Power BI August 2026 Feature Summary
Welcome to the August 2026 Power BI Feature Summary! This month includes updates across reporting, modeling, data connectivity, mobile, embedded analytics, and developer experiences, with a mix of generally available enhancements and new preview capabilities. Let's take a look at what's new. Download Power BI Desktop Events and Announcements September 15 | What a Winning Power BI Dataviz Looks Like Meet the finalists headed to Barcelona to compete for the title of Power BI Dataviz World Champion. Explore the visuals that got them there, hear their tips for creating standout dataviz, and join their virtual cheer squad before they face the ultimate challenge: 20 minutes to create a championship-winning visual live on stage. Reserve your spot. Community Conference Tickets are Getting Low The European Microsoft Fabric and SQL Community Conference take place September 28 to October 1 in Barcelona, Spain, bringing together Microsoft experts and community leaders for exclusive content, live demos, and key announcements, along with more than 130 sessions spanning Fabric, Azure AI, Databases, Power BI, and Microsoft Purview. And of course, the live Dataviz World Championships finale! The most recent event in Atlanta sold out. Don’t miss out and register for the Barcelona event with code FABCMTY200 to save €200. General Deprecation of Old File Picker experience in Power BI Desktop In April we deprecated the old file picker experience in Power BI Desktop. Starting in October, users still utilize versions of Power BI desktop from March 2026 or earlier will no longer be able to save and share Power BI files to One Drive and SharePoint. Please ensure you update Power BI desktop to keep using this functionality. Note: No action is required from users as part of this deprecation; this is simply an informational announcement. Copilot and AI Updates to required semantic model permissions for Fabric Apps Currently, users need Build permission on the underlying semantic model to view and interact with a Fabric App created with the data app template. In early September, consumers will need only Read permission on the semantic model, along with access to the Fabric app. This change supports least-privilege of access by no longer requiring the broader Build permission for app consumption. App authors will still require Build permissions on the semantic model. Learn more about creating a Fabric app connected to a semantic model. Copilot Summary and Copilot Narrative can now read visuals hidden behind bookmarks Authors commonly use report bookmarks as tabs to organize content by showing and hiding visuals on a page. In these designs, certain visuals are hidden by default and revealed only when a display-only report bookmark is triggered. Copilot previously skipped these visuals entirely, so its Summary responses reflected only part of the report. Copilot Summary can now read and consider these bookmark-revealable visuals in its responses. This covers only visuals that are hidden by default and made visible by a display-only report bookmark triggered through a bookmark button or bookmark navigator. Authors can also select these hidden visuals when configuring the Copilot Narrative visual. Visuals are read in place with no changes to the bookmark state, and RLS and OLS permissions stay fully enforced. To learn more, refer to Summarize a report with Copilot and Create a narrative visual with Copilot for Power BI. Reporting Modern visual defaults and customize themes formatting panes (Generally Available) New reports created in Power BI Desktop and the Power BI service start with the Fluent 2 base theme, giving you a polished, consistent look without formatting each visual. Use the Theme pane to set the base theme, adjust colors to your brand or pick from one of the available color palettes, change text styles, set specific visual properties, page settings, and the filter pane look and feel across your entire report, and import or export custom theme, in both Desktop or web. Figure: Customizing a report’s base theme and color palette in the Power BI Theme pane. In this release, we also removed all font overrides from the base theme, so the Text section in the Theme pane now works as intended. Change a font in one place to update titles, callouts, labels, and general text across every visual in your report, including new visuals added later. For a deeper look at what's included, see the Deep dive into Modern Visual Defaults and Customizing Theme Improvements and Deep dive into modern visual defaults and formatting your entire report blog posts. Learn more about the base themes and the Theme pane in the Visual defaults in Power BI reports documentation. Date picker for Slicer visual (Generally Available) Date pickers combine relative selections that roll forward as time passes with a calendar and slider for manual date range or single date selection. You can anchor relative options to today, the first date, or the last date in your column. Figure: Enabling single-date selection for the Date picker slicer in the Selection controls settings. New in this release, the Single date setting under Visual > Slicer settings > Selection controls restrict the slicer to one date at a time—the calendar and slider allow only a single date, and the relative options are limited to selections that return a single date. And you can now clear selections from a header icon in addition to slicer header. For more information, see the Slicer visual in Power BI documentation. Center value for donut chart (Generally Available) Donut charts can now show value in the center, no overlaid card required. Enable the center value and the donut displays it right in the middle. You control the details in the formatting pane: value format, display units, and font. Add an optional label above or below the value, place an image above or below it, or change the background filling or image of the center. Need something other than the total? Add a custom measure to the center value in the formatting pane. Figure: A donut center can show a plain total or a custom value, label, image, or background to match your report. The center value stays in sync with your data: filtering, cross-highlighting, drill-down, and selecting a slice all update it automatically. And because it lives inside the visual, it stays aligned across resizing, mobile, and dashboards, and works with screen readers. To add a center value, select your donut chart, open the formatting pane, and turn on Center value. To learn more, refer to Add a center value to a donut chart. Comments support for reports in org apps Users can now collaborate on reports in org apps using comments. Comment on report pages and visuals, start discussions with colleagues, and use ‘@mentions’ to notify others and bring them into the conversation. Comments also capture the current report context, helping others understand exactly what you're seeing when providing feedback or discussing insights. Figure: Comments pane open on a report in an org app comment box highlighted. To learn more about, see comments in Power BI reports. Matrix: Expand and collapse for column headers (Generally Available) You can now expand and collapse column headers in the matrix visual, just like you already can for row headers. When your matrix has more than one field in the Columns field well, +/- icons appear on the column headers so you can combine groups or reveal more detail directly in the visual. You can also customize the color and size of the +/- icons under Column headers > +/- icons in the format pane. Figure: Customizing the color and size of expand and collapse icons for matrix column and row headers. To learn more, see Expand and collapse row and column headers. Matrix: Set the default freeze state for row headers in the format pane Report authors can now set the default freeze state for matrix row headers directly in the format pane. Turn the Row headers toggle on or off under Layout > Freeze to control whether row headers stay visible or scroll away when consumers scroll horizontally. This default is saved with the report and applies to everyone who views it. Figure: Setting the default freeze state for matrix row headers in the Visual formatting pane. This new setting is especially useful for mobile layouts. On phones, portrait orientation limits horizontal space, so you might want to unfreeze the row headers on your mobile layout to give data values more room, while keeping them frozen on the desktop layout, which typically uses landscape orientation. Figure: Setting the default freeze state for matrix row headers in a mobile layout. The right-click Freeze row headers and Unfreeze row headers options are still available and, as before, remain transient — they apply only to the current viewing session, so consumers can flip the state temporarily without changing the report author's default. To learn more, see Freeze row headers. OneLake file URLS for report visuals and maps (Generally Available) You can now use links to image files stored in OneLake as an image source anywhere where Power BI accepts an image URL. This works in the image visual, table and matrix cells, the card visual, button and list slicers, as well as for custom icons in the Icons cell element when you use the Field value format style. OneLake file links work even though they require authentication—Power BI signs in on your behalf when the report loads, so you don't have to make images anonymously accessible to use them in your report. Copy the file URL from OneLake and paste it into any image URL field or into a column or measure set as Image URL. Example: https://onelake.dfs.fabric.microsoft.com/{workspace-id}/{item-id}/Files/{path-to-image Figure: Using a OneLake file URL as the image source for an image visual in Power BI. Reference layer maps and shape map files can also be linked from OneLake file URLs. Keep your files in OneLake and use them in your Power BI reports today! For more information, see the Display images in a table, matrix, or slicer and Image visual in Power BI documentation. Outer padding for bar, column, line, ribbon, and waterfall charts in formatting pane (Generally Available) Column, bar, clustered, line, ribbon, and waterfall charts now include an Outer padding setting under Layout, giving you control over the space between the edges of the plot area and the first and last categories. This is helpful when you want your chart to fill the visual—especially in scenarios where you've turned off the category axis and are relying on a legend, like a clustered column chart used as a comparison view. Then, you can simply resize the visual to get the look you want on your report page. Reducing outer padding on line charts with categories also lets you show more data before a scrollbar appears. Figure: Adjusting outer padding and spacing between categories to control how charts fill the plot area. To use it, select the visual and, in the Format pane, expand Columns, Bars, or Lines > Layout, then set Outer padding to 0%. To fully fill the plot area, also set Space between categories to 0%. For more information, see the Customize x-axis and y-axis properties documentation. Azure map reference layer shape-matching improvements (Generally Available) Shape matching in Azure Maps reference layers now delivers significantly better performance. When you match your Power BI data to shapes in a reference layer—for example, joining sales data to a set of custom territories or regions in a GeoJSON file—reports now render faster, and interactions like filtering, cross-highlighting, and zoom respond more smoothly. No configuration change is required; existing reports automatically benefit from the improvements. Figure: Improved Azure Maps reference layer performance, with faster rendering shown in the Performance analyzer. For more information, see the Add a reference layer to the Azure Maps Power BI visual documentation. Azure map loads filtered selection and autozoom (Generally Available) The Azure Map visual has a 30,000 data point rendering limit, and previously, points beyond that limit didn't display—even when you filtered the report to focus on a smaller area whose data hadn't originally loaded. Now, when you filter to a smaller selection, the visual reloads to include the newly relevant data points that weren't part of the original 30,000. This means you can start with a broad view of your data and drill into any subset—by region, category, time period, or through cross-filtering—and be confident the map shows the complete picture for what you've filtered to, not just what fit in the initial load. Figure: Filtering the report to Washington reloads the relevant ZIP code shapes and automatically zooms the Azure Maps visual to the selected area. The Azure Map visual also now automatically zooms to fit the currently filtered area. When you or a report viewer applies filters, use slicers, or cross-filter from another visual, the map reframes to the extent of the visible data instead of staying at the original viewport. This keeps the map focused on the data being analyzed and removes the need to manually pan and zoom after every filter change. For more information on Azure Map, see the Azure Maps visual for Power BI documentation. Slicer visual dropdown border color, open icon, and hierarchy expand and collapse icon colors in formatting pane (Generally Available) Based on your feedback, we’ve added more slicer formatting options beyond the selection icon, giving you greater control over the slicer’s appearance. When you add more than one field to the slicer to have a hierarchy in vertical list or dropdown style, make sure the icon color matches your report. And dropdown style, offering a compact slicer to your report has more formatting options. Figure: Customizing the slicer dropdown border, open icon, and accent bar in the Visual formatting pane. The new top-level Dropdown section in the Visual formatting pane lets you customize the dropdown box in both its open and closed states, including border color (with conditional formatting), rounded corners, and the open icon color (with conditional formatting) and transparency. A new Accent bar option adds a color bar to the dropdown box with settings for color (with conditional