Try Microsoft Fabric for free

The Microsoft Fabric trial capacity gives you free access for 60 days to explore almost everything Fabric has to offer—across data engineering, data science, real-time analytics, business intelligence, and more. Whether you're new to Fabric or coming from the product to learn more, this trial is your gateway to understanding how Fabric brings all your data and analytics tools together in one place.

Quick start: Set up your Fabric trial capacity | Start using your Fabric trial capacity

What's included—and what's not

Your trial is configured as either an F4 capacity (4 capacity units) or an F64 capacity (64 capacity units) and is complemented with a Power BI Individual Trial if you don't already have a Power BI Premium Per User license.

With your trial capacity, you can:

• Use all Fabric workloads, including Data Factory, Synapse Data Engineering, Real-Time Analytics, and Power BI.
• Create semantic models, pipelines, notebooks, reports, and more.
• Collaborate in workspaces and monitor usage with the Microsoft Fabric Capacity Metrics app.
• Store up to 1 TB of data in OneLake.

However, some features aren't available:

• Copilot and Trusted Workspace Access aren't supported.
• Private Link is disabled.

Learn more about which Microsoft Fabric features are supported in a trial capacity.

When your Fabric trial ends

Your Microsoft Fabric trial capacity lasts for 60 days, unless you cancel it earlier. As the trial nears its end, you’ll see notifications in the Fabric portal and in the Capacity settings page of the Admin portal, helping you track how much time remains.

Once the trial expires:

• Access to the trial capacity is revoked.
• Any workspaces assigned to the trial capacity will be reassigned to Pro and non Power BI Fabric items will no longer be accessible unless the workspace is reassigned to a paid F or P capacity.
• Non Power BI Fabric items (like notebooks and pipelines) remain in your tenant, but they become inactive until reassigned to a valid capacity.
• All content remains stored in OneLake for 7 days and can be reactivated by assigning the workspace to a paid Fabric F or Power BI Premium P capacity.

Read more about ending your trial.

If you’re ready to continue using Fabric, visit the Purchase Fabric page to explore your options.

To learn more about limitations and get answers to frequently asked questions about the Fabric trial, see the FAQ.

Set up your Fabric trial capacity

You can start a trial capacity several different ways. The first two methods make you the Capacity administrator of the trial capacity.

• Method 1: Start a new trial capacity from the Account manager.
• Method 2: Trigger a new trial capacity by trying to use a Fabric feature.
• Method 3: Join an existing trial capacity.

Method 1: Start a new trial capacity from the Account manager

You can sign up for a trial capacity. You manage who else can use your trial by giving coworkers permission to create workspaces in your trial capacity. Every user in the tenant has contributor permissions by default unless you explicitly manage who has access. Assigning workspaces to the trial capacity automatically adds coworkers (with roles in those workspaces) to the trial capacity. To start your Fabric trial capacity and become the Capacity administrator of that trial, follow these steps:

1. To open your Account manager, select the tiny photo from the upper-right corner of the Fabric homepage.

   

2. In the Account manager, select Start trial. If you don't see Start trial, Free trial, or a Trial status, trials might be disabled for your tenant.

   Note

   If the Account manager already displays Trial status, you might already have a Power BI trial or a Fabric (Free) trial in progress. To test this out, attempt to use a Fabric feature. For more information, see Start using Fabric.

   

3. If prompted, agree to the terms and then select Start trial.

4. Within the Activate your 60-day free Fabric trial capacity prompt, review the Trial capacity region. You can either accept the default home region or update it to a new region location that best suits your needs. Once you make your selection, agree to the terms and conditions, then select Activate.

   Important

   When planning your region deployment for Fabric capacities, it's important to make the appropriate selection from the outset. If you decide to move a workspace containing Fabric items to a different region after your trial is created, you need to delete all existing Fabric items before proceeding. For detailed instructions, see Moving your data around.

   To ensure the best performance and resource management, we recommend deploying your capacity in a region where your existing resources are already located. This approach minimizes network latency, reduces ingress and egress charges, and enhances overall reliability.

5. Once your trial capacity is ready, you receive a confirmation message. Select Fabric Home Page to begin a guided walkthrough of Fabric. You're now the Capacity administrator for that trial capacity. To learn how to share your trial capacity using workspaces, see Share trial capacities.

Congratulations. You now have a Fabric trial capacity and a complementary Power BI individual trial (if you didn't already have a Power BI paid license). To share your capacity, see Share trial capacities..

Method 2: Trigger a Fabric trial by trying to use a Fabric feature

If your organization enabled Fabric and Power BI trials, attempting to use a Fabric feature launches a Fabric trial capacity. If your Fabric administrator enabled Microsoft Fabric for the tenant but you still don't have access to a Fabric-enabled capacity, follow these steps:

1. Try to create a Fabric item in a workspace that you own (such as My Workspace) that doesn't currently support Fabric items (that is, not a Fabric, Premium, or Trial workspace).
2. Follow the prompt to start a Fabric trial capacity.

Once you agree, your trial starts and the workspace is reassigned to a trial capacity. You're the Capacity administrator and can add additional workspaces to the trial capacity by changing their type to Trial in workspace settings.

