No. Fabric IQ lets Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat answer questions from your Power BI semantic models, and it's generally available. But every user needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence and licensed access to the report, it runs as a signed-in user in your tenant, and semantic models on Embedded A or EM capacity aren't supported. External client viewers fail all three. To give clients AI answers, the AI has to run in the portal, not in Microsoft 365.
Microsoft just made Power BI the brain of Copilot. Since FabCon Barcelona, anyone with Microsoft 365 Copilot can ask a business question in Copilot Chat and get an answer grounded in your governed semantic models, with row-level security intact. For your own team that's a big deal. For your clients it changes nothing. The docs list three requirements, and an external viewer fails every one: a Copilot licence per user, access inside your tenant, and a capacity type that isn't the Embedded one many client portals run on. Here's what Fabric IQ actually needs, how it relates to Copilot in Power BI and Fabric Data Agents, and what you can give a client instead.
TL;DR
- Fabric IQ in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Cowork is GA. Copilot answers from Power BI reports and semantic models, with no extra AI token cost.
- Every user needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, plus permission and licensed access to the Power BI content.
- Embedded capacity isn't supported. Semantic models in workspaces on A or EM SKUs don't work with it.
- It runs as the signed-in user, so RLS and OLS apply. External viewers aren't signed-in users in your tenant.
- Copilot in Power BI runs on F2+ or P1+ capacity. Fabric Data Agents run on F2+ or P1+. Neither reaches unlicensed external viewers either.
- You can still share a report you built with Copilot. The limit is on clients using the AI, not on the finished report.
- For clients, use AI built into a capacity-based portal, like DataTako's agentic AI, which is live today.
What is Fabric IQ in Copilot?
Fabric IQ is the layer Microsoft now uses to connect AI to governed Power BI data. At FabCon Barcelona (September 2026) it went generally available in two places:
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Users ask business questions in Copilot Chat and get answers grounded in Power BI reports and semantic models.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork. The same Power BI context available to Copilot's agentic work mode.
Microsoft's pitch is that the business definitions and measures you already maintain in Power BI now inform Copilot directly, instead of Copilot guessing from spreadsheets and emails. There's no additional AI token cost for the Fabric IQ context. The same building block is also available to developers as the Fabric IQ MCP server.
What does Fabric IQ in Copilot Chat require?
From Microsoft Learn (updated 23 September 2026):
- Licence: "Microsoft 365 Copilot Premium license: Required for all users."
- Access: "The user must have both permission and licensed access to view the Power BI reports and semantic models they want to ask questions about."
- Capacity: "Pro, Premium Per User (PPU), Premium, and Fabric capacities are supported." And: "Semantic models in workspaces that use Embedded capacities (A or EM SKUs) aren't supported."
- Security: "Copilot uses the user's existing permissions, including row-level security (RLS) and object-level security (OLS)."
- Admin settings: "Fabric data available in M365 Copilot" (on by default) and "Share Fabric data with your Microsoft 365 services", plus cross-region processing for tenants outside the US and EU.
For Cowork, the user needs Read permission on the reports and models "in your home Fabric tenant", Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing and usage-based Cowork billing. No extra Fabric capacity or PPU is required for the plugin itself.
Why can't external clients use it?
Three separate walls. Getting past one doesn't help with the others.
- Licence. Every user needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence (Microsoft lists Copilot Business from $21 per user per month paid yearly, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan). You're not going to buy that for every client contact, and your clients won't buy it to read their own dashboard.
- Tenant. It runs as a signed-in user with access to the content in your tenant. Client portal viewers don't sign in to your tenant. They sign in to your portal.
- Capacity. Many client portals run on Power BI Embedded A SKUs. Semantic models on A or EM capacity aren't supported at all, whoever is asking. (If you're weighing A against F, see Fabric F-SKU vs Power BI Embedded A-SKU.)
Whether B2B guest users with their own Copilot licence can use Fabric IQ against your models isn't documented. We wouldn't promise it to a client before testing it in your own tenant.
How does it relate to Copilot in Power BI and Fabric Data Agents?
Microsoft now has three AI surfaces over Power BI data. All three run as a signed-in, licensed user.
- Copilot in Power BI works inside reports and Power BI Desktop. The workspace must be on paid Fabric capacity (F2 and above) or Power BI Premium (P1 and above). Since 28 April 2025 there's no F64 floor. Trial capacities aren't supported.