formatting), position, transparency, and width. For hierarchy slicers, the top-level Hierarchy section lets you color the expand and collapse icons (with conditional formatting) and choose which icon to use. For more information, see the Slicer visual in Power BI documentation. Modeling More control over Semantic Model refresh in Power BI Service We've added new refresh options in Power BI Service to give you greater control over how semantic models are refreshed. Previously, selecting Refresh always performed a schema sync followed by a data refresh. While this works well in most scenarios, there are times when you may want to refresh data without updating the model schema or vice versa. For example, in Direct Lake semantic models, a Lakehouse table might have changed by adding new columns, but you may want to load the latest data without bringing those schema changes into the model. Figure: New model refresh options in Power BI Service Model view. The Refresh button now includes three options: Refresh schema and data: Updates the schema and then refreshes data. Sync schema only: Applies schema changes from the data source, such as new columns or data type changes. Refresh data only: Loads the latest data while preserving the current semantic model schema. In addition, refresh operations can now be performed at the table level. This allows you to refresh a specific table instead of the entire semantic model and choose whether to refresh its schema, data, or both. Figure: New table refresh options in Power BI Service Model explorer. These enhancements provide more flexibility and control over semantic model maintenance, helping you refresh exactly what you need while minimizing unnecessary changes and processing. Refer to the Data refresh in Power BI documentation for more information. Convert Direct Lake Tables to Import Storage Mode in Web Modeling (Preview) Direct Lake on OneLake supports composite models by allowing for mixing Direct Lake tables with Import and DirectQuery tables. You can now convert individual Direct Lake tables to Import storage mode directly in Power BI web modeling, giving you a seamless way to build a Direct Lake composite (mixed mode) semantic model. Open a Direct Lake on OneLake semantic model in web modeling, select one or multiple tables, and change the Storage mode from Direct Lake to Import in the Properties pane. The modeling flow guides you through configuring a connection and refreshing the table into Import mode. Because Direct Lake and Import tables support regular relationships, performance remains unchanged. Figure: Change the Storage mode property from Direct Lake to Import to convert a single table. A warning dialog will be surfaced before continuing. This feature will be rolling out over the next few weeks. Refer to the Direct Lake in web modeling documentation for more information. Direct Lake Calculated Columns (Preview) You can define calculated columns directly in your semantic model using DAX in web modeling and Power BI Desktop, without changing the table storage mode or modifying data upstream. Key behaviors Only the User Context expression context is supported. User-context-aware DAX functions such as USERCULTURE() are supported. Columns do not materialize and are evaluated at query time. Security context is respected (RLS and OLS). Columns cannot be used in relationships because they do not materialize. Expressions that do not reference user-aware functions or secured columns behave like any other DAX calculated column. Figure: Creating a concatenated location field. Figure: Month names displayed using USERCULTURE(). "Customer Location" returns the same value for every user unless the security context differs. "Month Name" adapts to the language of the person viewing the report. Figure: Month names are localized based on the user's culture using USERCULTURE(). No preview switch is required - open a Direct Lake on OneLake semantic model in the web or edit in Desktop, add a calculated column, and start authoring in DAX. To learn more, see the Create calculated columns in Power BI Desktop documentation. Data connectivity Accessibility, Dark Mode, and Usability Upgrades Theming improvements for better accessibility In this release, we’ve invested in a range of theming improvements that address color contrast and readability across both the light and dark themes. Users who rely on higher-contrast visuals will notice cleaner, more legible interface elements throughout the Power Query UI. Highlights: Improved color contrast across interface elements in both light and dark themes. More consistent theming that keeps controls, text, and icons clearly distinguishable. A stronger foundation for accessibility that benefits all users, regardless of theme preference. Figure: Better contrast for connectors and white background for icons. Better contrast for connector icons in Dark Mode Connector icons are how you quickly recognize your data sources, but in Dark Mode, icons with transparent backgrounds could blend into the surrounding UI and become hard to identify. We’ve fixed that. Now, when a connector icon has a transparent background, it automatically receives a white background in Dark Mode. The result: connector icons stand out clearly and stay easy to identify across the new Power Query UI, making it faster to find and select the right data source briefly. To learn more, refer to the Get data in Power BI Desktop documentation. Mobile Rotate view in the mobile report footer The Rotate view button is now available in the Power BI Mobile report footer, letting you switch layouts with one tap for larger visuals and a wider view—even when your phone is locked in portrait orientation. This is especially helpful for reports that don't have a mobile-optimized layout, which open in portrait by default. Just tap Rotate view to get a wider, more readable view, then tap again to switch back. This feature is rolling out soon to Power BI Mobile for iOS and Android - stay tuned! Figure: Tapping Rotate view in the report footer to get a larger view of the report. To learn more about the actions in the report footer, refer to the Explore reports in the Power BI mobile apps documentation. To learn how to build a mobile-optimized layout for your reports, see the mobile layout documentation. Export data to Excel in the Power BI mobile app Export data from Power BI report visuals directly from your phone or tablet. With Export data now available in the Power BI mobile app for iOS and Android, you can quickly take the data behind a visual into Excel for further analysis or sharing, without switching to the Power BI service on another device. To export, open a report visual in focus mode or open the visual’s More options (…) menu, and select Export data. The export starts automatically using the supported Excel format for that visual. The exported data reflects your current filters, slicers, drill state, permissions, and row-level security. When the file is ready, use your device’s sharing options to open, save, or share it. Figure: Exporting data from a report visual to Excel in the Power BI mobile app, via focus mode or open the visual’s More options (…) menu. To learn more, see Export data from a Power BI visualization. Embedded Analytics Enhancements to Power BI Embedding in SharePoint Online Embedding Power BI reports and report pages in SharePoint Online is now easier. With our new UI, you now have the option to directly select the workspace you want to embed in SharePoint, rather than copying and pasting the full URL. Simply navigate to SharePoint online, add Power BI content, and the new menu will allow you to browse workspaces and reports you have access to. Alongside embedding reports and report pages, you can now also embed a visual. Simply select the "Embed a single visual" toggle to select the specific visual you want to embed. Figure: Embedding a Power BI visual with the new SharePoint Online Experience. More details about these enhancements can be found in the Power BI and SharePoint Documentation. Developers + API’s Faster PBIP development with instant reloads and VS Code integration A faster PBIP editing experience is here. If you're working with Power BI Projects (PBIP), you can now edit project files outside Power BI Desktop and reload those changes instantly, without restarting the application. Power BI Desktop automatically detects changes made to your files and prompts you to apply them with a single click. Figure: Apply external changes prompt in Power BI Desktop. To make editing even easier, we've also added a built-in entry point that opens your project directly in Visual Studio Code. Figure: Open Visual Studio Code entry point in Power BI Desktop. Whether you're making edits in VS Code or using external tools to update your project files, you can now move seamlessly between your tools and Power BI Desktop without breaking your flow. Learn more Third party custom visuals Need more visual options for your report? Power BI reports support custom visuals built to fit your exact needs. Browse hundreds of options in AppSource, also available directly from Power BI Desktop, or develop your own and add it to a single report, share it across your organization, or publish it to AppSource for the community. You can even develop a custom visual tailored to your specific requirements with AI coding tools like GitHub Copilot Free. The following are some updates from the community-based custom visuals you can use in your reports today. PowerGantt Chart by Nova Silva The PowerGantt Chart helps teams plan, track, and communicate project timelines directly in Power BI. This month's update is shaped by your feedback, and we're grateful to the community of users whose suggestions keep guiding how the visual evolves. We've added three enhancements that give you finer control over how schedules and baselines are displayed. What's New? Baseline customization – Set the baseline bar size relative to the actual task bar and move milestone icons onto the baseline so planned versus actual delivery is easy to compare. Squared bar edges – Choose squared edges on item bars for a cleaner, more technical look. Vertical grouping – Group tasks vertically to organize large project structures by phase, team, or workstream. Whether you're managing product launches, construction schedules, or multi-team programs, these refinements make complex timelines easier to read briefly. Project managers, PMOs, and analysts gain sharper baseline comparisons, cleaner layouts, and better navigation across busy projects. Try the PowerGantt Chart for FREE now on your own project data by downloading it from the AppSource. Questions or remarks? Visit us at: NovaSilva. Slicer Panel by Powerviz Powerviz Slicer Panel is an advanced, all-in-one slicer that combines lists, dropdowns, sliders, buttons, date pickers, switches, and text slicers in one panel. With built-in templates, full customization, and import/export, it makes filtering smarter, simpler, and more interactive. Key Features Multiple Slicers in One Build: Bring together a wide variety of slicer types, including dropdown, expanded list, date, button, text, slider, and switch slicers, all within a single, unified panel, to filter your entire report from one place. Display Mode: Switch between Canvas, Pop-up, and Pop-up by Slicer. Orientation & Position: Arrange slicers and dock the panel top, bottom, left, or right. Panel Header: Show slicer icon, text, applied count, search, clear, and saved slicers. Slicer Action Icons: Edit, expand/collapse, sort, clear, rank, duplicate, or delete each slicer. Add Tabs: Group slicers into tabs for organized filtering. Saved Slicer: Store filter selections as reusable states. Conditional Formatting: Style slicer values with rule-based formatting. Advanced Search: Search across slicers and fields instantly. Other features included Templates, Import/ Export Themes, Search within Slicer, Ranking, Sorting, and more. Try Slicer Panel visual for FREE from App Source Check out all features of the visual Step-by-step instructions YouTube Video Learn more about visuals Follow Powerviz on LinkedIn Figure: From multiple slicer types to display modes, orientation, and saved slicers, every feature is designed to make your filtering more flexible, interactive, and effortless. Drill Down Map PRO by ZoomCharts When visualizing data with geographic coordinates, what better way to do it than literally placing it on a map? That’s why map charts are a growingly popular visualization type in Power BI reports, and the Drill Down Map PRO custom visual by ZoomCharts expands on the capabilities of map charts. Node Clustering: Multiple nearby nodes can create clusters and even display the values as pie charts. Simply zoom in to drill down. Base Layer Customization: Choose between AzureMaps or any custom tileserver, use your own images as the base layer, or disable it entirely. Custom Shape Layers: Enable up to 10 individually customizable shape layers. Use preset shapes or import your own KML/GeoJSON files. Conditional Formatting: Automatically apply color fill to each area by comparing their values against other shapes or by using each shape’s own reference value. And More: Paginated tooltips, custom tooltip fields, auras, node images, lasso tool. Figure: Reveal deeper insights with clustering, pie charts, custom shape layers, and flexible base map options tailored to your reporting needs. Figure: Customize every aspect of your map with conditional formatting, node images, auras, advanced tooltips, and intuitive selection tools. Drill Down Map PRO works incredibly well with other visuals by dynamically cross-filtering data, enabling you to build even more insightful and user-friendly Power BI reports. Get Drill Down Map PRO on AppSource Closing That's a wrap for the August 2026 Power BI Feature Summary. This month's release includes improvements across reporting, modeling, data connectivity, mobile experiences, embedded analytics, and developer workflows, along with continued investments in Copilot, accessibility, and Direct Lake capabilities. We hope these updates help you build, manage, and share data experiences more effectively. As always, we appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing how you're using these features in your organization.
