Copilot in Fabric: Stop Giving Access

Key insights

• Fabric Copilot Capacity (FCC): A capacity-based way to grant Copilot to users without giving them workspace access.
  It lets admins assign Copilot to people or groups instead of moving content or changing workspace permissions.
• Key benefits: consolidated billing, control Copilot consumption, and separate AI from data workloads.
  These reduce admin work and avoid giving unnecessary access to business users.
• How to set it up: enable FCC in the Admin Portal, have a Capacity admin request approval from the Fabric admin, designate a qualifying capacity, then add users or security groups.
  Assigned users get Copilot across content they can access, without workspace changes.
• Licensing and SKUs: capacities must be P1/F64 or larger to be designated as FCC.
  Some Copilot features are expanding to F2+ SKUs in certain cases, but FCC designation still requires the larger SKUs; check region limits.
• Monitoring and governance: use the Fabric Capacity Metrics App and tenant settings to track usage, set approvals, and enforce limits.
  Copilot respects role-level security and user permissions so data stays protected.
• Recommended best practice: avoid giving workspace access just for Copilot.
  Assign users to FCC, consolidate costs, and keep permissions minimal for safer, cleaner rollout.

Overview: Why This YouTube Video Matters

The YouTube video from Guy in a Cube explains a simpler and more secure way to enable Copilot for users in Microsoft Fabric. Rather than granting workspace access as a workaround, the presenter shows how to use Fabric Copilot Capacity to assign Copilot to people directly. Consequently, organizations can avoid unnecessary permission changes while keeping billing and governance clearer.
The video targets Power BI and Fabric administrators along with governance teams who face friction when rolling out AI features. Therefore, the guidance aims to reduce failed Copilot experiences for business users and to centralize control over AI workloads.

What the Video Demonstrates

In the walkthrough, Marthe from Guy in a Cube configures a capacity as a dedicated Copilot resource and then assigns users or security groups to it. She shows the steps inside the Fabric Admin Portal, how to get approval from the Fabric admin, and how capacity admins designate a capacity as a Copilot resource. Additionally, the video highlights the practical details that often trip teams up, such as role assignments and SKU requirements.
Marthe also covers how to monitor usage through the Fabric Capacity Metrics App and explains licensing considerations like which SKUs qualify. For instance, only capacities equivalent to P1 or F64 and above can be set as Copilot capacity, while broader F2+ support is evolving with changes scheduled in April.

Benefits of Using Fabric Copilot Capacity

First, assigning Copilot at the capacity level improves accessibility because users do not need workspace-level access to use AI features. This is particularly useful for business users who consume reports but should not modify underlying content, thereby preserving security and role-based data controls. Second, consolidating Copilot billing into a single capacity simplifies cost tracking and reduces surprises on individual workspace bills.
Moreover, separating AI compute from data compute helps teams optimize resources: AI workloads can run on designated hardware without interfering with routine analytics processing. As a result, admins gain more predictable performance and clearer governance over who uses AI and how much capacity they consume.

Tradeoffs and Challenges to Consider

However, this approach comes with tradeoffs. Consolidating Copilot usage on a single capacity can create contention when many users run heavy AI queries at once, so teams must balance cost savings against potential performance bottlenecks. Administrators therefore need to plan capacity sizing carefully and consider scaling strategies or off-peak scheduling to reduce conflicts.
In addition, licensing and regional availability complicate planning because only certain SKUs qualify as Copilot capacities and regions may vary in feature rollout. Consequently, coordination between finance, IT, and capacity owners becomes necessary to buy the right SKUs and avoid unexpected limitations during deployment.

Deploying and Monitoring Copilot Capacity

The video emphasizes operational steps: purchase an eligible capacity, request Fabric admin approval, designate the capacity as Fabric Copilot Capacity, and add users or security groups. After this setup, admins should monitor consumption with the Fabric Capacity Metrics App to track who uses Copilot and how much compute they consume, which helps with chargebacks and quota planning. Furthermore, tenant-level settings control whether Copilot experiences are allowed by default, so admins can tighten access using group-based restrictions.
Security remains a priority because Copilot respects role-level security and will not surface data a user cannot access. Nevertheless, teams should audit usage logs and review governance policies regularly to ensure Copilot use aligns with data protection and compliance requirements.

Conclusion: Practical Next Steps

In summary, the Guy in a Cube video offers a clear alternative to granting workspace access for Copilot by recommending the Fabric Copilot Capacity model. By doing so, organizations can reduce permission creep, consolidate billing, and separate AI workloads from data workloads, but they must also manage capacity sizing, licensing, and monitoring to avoid new bottlenecks. Therefore, teams should pilot the configuration, review performance metrics, and coordinate licensing purchases before broad rollout.
Overall, administrators who follow the steps shown in the video can enable Copilot for business users more securely and efficiently, while keeping governance and costs under control.

Keywords

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