Background
Microsoft is retiring Power BI Premium per-capacity SKUs for new purchases and renewals in favour of Fabric F SKUs (check the current timeline for your agreement). F SKUs are bought in Azure, can be scaled and paused, and also run Fabric workloads (Lakehouse, Warehouse, Data Factory).
1. Map sizes
| Power BI Premium | Fabric equivalent |
|---|---|
| P1 | F64 |
| P2 | F128 |
| P3 | F256 |
| P4 | F512 |
| P5 | F1024 |
F64 and above include viewing content for free (Pro/PPU-free consumers), as P SKUs did. Below F64, report consumers need Pro or PPU licences — check before sizing down.
2. Measure current use
Open the Fabric Capacity Metrics app (it replaces the Premium metrics app) on the P capacity. Look at CU utilisation, interactive vs. background, throttling events and the busiest hours. Size the F capacity from the peaks you actually see.
3. Create the F capacity
Create it in the Azure portal (Microsoft Fabric → Create), with Bicep/Terraform (Microsoft.Fabric/capacities resource type), or with the az fabric CLI extension if it's available in your environment. Name the capacity admins at creation. Use the same region as the P capacity's home region so workspaces with large datasets move without cross-region issues.
4. Reassign workspaces
Admin portal → Capacity settings → the F capacity → Workspaces assigned to this capacity → add workspaces, or per workspace: Settings → License info → choose the new capacity.
- Reports, semantic models, dataflows and refresh schedules move with no content changes.
- Do it outside refresh peaks; in-flight refreshes may fail and should be re-run.
- Move workspaces in batches (non-prod first) and watch the metrics app after each batch.
Warning
Workspaces with Fabric items or large-format semantic models can't move across regions the same way. Keep the capacity in the same region, or check the documented limitations first.
5. Delegate and govern
- Capacity admins and contributors (who can assign workspaces).
- Tenant settings: decide who can create Fabric items now that the capacity supports them — otherwise teams start building lakehouses on your BI capacity.
- Surge protection / workload settings to protect interactive reports from background jobs.
6. Cost
- Reservation (1-year) for the always-on production capacity.
- Pay-as-you-go with pause/resume for dev/test capacities:
az resource invoke-action --action suspend --ids /subscriptions/<sub>/resourceGroups/rg-fabric/providers/Microsoft.Fabric/capacities/fabdev
az resource invoke-action --action resume --ids /subscriptions/<sub>/resourceGroups/rg-fabric/providers/Microsoft.Fabric/capacities/fabdev
Pausing makes the content unavailable — don't pause capacities serving users.
Checklist
- P→F mapping and consumer licensing checked
- Metrics reviewed; F capacity in the same region
- Workspaces moved in batches; refreshes verified
- Fabric item creation governed
- Reservation for prod; pause schedule for non-prod; P capacity retired at renewal