FabCon Europe 2026: The Fabric Announcements That Matter

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In Short: FabCon Europe 2026 Put Fabric Into Copilot

FabCon Europe 2026 is running in Barcelona this week, alongside SQLCon, with Microsoft saying nearly 5,000 data professionals are attending more than 130 sessions. Microsoft announced at FabCon Europe 2026 (29 September 2026) a long list of Fabric updates, and the theme is clear: the data foundation you build in Fabric now reaches Microsoft Copilot and agents directly.

The headline is that Fabric IQ in Microsoft Copilot Chat and Cowork is generally available. Alongside it: apps in Power BI coming to Power BI Pro and Premium Per User in preview, a zero-provisioned F0 SKU and on-demand billing coming soon, and a data engineering agent in preview. This post is the hub for the event - what was announced, the status of each item, and what to do about it. If you followed the spring event, our FabCon 2026 Atlanta recap covers what came before.

FabCon Europe 2026 announcements grouped by status - generally available, preview and coming soon - as announced by Microsoft on 29 September 2026.

Copilot, Fabric IQ and Agents

Fabric IQ in Microsoft Copilot (generally available). Users can ask business questions in Copilot Chat and get answers grounded in governed Power BI reports and semantic models, with Copilot inferring which model fits the question; in Cowork, Power BI content takes part in long-running tasks. Microsoft says this comes "without additional AI token costs". Integration into the new Code experience is coming soon through the Frontier program. We explained the concept in what Fabric IQ means for Power BI users.

Fabric IQ MCP server - generally available, so creators can use the same conversational analytics from development tools and external MCP clients
Fabric data agents in Copilot Studio - generally available, with visualisations in data agents also generally available and topics in data agents in preview
Expansion of Fabric IQ to include answers from data agents and ontologies - preview
Ontologies - a new agentic experience to create ontologies from semantic models, OneLake data and documents, plus the ability to bring Power BI DAX measures into an ontology

If you have been waiting to put an agent in front of users, building a Fabric data agent now has a generally available route into Copilot Studio.

Planning in Microsoft Fabric IQ moved on too: a new Native Planning Engine in preview, which Microsoft says brings up to 10x improvements in performance and scale, planners connecting to a semantic model directly with their signed-in identity, and deeper integration with Fabric IQ. Mind the status wording: the Planning post says Planning "became generally available in July 2026", while Microsoft's OneLake announcement labels Planning in Fabric "(Preview)". Our guide to Planning in Microsoft Fabric covers what is new.

Power BI and Fabric Apps

Microsoft announced agentic app creation in Power BI Desktop: start from a semantic model, describe the application in natural language, then preview, edit and publish it to Fabric. These apps can accept inputs, write back data and keep shared state, using Fabric Apps to give each one a SQL database, authentication and security.

The licensing point matters most. Microsoft says apps in Power BI will be available in preview in the coming weeks to Power BI Pro and Premium Per User customers, as well as Fabric capacity customers, at no additional cost - including Fabric Database capabilities up to 1 GB per app. The Power BI post says the Desktop experience arrives "in the coming months". Our dedicated post on Fabric Apps for Power BI Pro covers what that does and does not include.

Microsoft also shared an early look at semantic views - governed metrics defined where data lives in OneLake - and affirmed its commitment to Apache Ossie (incubating), an open standard for exchanging semantic metadata.

Microsoft 365 Copilot in Power BI (preview). The Power BI September 2026 feature summary adds a preview of Microsoft 365 Copilot integrated into Power BI and Fabric, bringing Fabric IQ, Work IQ context and Cowork actions into one conversation. It rolls out off by default behind a new Fabric admin portal setting, independent of the standalone Power BI Copilot setting, and at first only for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. More in Microsoft 365 Copilot in Power BI.

Capacity and Billing

F0 and on-demand billing (coming soon). On-demand billing extends consumption-based billing across Fabric workloads, building on Autoscale Billing for Spark (now renamed On-demand billing for Apache Spark, generally available and unchanged). F0 is a zero-provisioned SKU with no upfront compute charge and on-demand billing on by default; on F2 or higher you can move individual billing categories onto on-demand. Microsoft says these will be available "in the coming weeks" and lists them as coming soon. Usage is measured in CU-hours without smoothing, with spend limits over a rolling 24-hour window. Pricing has not been published - the on-demand multiplier and F0 costs are not yet known. Our F0 and on-demand billing explainer goes deeper.