Method 3: Join an existing trial

You can join a trial started by a coworker by adding your workspace to their existing trial capacity. This action only is possible if the trial capacity administrator gives you or the entire organization Contributor permissions to the trial capacity.

For more information, see Sharing trial capacities.

Start using your trial

To start using your Fabric capacity trial, create a new workspace. Assign that workspace to your trial capacity using the Trial license mode, and then all the items in that workspace are saved and executed in that trial capacity. Invite colleagues to those workspaces so they can share the trial experience with you. If you, as the Capacity administrator, enable Contributor permissions, then others can also assign their workspaces to your trial capacity. For more information about sharing, see Share trial capacities.

• Existing Power BI users: If you're an existing Power BI user, jump to Start the Fabric trial.
• New Power BI users: The Fabric trial requires a per-user license. Navigate to https://app.fabric.microsoft.com to sign up for a Fabric (Free) license. Once you have the free license, you can begin participating in the Fabric capacity trial.
  • You might already have a license and not realize it. For example, some versions of Microsoft 365 include a Power BI Pro license. Open Fabric https://app.fabric.microsoft.com and select your Account manager to see if you already have a license, and which license it is. Read on to see how to open your Account manager.

Get the status of your trial

To see the status of your trial, open your Account manager again and look for the Trial status. Your Account manager keeps track of the number of days remaining in your trial. You can also see the countdown in the Fabric menu bar or go to Admin portal > Capacity settings > Trial.

Share trial capacities

The person who starts the Fabric trial capacity becomes the Capacity administrator for that trial capacity. Other users on the same tenant can also start a Fabric trial capacity and become the Capacity administrator for their own trial capacity. Hundreds of users can use each trial capacity. But, Microsoft sets a limit on the number of trial capacities that can be created on a single tenant. To help others in your organization try out Fabric, share your trial capacity. There are several ways to share.

Share by enabling Contributor permissions

Enabling the Contributor permissions setting allows other users to assign their workspaces to your trial capacity. If you're the Capacity or Fabric administrator, adjust this setting from the Admin portal.

1. From the top right section of the Fabric menubar, select the cog icon to open Settings.
2. Select Admin portal > Trial. Enabled for the entire organization is set by default.

Enabling Contributor permissions means that any user with an Admin role in a workspace can assign that workspace to the trial capacity and access Fabric features. Apply these permissions to the entire organization or apply them to only specific users or groups.

Share by assigning workspaces

If you're the Capacity administrator, assign the trial capacity to multiple workspaces. Anyone with access to one of those workspaces can now use the Fabric capacity trial.

1. Open Workspaces and select the name of a workspace.

2. Select Workspace settings, then License info.

3. Select Edit in the License configuration section.

4. Select the Trial license mode.

   

5. To apply your changes, select the Select license button.

For more information, see Use Workspace settings.

Increase trial capacity

If you're the Capacity administrator or Tenant administrator, you might be eligible to increase the trial capacity by following these steps:

1. From the upper right corner of Fabric, select the gear icon, then select Admin portal.
2. Select Capacity settings, and then choose the Trial tab.
3. Your current trial size is displayed here. Select the Change size button to increase from 4 capacity units to 64 capacity units.
4. Select Apply. If you're eligible to change the size, you see a success message and receive a notification.

You can also downgrade from 64 capacity units to 4 capacity units using these same steps.

End a Fabric trial capacity

End a Fabric capacity trail by canceling, letting it expire, or purchasing the full Fabric experience.

For more information, see Canceling, expiring, and closing.

Cancel the Fabric trial

Capacity admins and Fabric admins can cancel a trial capacity. The user who starts a trial automatically becomes the Capacity administrator for that trial capacity. The Fabric administrator has full access to all Fabric management tasks. All Fabric items (non-Power BI items) in those workspaces become unusable and may be deleted after 7 days. Only the Capacity or Fabric administrator can cancel the Fabric trial capacity.

One reason to cancel a trial capacity is when the Capacity administrator of a trial capacity leaves the company. Because Microsoft limits the number of trial capacities available per tenant, you might want to remove the unmanaged trial capacity to make room for other users to sign up for a new trial capacity.

If you don't move the workspaces and their contents to a new capacity that supports Fabric:

• The license mode of any workspaces assigned to that trial capacity changes to Pro.
• All non Power BI Fabric items in the workspaces become unusable and may be deleted after seven days. Your Power BI items are unaffected and still available when the workspace license mode returns to Pro.
• You can't create workspaces that support Fabric capabilities.
• You can't share Fabric items, such as machine learning models, warehouses, and notebooks, and collaborate on them with other Fabric users.
• You can't create any other analytics solutions using these Fabric items.

• Cancel a trial using your Account manager: As a trial capacity admin, you can cancel your free Fabric trial capacity from your Account manager. Canceling the trial this way ends the trial capacity for yourself and anyone else you invited to the trial.

  • Open your Account manager and select Cancel trial.

  

• Cancel the Fabric trial capacity using the Admin portal: As a Capacity or Fabric administrator, you can use the Admin portal to cancel a Fabric trial capacity:

  1. Select Settings > Admin portal > Capacity settings.
  2. Then choose the Trials tab.
  3. Select the cog icon for the trial capacity that you want to delete.

