kudos. This will assist other community members facing similar issues. Should you have any further queries, please feel free to contact the Microsoft Fabric community.

Thank you.

[Akash_Varuna]

Hi @PIYUSHPRAJAPATI Limits are based on the acapacities like 48 times/day for Premium and 8 times/day for shared capacity, with throttling triggered by frequent or simultaneous requests. Space out refresh intervals and use incremental refresh to reduce resource usage. 

[arvindsingh802]

This typically indicates that you are exceeding the allowed limits for operations within a specific time frame
refer https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/powerbi/#limits for API limit
If you are using Power BI Premium capacity then its possible that this is because of limit on the number of concurrent operations like semantic model refreshes. If you have too many refreshes happening simultaneously, or if your usage exceeds the capacity's limit, you'll be throttled

[BhavinVyas3003]

Hi @PIYUSHPRAJAPATI ,

To pull fresh usage data (views, users, data‐source usage) for all Power BI reports across every workspace over the past 6 months, you'll need to combine built-in usage metrics and audit logs—the built-in reports only go back 90 days, and only log everyday usage

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/collaborate-share/service-usage-metrics

1. Built-in Usage Metrics

• Each report workspace provides a “Usage Metrics” report with data only for the last 90 days .

1. Audit Logs (Unified Audit / Microsoft Purview)

• Export Power BI “ViewReport” activities for your tenant up to 180 days by default. With E5 license, you can retain up to 1 year https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1353971/unified-audit-logs-search-retention-and-...
• Use PowerShell:

Search-UnifiedAuditLog -StartDate (Get-Date).AddMonths(-6) -EndDate (Get-Date) -RecordType PowerBI

• The logs include user, report name, workspace, date/time—ideal for usage analysis over 6 months.

1. Combine & Analyze

• Import the audit CSV into Power BI.
• Join with workspace/report metadata to calculate:
• Total views per report
• Unique user count
• Data-source access (via activity metadata)