Airtable

Overview

The Airtable API turns your Airtable bases into a RESTful data store — list, create, update, and delete records in tables, manage fields, and build apps on top of a spreadsheet-like database. Auth is a personal access token (or legacy API key).

Quick Start

A personal access token is required (create at airtable.com/create/tokens):

# List records in a table:
curl "https://api.airtable.com/v0/BASE_ID/TABLE_NAME" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

With filtering and pagination:

curl "https://api.airtable.com/v0/BASE_ID/TABLE_NAME?filterByFormula=NOT({Status}%3D'Done')&pageSize=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

Create a record:

curl -X POST "https://api.airtable.com/v0/BASE_ID/TABLE_NAME" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"fields": {"Name": "New item", "Status": "Todo"}}'

Update a record:

curl -X PATCH "https://api.airtable.com/v0/BASE_ID/TABLE_NAME/RECORD_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"fields": {"Status": "Done"}}'

Authentication

• Create a personal access token at airtable.com/create/tokens (scoped per base).
• Send it as Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN.
• Base ID is in the API docs for your base (https://airtable.com/{baseId}/api).

Rate Limits & Notes

• Rate limit: 5 requests/second per base (cached/auth’d apps can go higher).
• Bases over 1,000 records need pagination (offset param in responses).
• filterByFormula uses Airtable formula syntax (URL-encode it).
• The metadata API (/v0/meta/bases) lists your bases and schemas.

FAQ

Is Airtable API free? Yes — the API is free within rate limits on any plan.

How do I get a token? airtable.com/create/tokens → create a scoped personal access token.

How do I filter records? filterByFormula=... with URL-encoded Airtable formula syntax.