Bringing Power BI Insights to Every Copilot User
The future of Power BI and Copilot starts by meeting users where they already work. We’re bringing trusted Power BI answers into Microsoft 365 Copilot first, so people can ask questions of governed business data in the flow of work — then carrying that richer, more conversational experience back into the Power BI service itself.Power BI June 2026 Feature Summary
This month, we’re continuing to focus on making every day work a little easier—whether that’s building reports, modeling data, or just getting answers faster. You’ll see progress across Copilot and newer AI-driven experiences, along with a set of practical updates to reporting that help reduce repetitive work.
Power BI October 2025 Feature Summary
This month's update brings exciting opportunities for learning and community engagement, including the upcoming Fabric Data Days and the return of FabCon in Atlanta next spring. Notably, Power BI is making strides in mapping capabilities by transitioning from Bing Maps to Azure Maps, ensuring users have access to the latest features and support. Dive into the details to stay informed about what's new and what's ahead for Power BI. Contents Events & Announcements Fabric Data Days are Coming! FabCon is back from March 16-20, 2026, in Atlanta, GA General Bing Map deprecation plan & Update in Power BI Copilot and AI Copilot to write DAX queries in DAX query view (Generally Available) Reporting Button slicer (Generally Available) Visual calculations are now supported in embed for your customers (Preview) Automatically expand table columns to fill available space Introducing the new Power BI Controller in Power BI in PowerPoint (Preview) Performance analyzer in web to see the load times of visuals Data connectivity Export Query Results (Preview) Other Power BI Desktop is now supported on ARM Visualizations Sankey Chart by Powerviz Your Timeline Slicer: Reimagining Date Filtering for Modern Dashboards Drill Down Scatter PRO by ZoomCharts Multiple Sparklines Performance Bar by JTA Financial Reporting Matrix v8.2 BI Pixie by DataChant - Measure the Effectiveness of Your BI Assets in 6 Dimensions from Adoption to Security Events & Announcements Fabric Data Days are Coming! Take your Power BI skills to the next level and join us for 2 months of learning, contests, live sessions, discount exam vouchers and community connection. Sign up for our live session series to stay connected – it all kicks off on November 4 th . FabCon is back from March 16-20, 2026, in Atlanta, GA Join us for the ultimate Power BI, Microsoft Fabric SQL, Real-Time Intelligence, AI, and Databases community-led event. The third annual FabCon Americas will feature sessions from your favorite Microsoft and community speakers, keynotes, more opportunities to Ask the Experts for 1:1 support, an engaging community lounge with opportunities to network and connect with your peers, a dedicated partner pre-day, a packed expo hall, Power Hour, Data Viz World Championship, and a can’t-miss attendee party at the Georgia Aquarium. Register with code FABCOMM to save $200. General Bing Map deprecation plan & Update in Power BI To ensure a seamless experience and stay ahead of upcoming Microsoft’s plan to retire Bing Maps for Enterprise, Power BI is proactively transitioning from Bing Maps to Azure Maps. By making this change early, Power BI users will benefit from enhanced mapping capabilities and long-term support. We encourage customers to begin updating their reports to Azure Maps visuals to stay future ready. Power BI Desktop and Web (Edit- mode) Earlier, we shared plans to remove the Bing Maps icon from the Visualization pane. After reconsideration, we’ve decided to keep the icon visible for now to ensure continuity and minimize disruption. Please note that the Bing Maps visual is still slated for deprecation, and we’re currently discussing the timeline. Any existing Bing Maps already in your reports will still be available. In preparation for the upcoming change, upgrade to Azure Maps unless: You have team members who would consume the report in China, Korea, or government clouds. You're physically located in China or Korea (regardless of where your home tenant is located). You're part of a government cloud. We're working to support Azure Maps in these unsupported regions. If you and all report users are in a supported region, you're encouraged to start using Azure Maps now. Learn how to upgrade to Azure Maps. To see the list of supported regions, see Azure Maps service geographic scope. For more information about Azure Maps, see Get started with Azure Maps Power BI visual. Power BI Report Builder The migration of paginated reports map visuals from Bing Maps to Azure Maps has begun. This migration will occur in two phases: first, migrating to Azure Maps in PBIRB, followed by migration to Azure Maps for paginated reports in the service. The initial phase is complete. Beginning with the September release of PBIRB, users can create map visuals powered by Azure Maps by default. However, paginated reports published in the service will continue to use Bing Maps until phase two is completed. Phase two is expected to be completed by mid-November. Paginated reports authors can revert to Bing Maps for authoring in PBIRB until both phases are complete. To enable this, users must set the ‘RevertToBingMaps’ registry key located in the ‘Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Power BI Report Builder’ folder to 1. If the ‘Microsoft Power BI Report Builder’ folder does not exist, it should be manually created before setting the registry key. Copilot and AI Copilot to write DAX queries in DAX query view (Generally Available) This innovative capability empowers users to leverage Copilot assistance directly within both the web and Desktop Power BI experiences, making DAX query creation easier and more efficient than ever before. Getting started is simple. In Power BI Desktop or Power BI web modeling, open the DAX query view and select the Copilot button. Describe the insights you are seeking, and Copilot generates the corresponding DAX query. Conversationally edit the DAX query with Copilot, run it as you go, and keep it when you are ready. The following screenshot shows Copilot helping to write a DAX query from the prompt ‘How are we tracking towards our targeted deliveries for each month?’ in DAX query view of Power BI Desktop. The DAX query results show by month the number of deliveries made, the target, attainment %, and variance to target. The next screenshot demonstrates how to write a DAX query to answer the user prompt ‘Can you indicate which month we were over target or under target on deliveries?’ in DAX query view of Power BI web modeling. The DAX query results show by month the number of deliveries made, the target, variance to target, and the status of each month as over or under target. Copilot is grounded in the semantic model, and AI instructions set on the model by Prep for AI. This includes verified answers by understanding the fields used and filters applied. Semantic model tables, columns, descriptions, display folders, hierarchy information, relationships, and measures are all known already to Copilot when creating DAX queries. Copilot to help write DAX queries is used in DAX query view, and in chat with your data experiences when a DAX query is returned as well as data agents when a semantic model is included. To learn more, refer to the Write DAX queries with Copilot documentation, and try it out today! Reporting Button slicer (Generally Available) Along with this release, we’ve added a few exciting enhancements to make your experience even better, including Cross-highlighting, Auto grid, and more. Cross-highlighting Like the Chiclet slicer, the Button Slicer now supports cross-highlighting to help you uncover deeper insights. This means the slicer can interact dynamically with other visuals on your report page by emphasizing relevant values and dimming unrelated ones. For example: If you select North America in a column chart, the Button Slicer will: Highlight buttons like Canada and United States (since they belong to North America). Dim all other countries to indicate they are outside the selection but keep them visible. To use this feature, simply drag a field into this new field, well called ‘Highlight label’ in the Build visual pane. You can now start interacting with now by simply selecting a value on a visual. For example, in the below example if you click on District L1-04 in the scatter chart, you will see the DM of the district L1-04 highlighted while other values are dimmed in the button slicer. Auto grid With the new Auto grid option turned on, your slicer layout becomes smarter. When enabled (and it is by default), the arrangement of rows and columns automatically adjusts based on a defined maximum limit, ensuring a clean and responsive design without manual effort. For example, following is the screenshot with Rows set to 5 and Columns set to 3 and Auto grid on: Auto grid With the new Auto grid option turned on, your slicer layout becomes smarter. When enabled (and it is by default), the arrangement of rows and columns automatically adjusts based on a defined maximum limit, ensuring a clean and responsive design without manual effort. For example, following is the screenshot with Rows set to 5 and Columns set to 3 and Auto grid on: Following is the screenshot with Auto grid Off: In addition to these updates, we’ve introduced several accessibility improvements to make Button Slicer more user-friendly and inclusive. To learn more about these enhancements and how to use them effectively, refer to the Create a button slicer (preview) documentation. Visual calculations are now supported in embed for your customers (Preview) Visual calculations are now supported in Power BI Embedded—specifically in the Embed for your customers scenario. This powerful enhancement brings even more flexibility and intelligence to your embedded analytics solutions. With visual calculations, users, developers and ISVs can now define custom calculations directly within visuals, without needing to modify the underlying data model or write complex DAX. This means faster iteration, more dynamic insights, and a smoother experience for end users. You can also hide/unhide fields on visual and set visual-level format strings. Automatically expand table columns to fill available space We’ve added a new option to table formatting that makes your visuals look cleaner and more balanced—automatically. With ‘Grow to fit’, any extra space in the visual is evenly distributed across existing columns when the total column width is smaller than the visual container. No more manual resizing to fill the gap. If your table isn't using the full visual width, you can manually resize columns or use Auto-size width, but now there's an improved solution. For example, this table doesn't fully utilize the available space: Navigate to the format pane under Column headers > Options, toggle Auto-size width to ‘On’, and set ‘Resize behavior’ to ‘Grow to fit’. Instantly, your table expands to make full use of the available space. The additional available space will be distributed across the columns: It’s a subtle upgrade that makes your data layouts cleaner, more balanced, and easier to read. Note that this will not interfere with any adjustments you make to column widths: once a column width is manually adjusted, it won’t be automatically expanded. Introducing the new Power BI Controller in Power BI in PowerPoint (Preview) This feature was developed in direct response to feedback from our user community and is designed to provide an efficient tool for managing multiple Power BI add-ins within PowerPoint presentations. Users can embed interactive reports and visuals into PowerPoint, supporting data-driven presentations across organizations. As adoption has grown, many of you expressed the need for a centralized mechanism to manage and update several Power BI add-ins across multiple slides. You told us that you are using Power BI add-in for PowerPoint to create data-centric presentations, which you are updating every week or month, and that going over all the add-ins in the presentation and repeating the same operation is time consuming. The Power BI Controller addresses this need by allowing users to execute bulk operations from a single interface. The Power BI Controller is a task pane add-in that serves as a central command center for all Power BI add-ins within a presentation. To get this add-in go to ‘Add-ins’ in PowerPoint ribbon and search for ‘Microsoft Power BI Controller’. Select ‘Add’ to add-in to your ribbon. Once you select it, a new panel will open with the list of commands that you can apply. Pick the command you wish to run and click ‘Apply’. This will trigger the discovery phase in which the controller will look for all Power BI content in the presentation and next the selected command will be executed on the discovered Power BI add-ins. To learn more, refer to View and Present live Power BI Data in PowerPoint. Performance analyzer in web to see the load times of visuals In September, we announced the availability of a performance analyzer pane on the web to see the load times of the visuals in your report where your users are going to be viewing it. Unfortunately, the rollout was delayed. This functionality will be available to your tenant in the next few weeks. To learn more about this new capability while editing a report in web, refer to the Use Performance Analyzer to examine report performance documentation. Data connectivity Export Query Results (Preview) Export Query Results in Power BI Desktop unlocks seamless data portability and collaboration across Microsoft Fabric. This feature empowers analysts to take transformed, cleaned