Why this level matters
In Level 1 you saw that every Copilot experience in Fabric and Power BI runs on a paid capacity. Paying for the capacity is not enough, though. A Fabric administrator also has to set a few tenant settings, and if any one of them is wrong, colleagues see a greyed-out Copilot button or a data agent that never answers.
This lesson follows one scenario. Priya, the Fabric admin at a UK retailer, wants to give the Sales Analytics team Copilot and data agents before a wider rollout. You will make the same checks she does.
Sources: Microsoft Learn pages "Copilot and Agent admin settings", "Enable and configure Copilot in Microsoft Fabric", "Enable Fabric Copilot for Power BI", "Overview of Copilot in Fabric" and "Configure Fabric data agent tenant settings", all read on 20 October 2026. Settings marked (preview) in the admin portal are still in preview.
Task 1: Open the tenant settings
- Sign in to Fabric with an account that has the Fabric administrator role.
- Select OneLake catalog, then the Govern tab, then Configurations > Tenant settings. If Govern has not reached your region yet, use Settings (gear) > Admin portal > Tenant settings instead.
- Type Copilot in the search box. The settings you need are in the Copilot and AI group.
DO: Take a screenshot of each setting's current state before you change anything. That gives you a record to roll back to.
Task 2: Turn on Copilot and scope it
The main switch is Users can use Copilot and other features powered by Azure OpenAI. It covers Copilot in every workload and also Fabric data agents. Microsoft now enables it by default for tenants with paid capacity, so your job is usually to narrow it down, not to switch it on.
- Open the setting and check that it is Enabled.
- Under Apply to, choose Specific security groups and add a group such as
SG-Copilot-Pilot. - To keep a group out, use Except specific security groups. When the rules conflict, the most restrictive one wins.
- Select Apply.
You cannot switch on Copilot for one experience only, such as DAX query view. The switch works for the whole workload.
This setting can also be managed per capacity. A capacity admin can find it under Delegated tenant settings and can override the tenant choice for their own capacity.
DO: Use one security group as your pilot audience across every setting in this lesson.
Task 3: Decide on cross-geo processing and storage
The Azure OpenAI service behind Fabric Copilot runs in the US and in the EU Data Boundary. If your capacity sits anywhere else, Copilot stays off until you allow your data to cross a boundary.
- Data sent to Azure OpenAI can be processed outside your capacity's geographic region, compliance boundary, or national cloud instance. This is off by default. Turn it on when the capacity is outside the US and the EU Data Boundary. UK capacities need it because UK prompts are processed in the EU Data Boundary.
- Data sent to Azure OpenAI can be stored outside your capacity's geographic region, compliance boundary, or national cloud instance. This is off by default and applies to Copilot in notebooks and Fabric data agents only. These two experiences keep conversation history between sessions. The history stays for up to 28 days unless the user clears the chat first.
Priya's capacity is in UK South, so she needs both settings for the pilot group. A capacity in West Europe would need neither.
The admin portal also has separate settings for OpenAI as a Microsoft Subprocessor, together with a matching cross-geo setting. Both are off by default. Read Microsoft's subprocessor terms with your compliance team before you enable them.
DO: Get written approval from your data protection lead before you enable any cross-geo setting.
Task 4: Check the data agent requirements
Fabric data agents became generally available in 2026. They depend on these settings:
- The main Copilot setting from Task 2
- Capacities can be designated as Fabric Copilot capacities (on by default)
- The processing and storage settings from Task 3, if you are outside the US and the EU Data Boundary
Settings can take up to an hour to apply. Wait before you conclude that something is broken.
DO: Search the tenant settings page for agent and record every setting that appears. The list changes often.
Task 5: Set up the standalone Copilot (preview)
- Users can access a standalone, cross-item Copilot in Power BI experience (preview). This puts Copilot in the left navigation so users can search across reports, models and data agents. It also controls the Power BI agent in Microsoft 365. The main Copilot setting must be on at tenant level. Turning it on only at capacity level is not enough.
- Only show approved items in the standalone Copilot in Power BI experience (preview). This limits Copilot search to items marked Approved for Copilot. It is delegated to workspace admins by default. (How items get approved is covered in Level 5.)
Microsoft's own pages disagree about whether the standalone setting starts on or off. Check its actual state in your tenant rather than relying on either page.
DO: For a pilot, turn on Only show approved items so colleagues see only curated content.
Task 6: Check the workspace's capacity
Copilot works only when the item's workspace is on a supported capacity.
- Open the workspace, select Workspace settings and look in the license section.
- Confirm the workspace is on Fabric capacity F2 or higher or Power BI Premium P1 or higher. Pro and PPU workspaces need a Fabric Copilot capacity instead.
- Confirm the capacity is not a trial, because trial SKUs are not supported.
- Confirm the capacity region appears in Microsoft's Fabric region availability list.
The pre-rollout checklist
- Copilot setting enabled and scoped to the pilot security group
- Capacity-level delegated settings reviewed
- Cross-geo processing enabled if the capacity is outside the US and the EU Data Boundary
- Cross-geo storage enabled if notebooks or data agents are used outside the US and the EU Data Boundary
- OpenAI subprocessor settings decided with compliance
- Standalone Copilot (preview) state checked
- Approved-items-only (preview) decided
- Workspaces on paid F2+ or P1+ capacity (or a Fabric Copilot capacity), not trial, in a supported region
- Waited up to an hour, then tested with a pilot user
Key takeaways
- The main Copilot setting also controls data agents. Scope it to security groups.
- Capacities outside the US and the EU Data Boundary, including the UK, need the cross-geo processing setting.
- The storage setting covers conversation history for notebooks and data agents (up to 28 days).
- Standalone Copilot needs the Copilot setting on at tenant level. Approved-items-only narrows what it searches.
- Copilot needs a paid F2+ or P1+ capacity in a supported region. Trial capacities are not supported.