Microsoft has announced an important change coming to Fabric workspaces, introducing a combined item limit that will affect both Fabric and Power BI items within a workspace. This change is designed to enhance performance and service quality across Fabric environments by preventing capacity overload caused by excessive item counts.

What’s Changing?

Currently, Power BI workspaces have a limit of 1000 items per workspace. However, there is no similar restriction for Fabric items within a Fabric workspace. Starting in March 2025, Microsoft will introduce a combined limit of 1000 items per Fabric workspace. This means that a workspace can have a total of up to 1000 combined Fabric and Power BI items.

Important Notes

For tenants where Fabric is not enabled, the existing limit of 1000 Power BI items per workspace remains unchanged.
This new limit applies only to Fabric-enabled workspaces.

Timeline

Rollout begins: Late March 2025.
Rollout completes: By mid-April 2025.

Impact to Your Organization

For Workspaces Under 1000 Items

Once the 1000-item limit is reached, users will no longer be able to create new items in the workspace.
To create new items, users will need to delete existing items to stay below the limit.

For Workspaces Exceeding 1000 Items (as of April 10, 2025)

These workspaces will receive a grace period of 180 days.
During the grace period, existing items can remain, but no new items can be created once the limit is hit.
After the grace period ends, users must reduce item counts below 1000 before any new items can be added.

Recommended Actions for Admins

Assess Current Item Counts

Review current workspaces across your tenant to understand how many items are present in each workspace.
Leverage the Admin Monitoring workspace to track item counts. Specifically, the Feature Adoption and Usage report within the Inventory section provides the required insights.
Documentation for the Admin Monitoring workspace can be found here.

Develop a Cleanup and Governance Plan

Establish guidelines for managing items in both existing and new workspaces.
Encourage routine cleanup processes to remove unused or obsolete items.
Where necessary, split high-volume workspaces into smaller, purpose-specific workspaces.

Why This Matters

The introduction of these limits is intended to ensure that Fabric workspaces maintain optimal performance and avoid degradation caused by excessive items in a single workspace. By proactively preparing for these changes, organizations can ensure seamless operations and avoid potential disruptions when the limit enforcement begins.

Stay Informed

Keep an eye on the Microsoft 365 Message Center for further updates and ensure that your Power BI and Fabric administrators are aware of these changes. Implementing proactive governance will help ensure your organization is well-positioned to comply with the new limits.

If you have any questions or need assistance developing a workspace governance strategy, feel free to reach out.

Enforcing item limits in a Fabric workspace