data from Power Query and export it directly to trusted destinations - such as Dataflows Gen2, Lakehouses, and other cloud stores - without relying on complex workarounds or third-party tools. By meeting users where they work (Power BI Desktop) it reduces duplication of effort, accelerates data sharing, and drives interoperability across Fabric workloads. To enable this feature, select the Preview feature settings in Power BI Desktop. Users can select export query results from the PQ ribbon, Select an online destination, And export their queries to this destination, where they can choose to modify the Dataflow. The result is improved data gravity in OneLake, streamlined refresh and monitoring capabilities, and a minimal-click experience that supports both new and existing destinations. Ultimately, this feature bridges the gap between desktop analytics and enterprise-scale data integration, enabling organizations to maximize the value of their data investments. To learn more about how to use this feature: Export Query Results in Power BI Desktop | Microsoft Learn. Other Power BI Desktop is now supported on ARM Power BI Desktop is now supported on Windows on ARM PCs that have the 2025-09 Cumulative Update installed (KB5065789). Adding ARM support to Power BI Desktop brings powerful data analytics capabilities to a broader range of hardware—unlocking faster performance, improved battery life, and seamless experiences on modern, energy-efficient devices. Why ARM? As more users adopt ARM-powered laptops and tablets for their portability and efficiency, it’s essential that Power BI keeps pace. ARM support ensures smoother operation, better resource utilization, and a future-ready foundation for data professionals working across diverse environments. Whether you're building dashboards on the go or analyzing data from anywhere, Power BI Desktop on ARM makes it easier than ever. Visualizations Sankey Chart by Powerviz The Powerviz Sankey Chart is a dynamic flow diagram that visualizes the proportional movement of data, resources, or processes across categories or stages. With weighted connections and flexible layouts, it helps users uncover insights within complex systems. Key Features Chart Orientation: Switch seamlessly between vertical and horizontal orientation. Node Customizations: Control node appearance, spacing, visibility, and interactions for optimal clarity. Multi-Level Support: Add multiple levels to visualize layered, hierarchical flows. Data Colors: Access 30+ color palettes, including colour-blind-safe options. Fill Patterns: Highlight nodes with patterns or upload your own. Conditional Formatting: Highlight outliers with based on measures or categories rules. Smart Labels: Display data and header labels for enhanced readability. Hide Null Nodes: Instantly remove nodes with null or blank data. Image Labels: Add image URLs to show visuals inside or outside the nodes. Import/Export: Save and reuse themes easily. Templates: Use built-in templates or design your own. Other features included are Sorting, Ranking, Show Condition, Grid View and more. Business Use Cases Customer Journey Mapping, Expense Breakdown, Supply Chain Flow. Try Sankey Chart visual for FREE from AppSource Check out all features of the visual: Demo_file Step-by-step instructions: Documentation YouTube Video: Video_Link Learn more about visuals: https://powerviz.ai/ Follow Powerviz: https://lnkd.in/gN_9Sa6U Your Timeline Slicer: Reimagining Date Filtering for Modern Dashboards What problem are we solving? Dashboard real estate is precious, but traditional timeline slicers often consume too much space while lacking the flexibility today's data professionals need. After experiencing firsthand the limitations and occasional bugs of existing solutions, we built Your Timeline Slicer from the ground up to deliver what the Power BI community has been asking for. Why Your Timeline Slicer changes the game Our visual combines the familiar timeline functionality you know with breakthrough space-saving design - reclaiming up to 60% more dashboard space through ultra-compact mode. Beyond size, we have intelligent features that make reporting effortless: dynamic ‘Current Period’ and ‘Latest Available’ filtering that automatically focuses on what matters most, extensive customization options to match any brand or style, and rock-solid performance. Whether you're building executive summaries, financial dashboards, or mobile-first reports, Your Timeline Slicer adapts to your workflow - not the other way around. Ready to experience the difference? Download Your Timeline Slicer from AppSource and discover how smart date filtering can transform your dashboards. Based On Website Drill Down Scatter PRO by ZoomCharts What if exploring complex data was as easy as scrolling a smartphone app? You could make smarter and more interactive reports that allow more people (managers, C-suite, and other stakeholders) to take part in data analysis themselves and quickly find the insights they need for data-driven decisions. When designing our Drill Down Scatter PRO, we focused on three things: Incredible user experience: Freeform panning. Click to drill down. Scroll or pinch to zoom in. Multiple ways to select data. Scatter PRO makes it easy for anyone to navigate even the most complex data. On-chart Drill Down: Have hundreds or even thousands of markers? No problem – you can simplify your chart by using multiple category fields and combine smaller data points into large markers. Simply click on it to drill down and see more detailed insights on-demand. Customization: Scatter PRO offers all the necessary tools to create the perfect scatter plot for your report. Regression lines, marker, label, legend customization, tooltip content fields, reference lines and areas, and even shaded areas at your selected coordinates! Read more in our blog article. Get Drill Down Scatter PRO Multiple Sparklines With the Multiple Sparklines visual, you can design an Income Statement that is both insightful and visually compelling. 1st column displays Profit and Loss as a waterfall chart. 2nd column shows each item as a percentage of Revenue (common-size analysis). The 3rd column presents the past five-year trend. 4th column compares each item with the previous year. The 5th column benchmarks result against two major competitors. For a step-by-step tutorial on how to create this type of Income Statement, visit: Income Statement in Power BI Following is another example of an Income Statement Download this visual from APPSOURCE For more information visit https://www.excelnaccess.com/sparklines/ or contact [email protected] Performance Bar by JTA Take your Power BI dashboards to the next level with the Performance Bar by JTA, a clean visual for tracking progress and status briefly. Categories are displayed as streamlined horizontal bars with an optional markers and value label, making comparisons effortless. With simple customization to match your theme - and an optional total bar - it delivers a clear, modern way to tell your performance story. Key Features Bar customization: Configure bar height, colors, borders, and background to match your report theme. Flexible labelling: Show or hide individual labels and choose their position for clear, uncluttered reading. Adjustable scale: Change the scale to emphasize what matters most. Marker styling: Personalize circle markers (size, color, border) for highlights and targets. Marker styling: Personalize circle markers (size, color, border) for highlights and targets. Total Bar: Optionally display a summary bar for an at-a-glance overall view. Configurable tooltips: Define exactly which fields appear and where tooltips show up. Subtle animation: Bring bars to life with a clean growth animation. Resources Explore more here. Also, if you want to download it, you can find the visual package on the AppSource. Financial Reporting Matrix v8.2 More control, customization, and clarity The Financial Reporting Matrix just got even better! With version 8.2.0.0, we’ve introduced powerful new features, expanded customization options, and refined the user experience to give report creators unprecedented control over their layouts, formatting, and interactivity. New in v8.2 RowHeaderParent() function – Reference parent rows in calculations and formatting. Invert Sign Factor – Quickly reverse value signs for reporting preferences. Row options in Conditional Formatting – make rules based on Inverted sign, allow drilling, and more. Comments everywhere – Add and format comments on row and column headers, and export to Excel with comments. Custom expansion icons – Change shape, color, size, and indentation. Pin Columns – Keep important columns visible when scrolling. Improvements Column header names showing in stepped layout. Hide empty rows with rendered measures in rows. JSON-based row options recognition. Smoother horizontal scroll for formula editing. Row subtotals fix for ‘In rows’ measure placement. Rename your Applied Steps. Change column expansion icon size. Get the latest version from AppSource BI Pixie by DataChant - Measure the Effectiveness of Your BI Assets in 6 Dimensions from Adoption to Security Since its launch 2024, BI Pixie has evolved from its initial adoption and engagement measurement offering an all-encompassing intelligence suite for organizations that want to maximize their return on investment in Power BI. BI Pixie now offers insights in six key dimensions: Adoption, Engagement, User Satisfaction, Business Outcome, Performance and Security. Here are the recent updates and new capabilities in BI Pixie. With its unique instrumentation technology, BI Pixie captures detailed auditing information, providing a comprehensive view of your BI audience and analytic assets. Designed to ensure your data stays in your organization and scale to tens of thousands of reports and users, BI Pixie can be deployed in your Azure tenant or Power Platform environment in minutes. Leverage the capabilities of BI Pixie to drive user adoption, reduce attrition, boost your data governance and optimize the impact of your BI initiatives with our unprecedented auditing and real-time detection of data leaks due to faulty implementations of Row-Level Security (RLS). Discover more by exploring BI Pixie Dashboard on Microsoft AppSource, and reach out for a free subscription. Closing This concludes this month’s update. We hope the information provided in this update is useful. If you installed Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store, please leave us a review. As always, keep voting on Ideas to help us determine what to build next. We are looking forward to hearing from you!Power BI November 2025 Feature Summary
The November 2025 Power BI feature update brings several important announcements and enhancements across the platform. Key highlights include the deprecation of R and Python visuals in the Embed for your customers solution, significant updates to Copilot and AI capabilities—such as the standalone Copilot in Power BI mobile apps (Preview) and improvements to Verified Answers—and new options for reporting, modeling, and data connectivity. Users will also notice advancements in visualizations, with features like automatically expanding matrix columns and a generally available Card visual, as well as expanded support for Spark and Impala connectors and enhancements to image visuals and the OneLake Catalog. This summary provides an overview of these impactful changes to help you leverage the latest innovations in Power BI. Contents Events and Announcements Fabric Data Days is on now! FabCon is back from March 16-20, 2026, in Atlanta, GA Copilot and AI Ask anything, anywhere with Standalone Copilot in Power BI mobile apps (Preview) Updates to the standalone Copilot in Power BI Improvements to Verified Answers Remote Power BI Model Context Protocol Server for chat with your Data (Preview) Reporting Automatically expand matrix columns to fill available space Card visual (Generally Available) Enhancing Image visuals with styling, states, and more OneLake Catalog now supports user data functions for Translytical task flows (Preview) App Copilot (Preview) Modeling Power BI Modeling MCP Server (Preview) Semantic Model Version History (Generally Available) TMDL Visual Studio Code Extension (Generally Available) Data connectivity Spark and Impala Connectors (Generally Available) Visualizations Activity Gauge by Powerviz Decomposition Tree – All Expanding Dynamic chart legends in Zebra BI Charts Drill Down Bubble PRO by ZoomCharts Power BI Theme Generator Power Gantt Chart by Nova Silva Turn any image into data insights with Synoptic Panel by OKVIZ Announcing deprecation of R and Python visuals in Embed for your customers solution https://youtu.be/pRFeQWzUhn0 Events and Announcements Fabric Data Days is on now! Take your Power BI skills to the next level with live learning sessions, QuickViz challenges, discount vouchers for exam PL-300 and DP-600, and community connection. See what’s happening this week. FabCon is back from March 16-20, 2026, in Atlanta, GA Join us for the ultimate Power BI, Microsoft Fabric SQL, Real-Time Intelligence, AI, and Databases community-led event. The third annual FabCon Americas will feature sessions from your favorite Microsoft and community speakers, keynotes, more opportunities to Ask the Experts for 1:1 support, an engaging community lounge with opportunities to network and connect with your peers, a dedicated partner pre-day, a packed expo hall, Power Hour, Data Viz World Championship, and a can’t-miss attendee party at the Georgia Aquarium. Register with code FABCOMM to save $200. Copilot and AI Ask anything, anywhere with Standalone Copilot in Power BI mobile apps (Preview) In the coming app release, we are enabling a new standalone Copilot