Capacity overage - generally available: extra paid compute that keeps a capacity out of throttling, billed on a separate meter at three times the pay-as-you-go rate and not eligible for reservation discounts. Its rolling 24-hour threshold is "a spending threshold, not a hard spending cap", and Microsoft Learn calls overage opt-in while also saying it "is enabled by default when you create a Fabric capacity" - so check the setting on each capacity. More in capacity overage explained
Workspace-level surge protection - generally available soon, isolating runaway workspaces with mission-critical workspaces exempt
F4096 and F8192 SKUs - generally available
Capacity metrics app enhancements - generally available, with Capacity Insights and Actions in Monitor Hub in preview

None of this changes today's F SKU list prices; our Fabric pricing guide remains current.

Data Engineering, Integration and Operations

ADF and Synapse upgrade path. Microsoft has streamlined the route from Azure Data Factory and Synapse to Fabric Data Factory in three steps: a View in Fabric experience brings existing environments into a Fabric workspace while ADF remains the source of truth; a built-in assessment shows which pipelines are ready, need review or depend on planned capabilities; and supported pipelines can then be upgraded incrementally. The feature summary does not attach a status label, so check the upgrade documentation for what is supported. Our Synapse to Fabric migration runbook covers the wider move.

Data engineering agent (preview). Built on technology from the Osmos acquisition and referred to as Project Osmos, it takes on long-running work such as migrations, schema harmonisation and ETL: engineers set the outcome and guardrails, and it plans, executes and validates on Fabric Spark. It can be steered from GitHub Copilot, VS Code, Codex and Claude Code.

Observability - preview: unified workspace monitoring into a shared Eventhouse, a refreshed Monitor Hub, Activator job alerts and operations agent investigations (pipeline failures at first)
Copy job - change data capture, SCD Type 2 and audit columns all generally available
Mirroring - Google BigQuery and SharePoint List mirroring generally available, extended mirroring capabilities generally available, Salesforce Data Cloud 360 bidirectional integration in preview, Mirroring for Dynamics 365 Business Central coming soon, and IQ sharing - which Arun Ulag's post calls "now in preview" and the OneLake announcement introduces as "in preview soon", so confirm it has reached your tenant before planning around it
Git and CI/CD - deployment plans and file-level commits in preview; compare and commit, selective branching and bulk import/export APIs generally available, which strengthens the patterns in our Fabric CI/CD and Git guide
Warehouse - GPU-accelerated query execution in public preview, custom SQL pools generally available, Teradata support in Migration Assistant in preview, and a new node-based billing model whose pricing has not been published

Governance for AI

As Fabric content flows into Copilot, the governance announcements carry as much weight as the features. Sensitivity labels, DLP policies and information protection controls now flow into Microsoft Copilot experiences, and, in Bogdan Crivat's words, Restrict from Copilot "gives administrators control over which semantic models can participate in AI experiences". The Power BI September 2026 feature summary describes what looks like a second layer: a per-semantic-model setting, managed by users with write permission, that decides whether read-only users can reach the model through Power BI Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Cowork, data agents, and the remote Fabric and Power BI MCP servers. That setting is enabled by default, so AI access continues until an editor turns it off. There appear to be two layers of control - administrator and model owner - and our guide to Microsoft 365 Copilot in Power BI covers both.

DLP restrict access - generally available: Purview DLP policies can restrict access to Fabric items when sensitive data is detected
Policies in Fabric - preview: attribute-based controls, with item creation and workspace security at launch and external data sharing coming soon
OneLake catalog Govern experience - generally available
Outbound access protection for OneLake shortcuts - generally available

Databases and SQLCon

FabCon ran alongside SQLCon, and the database announcements matter to anyone running SQL estates next to Fabric.

Database Hub in Fabric (public preview). Introduced at FabCon and SQLCon Atlanta, Database Hub is now in public preview: one view of inventory, health, performance, security and optimisation signals across Azure SQL Database, SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Cosmos DB and SQL database in Fabric, without moving the databases. Microsoft notes that capabilities and signals vary by service. Our Database Hub explainer has the detail.

