EssentialsData Sources

Airtable

Integrate Airtable databases with your app.
25,000 Row Limit on Spreadsheet Data Sources

Rows from spreadsheet data sources have a total cap of 25,000 rows across all tables. If you need more than 25,000 rows of data in a team, consider a high-scale data source like Big Tables.

Airtable is a spreadsheet-database hybrid with the features of a database but applied to a spreadsheet. Your apps can be integrated with Airtable bases, offering you a more robust approach to data management that you may not find in simple spreadsheets.

Airtable is available as a data source for Business and Enterprise customers. Browse our plans to find the right first for you.

How to connect Airtable with Glide

Airtable user must stay in Glide team

Before adding your Airtable base, decide who in your Glide team will control the integration. This Glide user account needs to be part of the team as long as you are using Airtable and cannot be changed or removed. Any updates to the Airtable connection must be performed by this same team member.

1

To create a new app, click on New app in your dashboard.

2

Select Airtable as the data source, then Continue.

3

Select Connect to Airtable to give Glide access to your Airtable.

4

Sign in to Airtable, click on Add a base, add the Airtable base(s), and then Grant access.

5

Select the base you want to use for your app and click Create Page to create your new app.

6

If you want to add more data sources later, you can do it in the Data Editor.

The sheets or tables in your base are added as individual Tabs to the Layout Editor and individual Tables in the Data Editor.

Sync data between Airtable and Glide

Glide and Airtable differ in how they manage data, which may impact how the data syncs across both platforms.

Views

Airtable allows you to create different ways to view your information. This means you can switch seamlessly between looking at your data as rows in a grid, cards on a kanban board, or even events on a calendar. Each view has its own layout, sorting, filtering, grouping, and more.

When connecting your bases to Glide, keep in mind that any filters applied to an Airtable view will not be transferred to your app. For example, if you have a filter in Airtable that hides empty rows, those empty rows will appear in your data in Glide.

It’s best practice to keep at least one view in your Airtable base that has no filters or customizations. This way, you can see all the records in that base and know what will be brought into Glide.

Columns vs. fields

In Glide, data is arranged in columns. In Airtable, these are called fields. Airtable allows you to create many different types of fields, but Glide doesn’t support all of them.

All field types transfer to Glide, except for the Button type.

Basic vs. user-specific columns

The Airtable API does not allow Glide to add new fields to your Airtable base. Because of this, any new basic columns (e.g., Text, Number) you create in Glide will not appear in Airtable. Instead, they will become user-specific columns that are only accessible in the Data Editor in Glide.

It’s recommended to add new basic columns directly to Airtable rather than Glide if you want to keep both data sources in sync. Once you add a new column to the Airtable base and save, you’ll be automatically prompted to refresh your app’s data to update it.

In Glide, data is connected using Relation columns. In Airtable, these same connections are called Links. When you create a link in your Airtable base, it will show up in Glide as a Relation column.

You can use that data just like you would a normal relation. However, you will not be able to configure it in Glide since the configuration for the link/relation is set in Airtable. Connecting columns between data sources.

Attachments

Starting November 8th, 2022, Airtable introduced expiring links for all attachments stored in Airtable. This means that URLs for attachments stored in Airtable will expire every few hours. You can read Airtable’s full announcement here.

As a result of this change, attachments stored in Airtable bases connected to Glide will be automatically stored in Glide, so that these attachments remain accessible to users of Glide apps. These attachments count toward your Glide team’s file storage quota.

Exceeding your file storage quota can result in your Glide apps becoming inaccessible to users until you upgrade to a higher plan. Removing an Airtable base from your Glide team (e.g. by deleting apps that use it) will free up storage space within minutes, and unused attachments are removed from Glide within 72 hours.

On your team’s dashboard, you can navigate to the Usage page to check how much file storage your team is currently using.

Learn Airtable

If you’re new to Airtable, check out the resources below to get you started.

Frequently Asked Questions

Airtable API keys are being deprecated. As of January 4, 2024, if you did not already have an API key configured, you will not be able to add one. Users who had already set up API keys will be able to edit them.

If you need to re-authenticate for any reason, you can follow our guide here.