experience straight from your mobile homepage. A complete chat experience that allows you to ask any question about your data and get instance insights from Copilot, anytime, anywhere. This experience will be available in the app stores in the upcoming weeks. To start chatting with your data, use the new Copilot button on your home page. This will open a chat experience where you can type or dictate (IOS only) your question and Copilot will take it from there. When you ask about a metric or a KPI, most chances that Copilot will generate a visual for you in addition to answering your question with text. Tap on the visual to open a pane and interact with the generated visual. Tap on the citation or reference to learn what content Copilot used for grounding its answer. You can also open the report from there as well. If you want to share insight discovered in the chat with others, select the ‘Share’ button from the visual pane, or the copy from the chat. The iOS apps (iPhone and iPad) also support dictation – so you can use voice interaction to ask Copilot questions. Use the mic icon in the chat box and Copilot will start listening, waiting for your questions. With this new standalone Copilot experience, you can now easily get quick answers and stay on top of things by chatting with your data directly from your mobile. Updates to the standalone Copilot in Power BI The standalone Copilot in Power BI, also known as ‘chat with your data’, is now even easier to use. Previously, Copilot asked users to choose from a list of possible data sources before answering questions. Now, it handles that step automatically: if it finds a strong match, it selects it in the background and goes straight to the answer. When more context is needed, Copilot will ask simple clarifying questions to find the right source. Although the additional reasoning may require a few more seconds, obtaining an accurate response from a reliable source justifies the brief wait. Additionally, in response to search questions like ‘Find reports about sales’, you’ll now see a much simpler text-based list of items. New entry points right from the home page By late November, you’ll be able to access Copilot right on your home page, making it easier than ever to find what you’re looking for or ask ad hoc questions about your data! Simply type your question and hit enter. If you preferred the old home page, no problem. Switch back using the layout drop-down. New suggested prompts for recently opened items - Copilot now offers helpful prompt suggestions related to recently opened items to help users get started. Improved experience attaching items to your question - Want to add a report, or other items, to your question? Items are now sorted by recency and easily filtered by item type in a slick new design that aligns with other Copilot experiences across Microsoft. Experiment with all the new updates and let us know what you think! Improvements to the Report Copilot We’ve upgraded the Report Copilot experience in Power BI, making it easier than ever to create, edit, and refine beautiful, data-rich reports with the help of AI. With this update, Copilot in Power BI not only helps you create entire report pages in seconds but now also gives you more control, flexibility, and visual intelligence than ever before. The new Report Copilot experience is available now in the Power BI service and Power BI Desktop. Smarter, More Capable Visual Creation The new Copilot understands your data and intent more deeply than ever. Just tell it what you want to create, and watch your ideas come to life instantly. Better visual recommendations: Copilot now selects the most appropriate visuals for your data automatically. Expanded Visual Library: Copilot supports a wider range of visuals, giving you more options to present insights into exactly how you envision them. Improved context awareness: When you describe what you want to see, Copilot now understands more nuanced instructions, producing more accurate and insightful results. To learn more about creating and modifying reports with Copilot, refer to the Create reports in the Power BI service with Copilot documentation. Improvements to Verified Answers This update enhances how verified answers inherit the state of your visual, expands filtering flexibility, and delivers more reliable results. What’s New? Verified answers now inherit and reflect the entire visual state: Previously, verified answers only captured filter states active at the time of creation. With this update, they now inherit the entire visual state, including slicers. This change directly addresses one of the most common pieces of feedback we received. Report slicers impacting the visual are being inherited and shown in the verified answer. In addition to slicers, we will support additional visual states: Slicer selections Field parameter choices Cross filters and cross highlights Drill-through filters Expanded Filtering Capabilities for Authors: There is now more flexibility when configuring verified answers. The limit for predefined filter permutations has increased from 3 to 10, enabling more complex and nuanced configurations. From a consumption perspective, we see that most prompt requests naturally use between one and three filters. ‘Show total sales for the region 1 in Q1’. ‘What is the usage of Product 1 in Country 1 during Month 1’. ‘Show average satisfaction scores by City 1 and segment 1’. Still, some business questions require deeper combinations of filters, and this expanded limit ensures verified answers can handle even the most detailed reporting scenarios. Improved Filtering Reliability: What are more filters, if they aren’t applied consistently? We’ve made substantial improvements under the hood to how we match user prompts in Copilot to verified answers and the appropriate filters. Verified Answers now interpret and apply filters more accurately, reducing mismatches between what users ask and what’s displayed, and ensuring filters are included when they should be. New card visual support: We have enabled the highly requested new card visual that you can now set as verified answers, the new card visual and Azure maps will be supported in Verified Answers creation and consumption. Why it Matters: These updates make verified answers feel native to your Copilot consumption experiences, seamlessly adapting to slicers, filters, interactions, and drill-through actions that users have come to expect from their visuals. Consumers will get answers that truly reflect the context of their analysis. The result, faster, more accurate insights, and a smoother path from question to confidence, and better grounding for the rest of your Copilot experience to learn from. For more info on how these updates work, refer to the Prepare Your Data for AI - Verified Answers documentation. Remote Power BI Model Context Protocol Server for chat with your Data (Preview) Available soon, the remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Power BI provides agents and MCP clients with tools to enable you to chat with your data, remotely, all authenticated with Microsoft Entra ID. This means you’ll be able to create powerful, custom agents on top of data that lives in your semantic models. The server has three tools that give your agents the ability to reason over your data, and respond to a user’s prompts: Get Semantic Model Schema: This tool provides the agent with the structure of the semantic model. Generate Query: This tool uses Copilot in Power BI to generate a DAX query based on the user’s input and best practices. The agent can then iterate on this query if it chooses or simply proceeds with the provided query. Execute Query: This tool gives the agent a powerful mechanism to query the semantic model to respond to any question a user asks. These tools can be implemented by any application that hosts an MCP client, such as Visual Studio Code. Other, non-Microsoft MCP clients can be supported with Service Principal authentication, backed by Azure Entra ID. The remote MCP Server for Power BI enables you to easily build the next generation of agents on top of the data your organization has already invested so heavily in. For more information on the remote MCP server for Power BI, for more information, refer to the documentation. Reporting Automatically expand matrix columns to fill available space Last month, tables got the Grow to fit option expanding columns to fill the available space. This month, we are enabling the same option on the matrix visual. As a reminder: with the Grow to fit option, any extra space in the visual is evenly distributed across existing columns when the total column width is smaller than the visual container, which eliminates the need to do manual resizing to fill the gaps. If your matrix isn’t using the full visual width, you can manually resize columns or use the new ‘Grow to fit’ option. For example, this matrix doesn’t fully utilize the available space: Navigate to the format pane under Column headers > Options, toggle Auto-size width to ‘On’, and set ‘Resize behavior’ to ‘Grow to fit’. Instantly, your matrix expands to make full use of the available space. The additional available space will be distributed across the columns: In last month’s release we also had an overenthusiastic horizontal scrollbar when using this option. This has now been corrected. The horizontal scrollbar should not show unless there isn’t enough space to fit the content. Learn more about Grow to fit in the table and matrix documentation. Card visual (Generally Available) The new Card visual brings a modern and visually engaging way to highlight key metrics in your reports, now with full support for hero images and a consistent formatting control experience across visuals for an intuitive experience. Whether you’re highlighting a product, showcasing a team, or featuring a brand logo, the new hero image feature empowers you to create visually rich reports going far beyond simple data points. The Card visual also introduces a dynamic collage layout, letting you highlight one section while the other two share the remaining space. Try adding the new Card visual to your next report and experience the difference for yourself. For more details and step-by-step instructions, check out the official documentation at Create a (new) card visual in Power BI documentation. Enhancing Image visuals with styling, states, and more We’re excited to introduce enhancements to the Image visual, bringing it closer to the level of interactivity and design flexibility you’ve come to expect. Create more engaging experiences by customizing image visuals based on user interaction states such as default, hover, and pressed states of images. Alongside state customization, we’ve added formatting options to give you full control over the look and feel of your image visuals. Such as background, border, and shape. These enhancements make it easier than ever to integrate images seamlessly into your report layout. We’ve also expanded the sources, fit and effects section, with more options for image source, including upload, URL, or from a data field. You no longer need to delete the visual to update its image. With the latest update, you can easily change the image source or swap the image itself, making edits faster and more flexible. We hope these updates to the Image visual inspire you to get creative with your report designs. Whether adding a splash of branding, building intuitive navigation, or simply making your reports more engaging, the new features give you the flexibility to do it all. To learn more about the image visual, visit our documentation: Create an Image Visual in Power BI. OneLake Catalog now supports user data functions for Translytical task flows (Preview) The Fabric user data function selection experience for Translytical task flows has been improved. You can now use the OneLake catalog to discover and select the user data function that you want your action button to invoke. With the OneLake Catalog you can: Browse all available User data functions in one place. Search by keyword for quick access. View details like owner, location and sensitivity label Filter by My Functions or Endorsed in your org for confidence and governance. This new experience is available when selecting the function for Data function actions. Select a button, open the format pane, enable Action, and under Data function select the fx button. Learn more about Translytical task flows in Power BI and how Fabric user data functions can take your report beyond just showing data at Understand translytical task flows. App Copilot (Preview) Your app users now can chat with your curated data within the context of an app. An app-scoped Copilot means users can search for reports within an app, ask questions, and receive answers based on the reports in that app. App Copilot is a separate complement to report-scoped Copilot already available on each report viewed in an app. To learn more, refer to the Power BI app Copilot: AI scoped to the curated content in an app (Preview) blog post. Modeling Power BI Modeling MCP Server (Preview) The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that enables AI agents to securely connect with tools and services. The Power BI Modeling MCP Server brings Power BI semantic modeling capabilities to your AI agents through a local MCP server. This allows developers and AI applications to interact with Power BI models in entirely new ways, from using natural language to execute modeling changes to autonomous AI agentic development workflows. Capabilities Build and modify semantic models with natural language: Create or update tables, columns, measures, relationships and much more simply by describing what you need. Perform bulk modeling operations at scale: Rename, refactor, translate, or