What is the Airtable Record Limit?
An Airtable "record" is equivalent to one row in your spreadsheet. Airtable limits the number of records per base as part of its pricing model.
For example, the Free plan allows users to have a maximum of 1000 records in each base.
Record Limits by Plan
Airtable has the following record limits for each of its available plans:
Free - 1,000 records per base
Team ($20/seat/mo) - 50,000 records per base
Business ($45/seat/mo) - 125,000 records per base
Enterprise - 500,000 records per base
You can view Airtable's various plans on their pricing page. For more detailed information about each plan, you can refer to the Airtable documentation.
What happens if I go over the Airtable record limit?
If one of your bases surpasses Airtable's record limit, you'll notice a warning banner in your app. This banner will prompt you to upgrade to a more appropriate plan. Additionally, you will no longer be able to add new records to the base that is over the limit.
In general, Airtable is fairly lenient about surpassing the record limit as long as you aren't too significantly over.
What to Expect of Airtable's Record Limits in the Future
Over the last few years, Airtable has significantly increased its record limits and performance. Previously, Airtable bases used to slow down considerably after ~30,000 records. Now Enterprise bases can handle 500,000 records.
Airtable plans to continue targeting higher-end customers, so it will probably continue improving its handling of large amounts of data. It is not confirmed yet if record limits will change. However, the overall trajectory is definitely good for Airtable users who have a lot of records.
What to Do if You Hit Your Record Limit
If you reach Airtable's record limit, the best solution is to upgrade to a higher plan. This plan will be able to handle the number of records you have.
If you can't afford it, you can use spreadsheets like Gigasheet for handling big datasets.
Alternatively, you can use a tool like Whalesync to sync Airtable with a Postgres database. Postgres can manage large amounts of data, so you can store all your records in Postgres. Then, you can sync only a portion of the data to Airtable for easy access.
If you're interested in learning more about how to sync Airtable and Postgres you can book a demo of Whalesync here.
Conclusion
That's everything there is to know about Airtable's record limits. Go forth and prosper.