  

Let the trial expire

A standard Fabric trial capacity lasts 60 days. If you don't reassign workspaces to a paid Fabric capacity before the end of the trial period, non-Power BI Fabric items are removed according to the retention policy upon removal. You have seven days after the expiration date to save your non-Power BI Fabric items by assigning the workspaces to an F or P capacity that supports Fabric.

To retain your Fabric items, before your trial ends, purchase Fabric.

Purchase the full Fabric experience

If you want to retain your data and continue to use Microsoft Fabric, you can purchase a capacity and migrate your workspaces to that capacity. You can also migrate your workspaces to a capacity that you already own that supports Fabric items.

Frequently asked questions

Here are some things to consider and answers to frequently asked questions about the Fabric trial.

What if I don't already have an assigned Power BI PPU?

If you don't already have an assigned Power BI Premium Per User (PPU) license, you receive a Power BI Individual Trial when initiating a Fabric trial capacity. This individual trial enables you to perform the actions and use the features that a PPU license enables. Your Account manager still displays the nontrial licenses assigned to you. But in order to make full use of Fabric, your Fabric trial capacity comes with a complementary Power BI Individual trial.

Why can't I start a trial?

If you don't see the Start trial button in your Account manager:

• Your Fabric administrator might have disabled access, and you can't start a Fabric trial capacity. To request access, contact your Fabric administrator.
• You're an existing Power BI individual trial user, and you don't see Start trial in your Account manager. You can start a Fabric trial by attempting to create a Fabric item. When you attempt to create a Fabric item, you receive a prompt to start a Fabric trial. If you don't see this prompt, it's possible your Fabric administrator deactivated this action.

If you do see the Start trial button in your Account manager but can't start a trial:

• You might not be able to start a trial capacity if your tenant exhausted its limit of trial capacities. If that's the case, you have the following options:
  • Request another trial capacity user to share their trial capacity workspace with you. Give users access to workspaces.
  • Purchase a Fabric capacity from Azure by performing a search for Microsoft Fabric.

How do I look up the trial Capacity administrator?

To request access to a trial capacity or to check whether your organization has the Fabric tenant setting enabled, you can contact your Capacity administrator. Ask your Fabric administrator to use the Admin portal to look up your Capacity administrator. You can find your Fabric administrator as the service administrator in the Workspace Settings of your workspace.

If you're the Capacity or Fabric administrator, from the upper right corner of Fabric, select the gear icon. Select Admin portal. For a Fabric trial, select Capacity settings and then choose the Trial tab.

How do I look up the number of days remaining in my trial?

From the upper right corner of Fabric, select the gear icon. Select Admin portal. For a Fabric trial, select Capacity settings and then choose the Trial tab. The Days left column tracks the remaining days for each trial.

Why can't I assign a workspace to the trial capacity in my workspace settings?

This can occur when the Fabric administrator turns off trials after you start a trial. To add your workspace to the trial capacity, open the Admin portal by selecting it from the gear icon in the top menu bar. Then, select Trial > Capacity settings and choose the name of the capacity. If you don't see your workspace assigned, add it here.

What is the region for my Fabric trial capacity?

If you start the trial using the Account manager and didn't change the default region selection, your trial capacity is usually located in the home region for your tenant. See Find your Fabric home region for information about how to find your home region, where your data is stored.

What effect does region have on my Fabric trial capacity?

Not all regions are available for the Fabric trial capacity. Start by looking up your home region and then check to see if your region is supported for the Fabric trial. If your home region doesn't have Fabric enabled, don't use the Account manager to start a trial. To start a trial in a region that isn't your home region, follow the steps in Other ways to start a Fabric trial. If you already started a trial from Account manager, cancel that trial and follow the steps in Other ways to start a Fabric trial instead.

Can I move my tenant to another region?

You can't move your organization's tenant between regions by yourself. If you need to change your organization's default data location from the current region to another region, you must contact support to manage the migration for you. For more information, see Move between regions.

How can I see the Fabric trial capacity availability by Azure region?

To learn more about regional availability for Fabric trials, see Fabric trial capacities are available in all regions.

How is the Fabric trial capacity different from a Power BI individual trial?

A Power BI individual trial provides use rights equivalent to a Power BI Premium Per User license. A Fabric trial capacity is for storing Fabric items and running Fabric workloads. All rules guiding Power BI licenses and what you can do in the Power BI workload remain the same with a Fabric trial capacity, which is why having a complementary Power BI individual trial is useful. The key difference is that a Fabric capacity is required to use non-Power BI workloads and items.

Does the Fabric trial capacity support autoscale?

The Fabric trial capacity doesn't support autoscale. If you need more compute capacity, you can purchase a Fabric capacity in Azure.

How can trial Capacity administrators migrate existing workspaces into a trial capacity?

Trial Capacity administrators can migrate existing workspaces into a trial capacity using workspace settings and choosing Trial as the license mode. To learn how to migrate workspaces, see create workspaces.

Related content

• Learn about licenses
• Review Fabric terminology