document hundreds of model objects in seconds. Apply modeling best practices: Easily evaluate and implement modeling best practices. Leverage agentic workflows: Work with Power BI Project files and TMDL code, enabling AI agents to autonomously plan and execute complex modeling tasks. Query and validate DAX expressions: Run DAX queries or validate measures directly through AI-driven workflows. Start by installing the Power BI Modeling MCP Server Visual Studio Code extension to enable Power BI semantic modeling capabilities in GitHub Copilot. Whether you’re using GitHub Copilot or another AI-powered assistant, the Power BI Modeling MCP Server unlocks a new era of intelligent, automated, and high-efficiency semantic model development. For additional information and to provide feedback, refer to Power BI Modeling MCP on GitHub. Semantic Model Version History (Generally Available) With version history, you can confidently make changes to your semantic models—whether you’re editing in the web or live editing Direct Lake semantic models in Desktop—knowing you can restore earlier versions and recover from critical mistakes. Versions are automatically captured in an Office-like history pane for your live edited semantic models, making it easy to select and restore any previous version. Power BI captures up to five versions for each semantic model that supports version history. Versions are saved automatically when you: Open a semantic model in Editing mode on the web or open a Direct Lake model for live editing in Desktop. Publish or upload a .pbix file. Restore a previous version. You can also manually save a version (with an optional description) from the File menu while editing on the web. Learn more about this capability including limitations in the Use semantic model version history (preview) documentation. TMDL Visual Studio Code Extension (Generally Available) This update brings DAX semantic highlighting support within TMDL documents alongside other enhanced authoring features like Power Query semantic highlighting, breadcrumb navigation, code actions, code formatting, localization, and numerous bug fixes. You can find more details about this latest release in the changelog. The TMDL extension is essential for anyone working with TMDL documents in Power BI Projects (PBIP). It brings modern code experiences to semantic modeling, enabling scalable development of semantic models with the efficiency, flexibility, and AI-powered workflows that today’s data teams expect. Get the TMDL Extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace to enhance your semantic modeling-as-code experience and accelerate your semantic model development today! Screenshot of VSCode Marketplace Feature Highlights DAX support: Improved readability of DAX code within TMDL documents including semantic highlighting, real-time diagnostics, and autocomplete. Power Query support: Autocomplete, diagnostics, syntax highlighting, hover and formatting. Localization: Hover descriptions and code action messages are now displayed in the user’s preferred language, aligning with Visual Studio Code language settings. Code actions: Quick fix and refactoring TMDL code such as duplicated lineage tag or misspelled property. Code navigation: Easily navigate TMDL document objects in a hierarchical view. Code format: Automatically organize TMDL code for enhanced readability and consistency. We value your input and encourage you to share it using vscode-tmdl GitHub repository. Data connectivity Spark and Impala Connectors (Generally Available) We’re thrilled to announce that Implementation 2.0 for the Spark and Impala Connectors is now generally available, powered by the open-source Arrow Database Connectivity (ADBC) driver. This update delivers faster, more secure connectivity for Power BI Desktop, making it easier to analyze and visualize large datasets. How does this improve your Power BI experience? Performance boost: Reduced overhead with no serialization or copying. Security improvements: Memory safety and garbage collection aligned with SDL standards. Seamless integration: Works across Fabric experiences and Power BI Desktop for unified data access. Beginning November 2025, specify [Implementation="2.0"] in your connection settings to utilize these improvements: Spark: ApacheSpark.Tables("http://server.cloudapp.azure.com:10001/cliservice", 2, [BatchSize=null, HierarchicalNavigation=true, Implementation="2.0"]) Impala: Impala.Database("server.cloudapp.azure.com", [Implementation="2.0"]) For further details, please refer to the Spark Connector and Impala Connector documentation. Visualizations Activity Gauge by Powerviz The Activity Gauge is an advanced visual used to measure the progress against a set target or Goal for multiple categories. It is typically presented in the form of a radial bar chart/Gauge, displaying a range of values or percentages. This visual is commonly used for project management, performance tracking, and monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Key Features: Gauge Customization: Shape, style, and add icons for a unique design. Targets: Choose from options or use a custom field to set a target. Data Colors: Offers 7 schemes and 30+ color palettes. Smart Labels: Add data and leaf labels that auto-adjust inside or outside the shape for better readability. Center Circle: Customize center circle with text, icons, measures, and images. Interactive Mouseover: Hover for Interactive Info Display. Fill Patterns: Highlight gauges with patterns or upload your own. Conditional Formatting – Create rules based on measure or category rules. Other features included are ranking, annotation, grid view, show condition, and accessibility support. Business Use Cases: Project Management: Track task progress for efficient project oversight. Financial Dashboard: Gain instant insights into key financial metrics. Try Activity Gauge for FREE from AppSource Check out all features of the visual: Demo file Step-by-step instructions: Documentation YouTube Video: Video Link Learn more about visuals: https://powerviz.ai/ Follow Powerviz: https://lnkd.in/gN_9Sa6U Decomposition Tree – All Expanding Decomposition tree All Expanding Visual now allows you to add a legend field. This creates additional column chart beside each node showing breakdown from another dimension. This is depicted in image below. The visual below analyzes the revenue of two largest consumer good companies Unilever and P&G by products. We add region field in the legends section to show additional breakdown of Revenue by Region. The data used is fictitious and used for analysis purposes only. The visual also allows you to add images to nodes. Check out the video on Decomposition Tree All Expanding - Power BI custom visual, demonstrating all the features of this custom visual. Download this visual from APPSOURCE Download demo file from APPSOURCE For more information visit https://www.excelnaccess.com/decomposition-tree/ or contact [email protected] Dynamic chart legends in Zebra BI Charts Which version of the plan am I looking at? - Finance teams ask this daily when switching between budgets, forecasts, and plans. Static chart labels in Power BI waste hours every week and lead to confusion, misinterpretation, and reporting errors. The new dynamic chart legends in Zebra BI Charts for Power BI remove that guesswork by automatically adapting chart legends to the selected filter or scenario, so you can always trust what you see. See the full update How it helps - In FP&A, Actuals are often compared against multiple baselines. Waterfall charts are ideal for this, but static legends stay fixed even when scenarios change. Real-world use cases Comparing forecast versions: Before, every scenario looked the same: ‘Plan’. Now, legends show AC 2024 vs Revised Forecast Q3, eliminating ambiguity. Year-over-year analysis: Previously, reports displayed AC [Year] regardless of selection. Now, legends update from AC 2024 vs PY 2023 to AC 2025 vs PY 2024. Regional reporting: Legends now reflect the active region: AC vs EMEA Budget or AC vs Americas Budget, without manual checks. Together with dynamic titles and dynamic column headers, Zebra BI delivers a fully responsive, accurate, and effortless reporting experience in Power BI. Explore Zebra BI for Power BI Drill Down Bubble PRO by ZoomCharts Say hello to the latest visual by ZoomCharts! With Bubble PRO, you can create visually impressive and user-friendly bubble charts that make complex data simple to explore. What sets Bubble PRO apart from other visuals is the user experience. UI interactions are made as intuitive as possible: freely pan the chart, pinch or scroll to zoom in, click on a marker to drill down, and quickly make single or bulk selections. Coupled with smooth UI animations, seamless cross-filtering and full touch support, you can design more interactive and insightful reports. Main features Drill Down: Create a multi-level hierarchy; and click to drill down. Data-driven Formatting: Apply custom marker colors, shapes, or images directly from data. Trendlines: Show a linear or polynomial regression line that dynamically recalculates whenever the chart changes. Thresholds: Display up to 4 reference lines or areas on each axis. Area Shading: Highlight up to 8 custom areas with rectangles or ellipses. We also have other news: you can now sign up to the free Developer License and use Bubble and 20+ other ZoomCharts visuals in Power BI Desktop for a year! Get Bubble PRO on AppSource Power BI Theme Generator In September 2023, our BIBB Report Theme Generator for Power BI was spotlighted on the Power BI blog. Since then, we've rebuilt and expanded it to help teams standardize look-and-feel, meet accessibility baselines, and export production-ready JSON themes in seconds. The generator streamlines brand color, typography, and visual style setup—making it easy for BI teams to deliver consistent, on-brand reports while reducing manual rework. What's new: a smarter color engine with contrast checks, gradients creation, AI powered themes creation, preset brand colors, apply theme through Fabric, select font, live preview on your own report, and advanced BI.ST mode for power users, while keeping the simplicity of one-click JSON export. Common use cases include (1) rolling out or updating corporate brand themes across workspaces, (2) accelerating new report builds with vetted defaults, and (3) improving report readability and accessibility with contrast-safe palettes. Learn more and see all features on our product page below. Links Find the simplest yet most powerful Power BI Theme Generator All features & documentation Power Gantt Chart by Nova Silva We’re thrilled to introduce one of the most requested features in Power Gantt: task dependencies! With our latest release, you can now add Finish-to-Start (FS) dependencies between tasks—visually represented as arrows connecting one task’s finish to another’s start. This powerful enhancement brings true project scheduling capability to Power BI. By visualizing dependencies, teams can better understand task sequences, identify bottlenecks, and manage timelines more effectively. Adding dependencies is simple—just define them in your dataset, and Power Gantt does the rest. Arrows will automatically appear on your Gantt chart, making relationships between tasks clear and actionable. Whether you’re managing product launches, construction schedules, or complex workflows, FS dependencies make your Power Gantt chart smarter, more dynamic, and easier to interpret. Start using dependencies today and take your project tracking to the next level! Try the Power Gantt Chart for FREE now on your own project data by downloading it from the AppSource. Questions or remarks? Visit us at: Power Gantt Chart for Power BI. Turn any image into data insights with Synoptic Panel by OKVIZ With Synoptic Panel, you can transform any SVG image into an interactive visual directly in your report. Perfect for floor plans, organizational charts, technical layouts, or geographical maps, it lets you integrate your data with images your audience already knows. A dynamic dashboard, where users can naturally explore insights by clicking on shapes and areas. This makes complex information easier to understand and more engaging to navigate. Key features include: Flexible image loading: use local files embedded in reports, remote URLs, or My Storage, our secure hosting service. Multi-level navigation: drill down into building floors or geographical regions, with automatic hierarchy creation when using remote configurations. Dynamic switching: change maps through slicers or bookmarks. Map Editor and Label Designer: fine-tune data binding, arrange and customize labels directly in the visual. Advanced coloring: apply conditional formatting and color rules to build heatmaps or highlight key areas. Map search: quickly locate maps or areas for faster access. Integrated security: safely host and distribute maps while keeping control of access. Full customization: adapt interactions, appearance, and data binding to your reporting needs. Explore real-world use cases and try Synoptic Panel for free! General Announcing deprecation of R and Python visuals in Embed for your customers solution We are announcing an important change for Power BI customers who use Embed for your customers with R or Python visuals. As part of our ongoing commitment to provide a secure, scalable, and robust analytics platform, we continually evaluate our feature set to ensure alignment with industry standards, customer needs, and platform performance. What’s Changing? Starting May 2026, Power BI will end support for the ability to embed reports and dashboards containing R or Python visuals using Power BI’s Embed for your customers solution (also known as app owns data) and Publish to web scenarios. Embed for your customers typically involves a custom app which manages authentication directly, and for which app users do not need Power BI licenses. This change does not impact customers leveraging secure embeddings to SharePoint, Website or Portal. Embed for your organization (also known as user owns data) scenarios are also not impacted. Timeline for Deprecation Announcement & Guidance: Effective immediately, customers are notified of the upcoming deprecation. Deprecation Date: Official support for embedding R and Python visuals in PaaS scenarios will end on 05/01/2026. Post-Deprecation: After this date, any embedded Power BI reports or dashboards containing R or Python visuals will still load, but the R or Python charts will display as blank. Reports without these visuals will continue to function as expected. Recommended Actions for Customers Review all embedded Power BI reports and dashboards to identify usage of R or Python visuals. Plan to update or redesign any affected reports using alternative Power BI visuals or DAX-based analytics. Consider leveraging Fabric Notebooks for more sophisticated or technical visualizations. Consult the Power BI & Fabric documentation for guidance on using alternative visuals effectively. Support and Resources We understand that this change may require updates to your existing solutions. Please reach out via the Power BI community forums or through your Microsoft account representative for personalized guidance. Closing This concludes this month’s update. We hope the information provided in this update is useful. If you installed Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store, please leave us a review. As always, keep voting on Ideas to help us determine what to build next. We are looking forward to hearing from you!Power BI January 2026 Feature Summary