- Fabric Data Agents are configurable Q&A agents over semantic models, lakehouses, warehouses and more. They need F2+ or P1+ capacity, and access to a semantic model is governed by Read permission, with RLS and CLS applied.
- Fabric IQ in Copilot Chat brings Power BI answers into Microsoft 365 Copilot, and needs a Copilot licence per user.
More detail on the first two in Power BI Copilot vs Fabric Data Agents and on capacity cost in Power BI Copilot and F64 capacity cost.
Can I at least share a report I built with Copilot?
Yes. How a report was authored doesn't matter for sharing. A report built with Copilot's help is a normal Power BI report, and you can share it externally the same way as any other: through capacity-based embedding or guest access. The limit is on clients using the AI themselves.
What about guest accounts?
You can invite each client contact as a B2B guest in your tenant. It's the only route that gives them a Microsoft identity to run AI under. It's also the most expensive and most admin-heavy route:
- Each guest needs licensed access to the content (below F64 that means Power BI Pro, $14 per user per month, or PPU at $24).
- Fabric IQ in Copilot Chat would need a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence per user on top, and guest support isn't documented.
- You manage every guest in your Entra ID: onboarding, offboarding, conditional access, and the risk of a guest seeing more than they should.
For 50 client contacts, Pro alone is $700 a month before any AI. We go through the trade-offs in Power BI guest user access: pros, cons and alternatives.
What actually works for client-facing AI?
AI that lives where your clients already are: the portal. It has to meet four requirements Microsoft's AI doesn't meet for external viewers:
- Served on capacity, not per seat. It reaches unlicensed viewers through the same embedding layer that already shows them their reports.
- Scoped to the viewer. It queries within the viewer's row-level security and tenant boundary, so a client can only ask about their own data. (How to check that on any vendor: does AI in a client portal respect row-level security?)
- White-label. It looks like your product, not like Microsoft 365.
- No Microsoft account needed. Clients sign in to your portal, not to your tenant.
That's what DataTako's agentic AI does, and it's live: natural-language questions for external portal viewers, isolated per sub-organisation, without a Power BI or Copilot licence per viewer. For the cost side, try the cost calculator.
How do the options compare?
Which option fits you?
- Internal team, everyone licensed? Use Fabric IQ in Copilot Chat and Copilot in Power BI. They're good, and they respect your RLS.
- Clients only need to view reports? A capacity-based portal removes per-user Pro costs. See 4 ways to share Power BI reports with external users.
- Clients need to ask their data questions, in your branding, without a licence each? That's embedded agentic AI, the gap Microsoft's licensing leaves open.
Frequently asked questions
Can external clients use Fabric IQ in Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Not in practice. Fabric IQ in Copilot Chat requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence for every user, plus permission and licensed access to the Power BI content, and it runs as a signed-in user. Semantic models on Embedded A or EM capacity aren't supported. Support for B2B guest users isn't documented.
Does Fabric IQ in Copilot Chat work with Power BI Embedded capacity?
No. Microsoft's documentation states that semantic models in workspaces using Embedded capacities (A or EM SKUs) aren't supported. Pro, Premium Per User, Premium and Fabric capacities are supported.
Does Copilot in Power BI still require F64 capacity?
No. Since 28 April 2025, Copilot in Power BI works on any paid Fabric capacity from F2 or Power BI Premium from P1. Trial capacities aren't supported. Copilot still runs as a licensed, signed-in user, so it doesn't reach unlicensed external viewers.
Can I share a Power BI report I built with Copilot with external users?
Yes. How a report was authored doesn't affect sharing. You can share it externally like any other report, for example through capacity-based embedding. The limitation is on external users using Copilot or Fabric IQ themselves.
Does Fabric IQ respect row-level security?
Yes. Fabric IQ in Copilot Chat and Cowork use the signed-in user's existing permissions, including row-level and object-level security, so answers only reflect data that user can see.
How can clients ask questions about their Power BI data without a licence?
Use a capacity-based client portal with its own AI layer. The AI runs through the embedding layer on your Fabric capacity, scoped to each viewer's row-level security, so clients don't need a Power BI or Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. DataTako's agentic AI works this way.
