powerbi-connector-capability-matrix

name	powerbi-connector-capability-matrix
description	Use when selecting Power BI data-source connectors and comparing Import, DirectQuery, Direct Lake, incremental refresh, gateway, SSO, folding, privacy, and refresh limitations.

Power BI Connector Capability Matrix

Choose connector and storage mode based on capability, data volume, security, and latency.

Output Contract

• Source type and connector candidates.
• Capability matrix: Import, DirectQuery, Direct Lake, composite, folding, incremental refresh, gateway, SSO, OAuth, service principal, and privacy level.
• Recommended pattern with tradeoffs, blockers, fallback, and validation.
• Refresh, performance, and security implications.

Required Coverage

Cover the full Power BI Desktop / Power Query source universe by category, then narrow to the requested source:

• File: Excel Workbook, Text/CSV, XML, JSON, Folder, PDF, Parquet, SharePoint Folder.
• Database: SQL Server, Access, SSAS, Oracle, IBM Db2/Informix/Netezza, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Sybase, Teradata, SAP HANA, SAP BW application/message server, Amazon Redshift/Athena, Impala, BigQuery, Vertica, Snowflake, Essbase, AtScale, MariaDB, MarkLogic, MongoDB Atlas SQL, Denodo, Dremio, Exasol, ClickHouse, InterSystems, KX/Kyvos, ODBC/OLE DB and other certified/preview database connectors.
• Microsoft Fabric: Power BI semantic models, Dataflows, Warehouses, Lakehouses, KQL databases.
• Power Platform: Dataverse, Dataflows, legacy CDS/dataflows where relevant.
• Azure: Azure SQL, Synapse SQL/workspace, Azure Analysis Services, Azure PostgreSQL, Blob, Table Storage, Cosmos DB, Data Explorer/Kusto, ADLS Gen2, HDInsight, Azure Cost Management, Azure Resource Graph, Databricks and related Azure connectors.
• Online Services/SaaS: SharePoint Online, Exchange, Dynamics 365/Business Central/Customer Insights, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Adobe, ServiceNow, GitHub, Smartsheet, Zendesk and other Power Query-supported SaaS connectors.
• Other: Web, OData, REST APIs via Web.Contents, R/Python scripts, blank query, Hadoop/HDFS, Spark, custom connectors, ODBC/OLE DB, and certified third-party connectors.

When Microsoft adds, removes, renames, or marks connectors as Preview/Beta, follow current Microsoft Learn connector documentation and mark uncertainty explicitly.

Source Mode Decision

• Use native connector M for production PBIP/TMDL, PBIX design, dataflows, and Fabric implementations.
• Use embedded DATATABLE only for isolated smoke tests, reproducible demos, or when Power BI Desktop PBIP preview validation blocks external query-source partitions.
• Document the selected mode as native_connector, replicated_lakehouse, semantic_model_live, direct_query, direct_lake, or demo_embedded.

Checks

• Verify connector capabilities against current Microsoft documentation when exact behavior matters.
• Do not assume folding for custom SQL, APIs, or complex transformations.
• For Excel specifically, prefer the native Excel Workbook connector and document whether the path is local/network, SharePoint, OneDrive, or folder-combine.