The January 2026 Power BI Feature Summary is packed with exciting news—there are fresh updates, important announcements, and some big changes, especially around upcoming events, feature retirements, and the latest in AI and Copilot advancements. Some of the standout features include new reporting tools, smarter data modeling options, enhanced resources for developers, broader global standards support and upgraded visualizations. With these improvements, Power BI is making analytics easier to use, helping you work more efficiently, and connecting all your tools even better than before. FabCon Atlanta is fast approaching! If you’re looking for more details, check out the Events & Announcements section. We hope you’ll join us! Contents Events & Announcements General Deprecation of Power BI Q&A SQL Server Reporting Services Report Viewer Web Part Support Discontinuation The Power BI application is accessible within Teams on Microsoft 365 Operated by 21Vianet Copilot and AI Attach reference to Copilot chat in the Power BI mobile app Updating Prepped for AI setting name to Approved for Copilot Standalone Copilot Access on Power BI Home Reporting Field parameters persist hierarchy level setting Format Pane Improvements Introducing Markers in Azure Maps Visual Modern Visual Tooltips (Generally Available) Column Sizing Update in Tables and Matrices Modeling Updates on Editing Semantic Models in the Power BI Service Chinese coded character set (GB18030-2022) support Developers + API’s Power BI Enhanced Report Format (PBIR) as Default Format Visualizations Funnel Chart by Powerviz Nebula by BI Samurai Events & Announcements Could you be the next Power BI Dataviz World Champion? There’s only one way to find out! By joining this global contest, you will have the opportunity to tackle three weekly challenges designed to stretch visualization skills and inspire innovation. Four finalists will be selected to compete for the title of world champion LIVE on stage at FabCon Atlanta. Learn more about how to enter and view the entries from the first week, happening now. Two months until FabCon – will we see you there? Join us for the ultimate Power BI, Microsoft Fabric SQL, Real-Time Intelligence, AI, and Databases community-led event from March 16-20, 2026, in Atlanta, GA. The third annual FabCon Americas will feature sessions from your favorite Microsoft and community speakers, keynotes, more opportunities to Ask the Experts for 1:1 support, an engaging community lounge with opportunities to network and connect with your peers, a dedicated partner pre-day, a packed expo hall, attendee favorites Power Hour and the Data Viz World Championships live finals, and a can’t-miss attendee party at the Georgia Aquarium. Register with code FABCOMM to save $200. General Deprecation of Power BI Q&A Q&A, our legacy natural language tool, will be deprecated in December 2026. Moving forward, use Power BI Copilot, which provides a more advanced and integrated solution for querying data with natural language. For more details and recommended alternatives, refer to the blog post on Deprecating Power BI Q&A. SQL Server Reporting Services Report Viewer Web Part Support Discontinuation Support for SSRS SharePoint Webpart, a component that allows you to embed on-prem paginated reports directly into SharePoint Server pages, will end on April 13, 2026. While the download will continue to be available, there will be no future updates for this component. For more information and recommended alternatives, refer to SSRS SharePoint Webpart documentation. The Power BI application is accessible within Teams on Microsoft 365 Operated by 21Vianet Users can acquire the Power BI app from the app store, or admins can centrally install it for them. Once added, users can view their Power BI content in Teams using the app, and pin Power BI items to chats or channels using Tabs. The following features are not supported in the Power BI app for Teams operated by 21Vianet environment: Power BI notifications in Microsoft Teams Power BI preview cards Please also refer to the service description of Power BI in 21Vianet: Power BI operated by 21Vianet in China. For installation instructions, please refer to: Add the Power BI app to Microsoft Teams. Copilot and AI Attach reference to Copilot chat in the Power BI mobile app In certain situations, you may know precisely which item you want Copilot to reference when generating its response. For those cases, we added the ability to attach a Report or Semantic model to Copilot chat as a grounded reference. To add a reference, tap the + icon or type / to search and select an item. The selected item appears in the chat Copilot uses it to ground its answers. Updating Prepped for AI setting name to Approved for Copilot In May 2025, we launched the capability to mark a model as prepped for AI. The name of this setting has been updated to “approved for Copilot”. Enabling this setting in a semantic model applies three main functionalities: The standalone Copilot agent doesn’t apply friction treatment to answers from that model. Authors can turn on the admin setting to only show approved items in the standalone Copilot experience. Models marked as approved for AI are boosted in the Copilot search experience. After you prepare your semantic model for AI and it's ready for consumption, you can mark your model Approved for Copilot by following these steps: Navigate to the Power BI service and find your semantic model. Select the Settings icon in the upper left corner. Expand the Approved Copilot section. Select the Approved Copilot box, and then select the Apply button. Standalone Copilot Access on Power BI Home Introducing a new Standalone Copilot entry point right on the Power BI Home page! This update brings Copilot closer to where you start your day, making it faster and easier to jump into AI‑powered insights. Why bring Copilot to Home? Placing Copilot directly on the Home page comes with several benefits: Faster insights - start asking questions the moment you land on Home. Easier discovery - new users see Copilot right away, encouraging them to use it as part of their natural workflow. When does it appear? The new entry point will show up automatically when: Standalone Copilot is enabled by your tenant admin. You have a valid Copilot capacity available. If either requirement isn’t met, don’t worry—you’ll continue to see the classic home experience. Prefer the classic view? You can always switch back to Recommended content using the picker at the top of the Home page. Toggle between the experiences your workflow needs. To learn more, visit: Standalone Copilot experience in Power BI (Preview). Reporting Field parameters persist hierarchy level setting In July 2025, field parameters became generally available, improving how matrices remember their expanded or collapsed state when the field parameter selection changes. Previously, many users found it confusing that a matrix would fully collapse whenever a field parameter value changed. Since the update, however, some users have shared that they preferred the earlier behavior because it felt more familiar and better suited for their workflows. To address this, we've added a new report-level setting that lets you restore the pre-July 2025 behavior for field parameters' expansion and collapse of hierarchy levels. By default, hierarchy levels remain persistent, but you can switch off this feature for a report using the Persist Hierarchy Level setting. The following examples are where to find it: In Power BI Desktop, navigate to Options and settings > Options > Current File > Report settings > Field Parameters > Persist hierarchy level. In Fabric, navigate to the report settings and find Persist hierarchy level under Field parameter options. To illustrate the difference, consider a matrix showing a field parameter called Product Group and a column called Year on the rows, displaying Total sales. The field parameter allows selection of Category, Class, Color, or any combination. In the following example, Category is selected, and the Categories are expanded, so you can see values broken down by Year: Now, when you change the field parameter from Category to Class, what happens depends on the Persist hierarchy level setting. If it's on, the matrix remains expanded, keeping the Year column visible; If it's off, the matrix collapses and displays only values for Class. The following table provides a comparison showing both behaviors based on whether the toggle is enabled or disabled. On Off We greatly value user feedback and continuously strive to improve the experience based on your input. The introduction of the persist hierarchy level setting is a direct result of listening to your suggestions, and we hope this new option enhances your reporting workflows and satisfaction. To learn more about the toggle and its impact, refer to the documentation on Let report readers use field parameters to change visuals. Format Pane Improvements With this version, we are releasing two improvements to Format Pane – Improved Color picker and reset to default experiences. Improved Color Picker Experience in Power BI Power BI report creators can customize colors in visuals with a theme color picker and custom color picker. We have added additional capabilities to this release. A clear indicator for the currently selected theme color. A simple way to reset colors to their default settings. A back button to return from custom colors to theme colors. This enhancement makes color customization more intuitive and efficient, helping you design reports with confidence and ease. Learn more about color formatting your visuals in the Tips and tricks for formatting color in reports documentation. Granular Reset Options in the Format Pane Format pane reset to default quickly let’s report creators undo customizations made to a visual. With this release, you can now reset default with finer control, for a single formatting group in the format pane. This is in addition to the existing functionality of reset to default for the whole visual and each section of the format pane. Reset this group settings to default within each section. Reset group settings without impacting the rest of the section. This enhancement delivers greater flexibility and usability, making it easier to fine-tune your report formatting with confidence. Learn more about formatting visuals in Power BI reports in the Get started formatting report visualizations documentation. Introducing Markers in Azure Maps Visual Azure Maps Visual for Power BI now supports a powerful new capability: Markers. Display your data points using customized icons, varying sizes, and advanced formatting features to improve narrative clarity in geospatial analysis. Replace basic shape markers with icons or custom images to represent deliveries, facilities, or assets using meaningful symbols like trucks, warehouses, or alerts. Scale marker sizes dynamically reflect the data measures such as shipment volume, population density, or sales. Customize colors and transparency for improved contrast and visibility on the map. Use distinct icons for each category, making reports easier to interpret. Learn more about the rich capabilities of Azure maps in Power BI reports in the Get started with Azure Maps Power BI visual documentation. Modern Visual Tooltips (Generally Available) Modern visual tooltips introduces enhanced usability, accessibility, and interactivity to your reports. These tooltips offer new capabilities in Power BI reports. Drill actions: The new Actions footer lets users drill down, drill up, or drill through data points directly from the tooltip—no need to use the right-click menu or visual header. This streamlines navigation and makes exploring data more intuitive. Styling: Tooltips automatically match your report’s theme colors, with options to further customize background, text, and icon colors in both the theme and Format pane. New reports get updated styling and the