Direct Lake

Lesson in the Power BI Roadmap · Stage 3: Connection Modes

Last updated 14 September 2026

What is Direct Lake?

Direct Lake is a storage mode built for Microsoft Fabric that reads data directly from files in a data lake without importing or duplicating it, while still delivering query speed close to Import mode. It avoids the usual DirectQuery performance penalty because it reads the lake's columnar file format natively. This mode is specific to datasets built on OneLake within Microsoft Fabric.

Study this in the interactive course See the whole Power BI roadmap

Free resources to learn Direct Lake

Official docsDirect Lake overview
Official docsTutorial: Create a Direct Lake semantic model and Power BI report
ArticleCreating and editing Direct Lake semantic models
VideoDive into Microsoft Fabric's Power BI Direct Lake

Direct Lake: common questions

Can I learn Direct Lake in Hindi?

This lesson is written in English. Once you sign in, open it in the interactive course and ask the AI tutor to explain Direct Lake in Hindi or Hinglish. The tutor answers from this lesson’s own text, so it stays on the syllabus, and it runs on your own Google, OpenAI or Anthropic key.

Is this Direct Lake tutorial for beginners?

It is lesson 16 of 131 in the free Power BI roadmap, in stage 3, Connection Modes. If you are new to Power BI, start from stage 1 and come back here in order; if you already know the earlier stages, this lesson stands on its own.