Database agents. AI agents for SQL and PostgreSQL on Azure that analyse performance and workload health, prioritise recommendations and help investigate issues, working within role-based access controls, approvals and auditing. Microsoft's status wording differs between posts: Arun Ulag's says they "will soon be available in preview", Shireesh Thota's databases post says "now rolling out in preview", and the SQLCon post says the preview begins with the SQL agent in Database Hub and the PostgreSQL agent in Visual Studio Code.

SQL Server on Azure Local - generally available for both connected and disconnected operations, aimed at sovereign, air-gapped and intermittently connected environments
Azure SQL Database Hyperscale - 160 and 192 vCore Premium-series service objectives generally available; serverless auto-pause and higher-density elastic pools (up to 50 databases per pool) in preview
DiskANN vector indexes - generally available for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale, Azure SQL Managed Instance and SQL database in Fabric, with full DML support so the index stays current as data changes

What FabCon Europe 2026 Means for Your Organisation

Three practical next steps:

Prepare your semantic models for Copilot. Fabric IQ is generally available, so your Power BI models are now an AI surface for Microsoft 365 users. Clear names, descriptions, certified measures and sensible security decide the quality of the answers. Start with our guide to preparing a semantic model for AI, and decide which models to hold back from AI experiences - through the administrator-level Restrict from Copilot control and, per model, the read-only AI access setting, which allows AI access unless an editor turns it off.
Review your capacity strategy once pricing is published. F0 and on-demand billing could suit spiky, experimental or early-stage workloads, but without the multipliers nobody can model the cost. Gather capacity metrics now so you can compare quickly when the numbers arrive, and do not cancel reservations on the strength of an announcement.
Assess your ADF and Synapse estate. The View in Fabric and assessment steps let you see readiness without touching production, so it is a low-risk way to build a migration plan.

For a more personal view, Nick de Vrye has written up his FabCon Europe 2026 takeaways and what we're changing at Solv. Systems, and how FabCon 2026 changes the way we'll build Power BI projects.

Where Solv Systems Comes In

We help organisations turn announcements like these into decisions: which semantic models are ready for Copilot, whether F0 or on-demand billing changes your capacity plan, and which ADF or Synapse pipelines to upgrade first. If you want a clear view of what to act on now and what to wait for, our Microsoft Fabric consulting team can review your estate against the FabCon Europe 2026 announcements.

Sources and Further Reading

Frequently asked

Microsoft announced on 29 September 2026 that Fabric IQ is generally available in Microsoft Copilot Chat and Cowork, that apps in Power BI (built on Fabric Apps) will reach Power BI Pro and Premium Per User customers in preview, and that on-demand billing and the zero-provisioned F0 SKU are coming. It also announced a data engineering agent (preview), observability (preview), capacity overage (generally available) and a streamlined Azure Data Factory and Synapse upgrade path.

Yes. Microsoft says Fabric IQ in Copilot Chat and Cowork is generally available, answering business questions grounded in governed Power BI semantic models and reports without additional AI token costs. Integration into the new Code experience is coming soon through the Frontier program.

They will be able to. Microsoft says apps in Power BI will be available in preview in the coming weeks to Power BI Pro and Premium Per User customers as well as Fabric capacity customers, at no additional cost, including Fabric Database capabilities of up to 1 GB per app. The Power BI Desktop app-building experience is due in the coming months.

Pricing has not been published. Microsoft says on-demand usage is measured in CU-hours without smoothing and priced as a multiplier of the pay-as-you-go capacity price that can vary by billing category, but the multipliers and any F0 pricing were not published at announcement. Both capabilities are coming soon rather than available today.

Microsoft has streamlined the upgrade path: a View in Fabric experience brings existing ADF and Synapse environments into a Fabric workspace while ADF remains the source of truth, a built-in assessment shows which pipelines are ready, and supported pipelines can then be upgraded incrementally. Existing ADF workloads keep running while you evaluate.

Three things: prepare your Power BI semantic models for Copilot, because Fabric IQ now surfaces them to Microsoft 365 users; review your capacity strategy once F0 and on-demand pricing is published; and run the new assessment over any Azure Data Factory or Synapse estate to see what is ready to move.