Actions footer by default. Existing reports keep their previous customizations, and you can enable or disable the Actions footer anytime via the Format pane. Modern visual tooltips in Power BI reports enhance usability and interactivity by allowing users to drill down, up, or through data directly from the tooltip Actions footer. These tooltips automatically adopt report theme colors, offer customization options, and provide updated styling by default for new reports, with flexibility to enable or disable the Actions footer as needed in the Format pane. To learn more, refer to the Create Visual Tooltips documentation. Column Sizing Update in Tables and Matrices In previous releases, table and matrix visuals automatically expanded their columns to fill the available space. This feature was introduced for tables in October 2025 and for matrices in November 2025. You gave us feedback that this often meant that even small fields stretched wider than necessary, creating layouts that felt inconsistent or wasted screen real estate. With this month’s release, that behavior has changed. In reports created from this release onward, columns are once again sized by default based on the content they contain. This makes tables and matrices more compact, easier to read, and better aligned with the actual data. You can still manually adjust column widths, or use Grow to Fit to expand columns when needed. But by default, visuals now prioritize content-driven sizing, giving you cleaner and more predictable layouts right out of the box. Here’s a before and after of the defaults: Before After We want to thank everyone who provided feedback. We greatly appreciate it! To learn more, refer to the documentation on adjusting column width in the table and matrix. Modeling Updates on Editing Semantic Models in the Power BI Service In September 2025, we announced the General Availability of editing semantic models in the Power BI Service. Models configured with incremental refresh are now supported, eliminating the prior restriction that prevented these models from being opened in the service. You can now seamlessly open and edit these models directly into the Power BI Service. However, note that semantic models with incremental refresh still cannot be downloaded as PBIX files, and you cannot use the Power Query editor when editing these models in the web experience. To learn more about editing semantic models in the service, refer to the Edit semantic models in the Power BI service documentation. Chinese coded character set (GB18030-2022) support China’s GB18030‑2022 standard is the latest update to the national character set requirements. It ensures compatibility with Unicode 11.0 and mandates support for additional characters, including minority scripts and emoji. For organizations operating in or with China, compliance is not optional. Rather, it’s a regulatory requirement. Starting with this release, Power BI can be configured to respect GB18030‑2022 encoding using the UnicodeCharacterBehavior setting. This setting is set to CodeUnits by default. To ensure your model is compatible with GB18030-2022, you’ll need to execute a specific XMLA command to set UnicodeCharacterBehavior to CodePoints: <Alter AllowCreate="true" ObjectExpansion="ObjectProperties" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine"> <Object> <DatabaseID>[your database id]</DatabaseID> </Object> <ObjectDefinition> <Database ....> <ID>[your model id]</ID> <Name>[your model name]</Name> <Language>[your language code]</Language> <ddl200:CompatibilityLevel>[your model compatibility level]</ddl200:CompatibilityLevel> <ddl200_200:StorageEngineUsed>[your storage engine]</ddl200_200:StorageEngineUsed> <UnicodeCharacterBehavior xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2025/engine/924/924">CodePoints</UnicodeCharacterBehavior> ... </Database> </ObjectDefinition> </Alter> Adding GB18030‑2022 support in Power BI isn’t just a technical tweak; it’s a compliance safeguard and a way to ensure your reports remain globally accessible. With the above XMLA command, you can align your semantic models with modern encoding standards and avoid downstream issues in multilingual environments. The UnicodeCharacterBehavior influences any DAX function that determines the length of a text string, which include FIND, LEFT, LEN, MID, REPLACE, RIGHT. These functions will exhibit different behaviors when working with text strings that contain Unicode characters. Let's look at how this works in practice. Here’s a measure that uses LEN to calculate the length of a text string: StringLength = LEN ( SELECTEDVALUE ( 'Table'[Column1] ) ) Here’s a before and after comparison of the result of StringLength on a column that contains Unicode characters: UnicodeCharacterBehavior = CodeUnits (default) UnicodeCharacterBehavior = CodePoints Notice how on the left each Unicode character has length 2, where on the right, each Unicode character has length 1. To learn more, refer to the documentation. Developers + API’s Power BI Enhanced Report Format (PBIR) as Default Format In November 2025, we announced PBIR will become the default Power BI Report Format for both PBIX and PBIP files (For PBIX users, switching to the PBIR report format does not impact their experience). PBIR will be activated by default in the Power BI service as part of a phased rollout, with full availability anticipated by the end of February. Beginning with the March release, PBIR will be set as the default format in Power BI Desktop. PBIR is currently in Preview with an opt-out option. Switching to PBIR is the last step before its General Availability, planned for Q3 2026. Any issues found now will be prioritized and addressed. Any issues identified during this period will be prioritized and addressed by our support team. We recommend preparing for this transition ahead of GA, as PBIR will be the only supported report format once it becomes generally available. Visualizations Funnel Chart by Powerviz The Funnel Chart by Powerviz is a stunning and informative visualization. It has 4 chart types in 1 visual, including a pyramid chart. The Power BI-certified visual is useful for tracking progress through different stages. It can also group data with legends for detailed insights. Key Features: Funnel Settings: Multiple display types are available, including vertical and horizontal orientation. Data Colors: Offers 7 schemes and 30+ color palettes. Labels: Select from multiple display styles with a custom label option included. Conversion Rate: In a single click measure the percentage of top and bottom stages to identify bottlenecks. Fill Patterns: Highlight stages with custom or pre-filled patterns. Conditional Formatting: Create rules based on measure or category rules. Totals: Display the total value at the top or bottom of the funnel chart. Ranking: Filter out Top/Bottom N stages. Annotation: Create multiple stories from one visual with comments for easy collaboration and clarity. Many other features included are grid view, show condition, and accessibility support. Business Use Cases: Sales Funnel Analysis, Marketing Campaigns, User Onboarding, & Website Traffic Try Funnel Chart for FREE from AppSource Check out all features of the visual: Demo_file Step-by-step instructions: Documentation YouTube Video: Video_Link Learn more about visuals: https://powerviz.ai/ Follow Powerviz: https://lnkd.in/gN_9Sa6U Nebula by BI Samurai Nebula by BI Samurai is a free certified Power BI custom visual for layout and background design, helping you create structured, consistent, and visually polished report pages—directly inside Power BI. Nebula simplifies report design by letting you build layouts that guide user attention, improve readability, and enhance storytelling—without using external design tools. Key Features: Customizable shapes – create precise layouts and background sections. Flexible color and transparency controls – match your report’s theme perfectly. Layer control – easily arrange and reorder elements. Custom default styles – set your own shape presets once and apply them easily across multiple pages. Lightweight and performance-optimized – designed to keep reports fast and responsive. Whether you're a designer or analyst, Nebula helps you transform plain Power BI pages into professional-looking, structured dashboards that communicate clearly and consistently. Microsoft Certified and available on AppSource, Nebula meets Microsoft’s standards for security, quality, and reliability. Learn more and explore design examples at bisamurai.com/nebula. Download Nebula from the AppSource: Nebula by BI Samurai. Check our Nebula demo video. Closing This concludes this month’s update. We hope the information provided in this update is useful. If you installed Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store, please leave us a review. As always, keep voting on Ideas to help us determine what to build next. We look forward to hearing from you!
Power BI Desktop Bridge (Preview)
Power BI Desktop Bridge (Preview) Power BI Desktop Bridge introduces a new way of working, allowing external applications and agents to interact directly with Power BI Desktop! What is Power BI Desktop Bridge? The bridge is a lightweight local server that lets external applications interact directly with Power BI Desktop. Think of it as a direct, secure channel between your tools and Power BI Desktop. Your agents, scripts, and external applications can now: Check the current state of your report. Trigger key actions, like reloading files after edits. Capture screenshots to validate changes. Iterate and improve in real time, without manual handoffs. The following core capabilities are available through the bridge: Discover What's Available Method: bridge.manifest Capabilities: Returns a complete list of all capabilities and their specifications. Think of this as a "menu" of what your version of Desktop can do. Always check this first to see what's available. Check Report State Method: application.state.get/v1 Capabilities: Returns information about the currently open file and whether there are unsaved changes. In plain language: Know which file is open and if there are pending edits. Essential before running automation that might affect your work. Capture Report Snapshots Method: report.snapshot.capture/v1 Capabilities: Captures a PNG screenshot of a specific report page at any resolution you want. In plain language: See exactly how your report looks right now. Perfect for validating changes visually or sharing proof of work. Reload files from Disk Method: file.reload/v1 Capabilities: Reloads the open PBIP/PBIR file from disk to pick up on-disk edits. In plain language: After making changes to report files, refresh Desktop to see them. You can control whether the semantic model is also reloaded. Why this is a big step for agents? Before the bridge, agents could be incredibly smart about generating code and automating repetitive tasks. But they hit a wall: they couldn't talk directly to Power BI Desktop. They couldn't reload files to see changes in real time. They couldn't capture screenshots to validate what they'd built. They were flying blind. Now, with the bridge, that changes completely, agents can: Read the current report state. Edit report files directly on disk. Reload to see changes instantly in Desktop. Validate with a live screenshot. Iterate immediately—observing, learning, and improving. Ready to see this in action? The Report Authoring Skill is a perfect example. It leverages the bridge to read state, make edits, reload instantly, validate visually with screenshots, and iterate continuously in one seamless loop. Now, reports that would take hours to build, debug, and refine manually can now be authored, validated, and polished by agents in minutes. But this is just the beginning. The bridge opens the door for you to build the custom solutions you need. How to get started Desktop Bridge is enabled by default. To disable or enable it: Open Power BI Desktop. Go to File > Options and settings > Options. Open Preview features. Enable external tool access to Power BI Desktop through secure local APIs. Start using the Desktop Bridge The easiest way to start is with the Power BI Desktop Bridge CLI. It lets you leverage the bridge in a simple, practical way, without building custom integrations first. Built on top of the bridge, it includes a set of intuitive commands ready to use. The reload command is a great example. If you are making external changes to your PBIR files, you can simply run: powerbi-desktop reload This command reloads your on-disk changes in Power BI Desktop through the bridge, so you can keep iterating without closing and reopening Desktop. The following are other useful commands at your fingertips: # See what the bridge can do powerbi-desktop manifest # Check which Desktop instances are running powerbi-desktop status # Reload after making edits powerbi-desktop reload # Capture screenshots of every report page powerbi-desktop screenshot-all Ready to try it? The Desktop Bridge is here, and it's ready to transform how you work with Power BI Desktop. Stop waiting for manual steps. Start automating. Get started now: Power BI Desktop Bridge.Building in the Agentic Era with Power BI and Fabric
Microsoft Build 2026 marks a major shift in how developers build data experiences with AI agents. Today we're announcing two capabilities that bring agentic analytics to the forefront: Agent Skills for Power BI, which let developers prompt an AI agent to build and refine semantic models and reports, and Fabric Apps for Semantic Models, which enable AI agents to build and deploy Fabric-native web apps on semantic models. Both capabilities will accelerate the time it takes to go from raw data to a polished analytics solution with just natural language prompts.
