Airtable Free Plan Limits 2026: Records, Attachments & Automations Explained
Airtable’s free plan is genuinely useful — but it has hard limits that will catch you off guard if you don’t know about them. Here is every limit on the Airtable free plan in 2026, explained clearly so you know exactly what you are getting.
Airtable Free Plan Limits at a Glance
| Feature | Free Plan Limit |
|---|---|
| Records per base | 1,000 |
| Attachment storage | 1 GB per base |
| Automation runs | 100 per month |
| Bases | Unlimited |
| Tables per base | Unlimited |
| Views | Grid, Gallery, Kanban, Calendar, Form |
| Collaborators | 5 editors per base |
| API calls | 1,000 per month |
| Revision history | 2 weeks |
Record Limit: 1,000 per Base
The most important limit to understand is 1,000 records per base. This is a hard cap — when you hit it, you cannot add new records until you delete existing ones or upgrade.
What does 1,000 records actually look like in practice?
- A simple task tracker for a small team: lasts months
- A content calendar tracking articles, social posts, and campaigns: hits the limit in 4–6 weeks
- A CRM with contacts, deals, and notes: hits the limit within 2–3 weeks of real use
- A product inventory with variants: often hits the limit immediately
The 1,000 record limit applies per base, not per table. So if you have three tables in one base, the total across all three tables cannot exceed 1,000.
Workaround: Split data across multiple bases. This works in some cases but breaks linked records between tables — a core Airtable feature.
Attachment Storage: 1 GB per Base
Each base on the free plan gets 1 GB of attachment storage. This covers images, PDFs, videos, and any files uploaded directly to Airtable fields.
1 GB sounds like a lot until you start attaching real files:
- A few dozen high-resolution product photos: 200–400 MB
- A handful of presentation decks: 100–300 MB
- Video files of any meaningful length: fills 1 GB immediately
If your use case involves documents, media, or file management, the free plan storage will run out fast.
Automation Runs: 100 per Month
Airtable automations let you trigger actions automatically — send an email when a record changes, create a new record when a form is submitted, or post to Slack when a status updates.
The free plan allows 100 automation runs per month. This resets on the first of each month.
100 runs sounds reasonable for light use, but consider:
- One form submission triggers one run
- A daily digest email counts as one run per day = 30 runs per month
- An automation that fires on every record update in an active project: easily hits 100 in days
Collaborators: 5 Editors per Base
The free plan supports up to 5 editors per base. This includes you, so a team of five is the maximum before you need to upgrade.
Note: Viewers (read-only access) are unlimited on all plans, including free.
Revision History: 2 Weeks
The free plan only retains 2 weeks of revision history. If you need to recover a deleted record or see who changed what three weeks ago, that data is gone.
Paid plans extend this to 6 months (Team), 1 year (Business), and 3 years (Enterprise).
What the Free Plan Does Well
Despite the limits, Airtable free covers a lot:
- Unlimited bases and tables: You can create as many separate projects as you want
- All core view types: Grid, Kanban, Gallery, Calendar, and Form views are all available
- Linked records: You can link tables within a base
- Formulas and rollups: Most formula functions work on the free plan
- Sharing and embedding: You can share views publicly or embed them in websites
- Templates: Access to Airtable’s full template library
When to Upgrade from Free
Upgrade to the Team plan ($20/seat/month) when:
- You consistently hit the 1,000 record limit
- Your team has more than 5 people who need to edit records
- You rely on automations and keep hitting the 100-run cap
- You need more than 1 GB of attachment storage per base
- You need longer revision history for accountability
Airtable Free vs Team: Key Differences
| Feature | Free | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Records per base | 1,000 | 50,000 |
| Attachment storage | 1 GB | 20 GB |
| Automation runs | 100/month | 25,000/month |
| Editors per base | 5 | Unlimited |
| Revision history | 2 weeks | 6 months |
| Price | $0 | $20/seat/month |
Bottom Line
The Airtable free plan is a good starting point for personal projects, simple trackers, and evaluating whether Airtable fits your workflow. The 1,000 record limit and 100 automation runs per month are the two constraints you will hit first.
For any real team use or project that grows over time, the free plan becomes limiting quickly. At that point, the Team plan at $20/seat/month is the natural upgrade path.
→ See full Airtable pricing breakdown → Airtable Free vs Paid: Is upgrading worth it? → Best Airtable Alternatives if you’ve outgrown the free plan