What happens when you run a Data Refresh within PowerPivot for SharePoint?

I was just recently asked the question by a fellow Analysis Services expert (Greg Galloway):

When you have SharePoint automate a data refresh for a PowerPivot workbook, is the new data saved back into the xlsx? So if I download the xlsx onto my laptop the next day, will I see fresh data? Also, if the xlsx is updated by SharePoint during data refresh, is that step subject to the 2GB file limit?

and I thought it made sense if that we share this answer as well.

So the answer is “Yes”.

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