Create a BI Pixie item
If you build Power BI reports for others, the BI Pixie item is where you find out how those reports are actually used. You create the item in a Fabric workspace and choose the reports you want to track. BI Pixie then adds Pixies, invisible tracking pixels native to Power BI, to those reports, and through the Pixies it captures page views, visual clicks, filter changes, and audience feedback. BI Pixie collects viewer user names only when you turn on Capture user identity, and until then it counts viewers by a masked IP address. When you turn it on, you choose on the Account page whether BI Pixie keeps each viewer's email address, a masked ID or nothing. From the same item you open the BI Pixie Dashboard to see what your audience is doing, and you manage your licenses and team access.
What you can do from the BI Pixie item
- Add tracking pixels (Pixies) to your Power BI reports so you can see how your audience engages with them.
- Browse and select reports from any Fabric workspace the signed-in user has Contributor, Member, or Admin role on, not just the workspace where the BI Pixie item lives. You can add Pixies to your reports in any workspace you have access to.
- Open the BI Pixie Dashboard to review engagement metrics, heatmaps, surveys, and feedback.
- Assess your semantic models and Fabric data agents for AI Readiness, and apply the fixes you approve.
- Manage licenses, team members, and workspace access for your BI Pixie account.
Where the item lives
When you create the BI Pixie item, BI Pixie also sets up the BI Pixie Dashboard in the same workspace, so the workspace you choose is where the Dashboard lives.
The BI Pixie Dashboard is built on a Direct Lake semantic model over your engagement data, so there are no credentials to set up. To load your data once the Dashboard is installed, see Set up BI Pixie Dashboard.
Which workspace to choose
Because the BI Pixie Dashboard lives in the same workspace as the BI Pixie item, the choice depends on who needs access, the Fabric capacity available, and how isolated you want your engagement data. Three common patterns:
- Create a dedicated workspace. Set up a new Fabric workspace just for BI Pixie, assign it to a Fabric capacity that can handle the BI Pixie Dashboard's semantic-model refresh, and invite your stakeholders. A dedicated workspace keeps your engagement data and access controls isolated from your other Fabric work.
- Use an existing workspace on a capable capacity. Pick a workspace that is already assigned to a Fabric capacity strong enough to own the BI Pixie Dashboard refresh. This pattern suits you when you already have a Fabric capacity in place and want to consolidate.
- Use a team's existing workspace. Pick the workspace your stakeholders already access. On the Enterprise plan, a BI Pixie admin can give that team a license of its own, which isolates its engagement data even when it shares a workspace with other work. See Licenses and Subscription for details.
Create the BI Pixie item
- Sign in to Microsoft Fabric and open the workspace where you want the BI Pixie item and the BI Pixie Dashboard to live.
- Select + New item on the workspace toolbar.
- In the item picker, find BI Pixie and select it.
- Enter a name for the item and select Create.
The BI Pixie Dashboard is set up automatically in the same workspace. Once the BI Pixie item opens, continue with Set up BI Pixie Dashboard to load your data.