Airtable Record Limit: Records Per Base by Plan (2026)
Airtable limits how many records you can store in a single base, and the cap depends on your plan: 1,000 records on Free, 50,000 on Team, 125,000 on Business, and roughly 500,000 on Enterprise Scale. The count is per base, not per table, so every table in the base shares the same pool.
The Limits at a Glance
Records per base by plan (Airtable plans overview)
- Free: 1,000
- Team: 50,000
- Business: 125,000
- Enterprise Scale: ~500,000 (sales-led; not published on the public plans page)
Attachment storage per base (Airtable plans overview)
- Free: 1 GB
- Team: 20 GB
- Business: 100 GB
- Enterprise Scale: 1,000 GB (per Airtable sales documentation)
API limits
- Calls per workspace per month: Free 1,000 / Team 100,000 / Business + Enterprise Scale unlimited (Airtable plans overview)
- Rate limit: 5 requests per second, per base, across all tiers; exceed it and you get a 429 with a 30-second cooldown (Managing API call limits)
Records Per Base vs. Records Per Table
The limit applies to the base, not to any single table. Airtable counts records cumulatively across every table in the base. Two tables with 25,000 records each total 50,000, which is the entire Team allowance (Airtable plans overview).
That trips people up because spreadsheet thinking assumes each tab is independent. In Airtable, splitting data into more tables does not buy you more headroom. If you need separate pools, you need separate bases. When you hit the cap, your data stays intact and readable, but you cannot add new records or attachments until you upgrade or free up space (Airtable pricing FAQ).
How to Work Within (or Beyond) the Record Limit
- Split data across bases. Each base gets its own record allowance, so a per-client or per-year base resets the count. Use synced tables (Team and up) to share a view across bases without duplicating the records.
- Archive cold records. Move completed or stale rows out to a CSV or an external store and delete them from the base. Deleted records free up the count immediately.
- Watch attachments separately. Storage and record count are independent caps. A base can hit 1 GB of attachments on Free long before it reaches 1,000 records, so route files to Drive or Dropbox and store links instead.
- Throttle your API writes. Bulk imports often blow past the 5 req/sec per-base limit and stall on 429s. Batch up to 10 records per request and add backoff.
- Upgrade only when you actually need it. Jumping from Team to Business is a 2.5x record increase (50,000 to 125,000) but more than doubles the per-user price, so confirm you need the records, not just the higher API ceiling.
Troubleshooting
Why does Airtable say my base is full when each table is small?
The cap is per base, not per table. Airtable adds up records across all tables, so several modest tables can collectively exceed your plan’s limit (Airtable plans overview).
Will Airtable delete my data if I go over the limit?
No. You keep full read access and your data is never removed. You simply cannot add new records or attachments until you upgrade or delete enough to drop back under the cap (Airtable pricing FAQ).
Does the record limit count deleted or hidden records?
Only records currently in your tables count. Deleting records (and emptying them from trash) lowers your usage; hiding fields or filtering views does not change the count.
What happens when I hit the API rate limit?
Airtable returns a 429 error and expects your integration to wait 30 seconds before retrying. The 5 requests-per-second ceiling is per base and applies on every plan (Managing API call limits).
Quick Reference
| Plan | Records per base | Attachment storage | API calls/workspace/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 1,000 | 1 GB | 1,000 |
| Team | 50,000 | 20 GB | 100,000 |
| Business | 125,000 | 100 GB | Unlimited |
| Enterprise Scale | ~500,000 | 1,000 GB | Unlimited |
If you bump into these caps because Airtable has quietly become your operations hub, an AI assistant can keep the data flowing without manual cleanup. Carly is an AI executive assistant that lives in your inbox and calendar, connects to Airtable, and can create, update, and archive records on a schedule so a single base stays under its limit. It starts at $35/month, and the point is reliability: it runs the same housekeeping every day without you babysitting it. Try it from the Carly dashboard.
Related guides: Notion Alternatives · Best AI Agents for Productivity
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