Adding Data

Now that we have a table with structured fields, it's time to add our data! In this section, I'll cover four primary options:

Manual data entry
Building a form
Uploading a spreadsheet
Creating records via the Airtable API

Manual Data Entry

Enter Data in Grid View

Manually entering data in a grid view will be familiar to anyone who has used Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or another spreadsheet program. Just click a cell and begin typing. If you're input does not match the required data type (e.g. you enter a string into a number field), Airtable will display an error message.

message reaing "Please enter a number" displaying under a cell of an Airtable base

Enter Data into an Expanded Record

A secondary option for manual data entry is the expanded record view. This can be accessed by clicking the "expand" arrows that appear on hover at the left end of the primary field. The expanded record view opens up a pop-up window with the record's fields organized vertically, providing a focused view of just the record you're working with. This makes it a nice option for data entry.

In the expanded record view, you can also find record's revision history, comments left by collaborators, and links to share, print, duplicate, and delete the record.

Build a Form

If you would like to guide your users through the data entry process, you can also create a form. Using Airtable's form builder, you can select which fields to display, require specific fields, set default values, and set a character limit (with a Team plan or higher).

Forms can be shared with individuals who do not have Airtable access, making them a good option for crowdsourcing data or reducing the number of collaborators on paid plans.

Airtable forms do have important limits. They can only input data into one table at a time, and they do not have conditional logic. If you need a more robust option for data entry forms, you may consider a tool like Fillout that can integrate with Airtable.

Airtable form builder, displaying options for field appearance and rules

Upload a Spreadsheet

Airtable provides support for uploading plain text CSV, Google Sheets, and Microsoft Excel files. To upload a file, click "+ Add or import" next to the last table in the base, and select the appropriate source. For this tutorial, we'll upload the paired down CSV file from Zotero.

After uploading, you can choose to add the data to a new or existing table. In our case, we'll add the CSV data for our books table. This will bring up an interface for configuring the import.

Because our CSV file has the same headers, Airtable should automatically map all the fields (except for the auto-generated ID field), but you should also confirm that these mappings are correct by selecting "Map Fields" in the lower left-hand corner.

In the bottom right-hand corner, you will find another menu pop-up called "Other Settings." Here, you can change how Airtable handles header rows and select options. Because we don't have any select fields, we can leave the latter option alone. But we do want to turn on the option to exclude the first row on import. Otherwise, Airtable would create a record for our headers.

Once you've confirmed your import settings, click import and wait for Airtable to process the CSV files (this may take some time).

Airtable CSV import wizard with option selected to "Exclude first row in import"

Create Records via Airtable API

Airtable's API uses JSON objects to represent Airtable records. Through the REST API, you get, update, create, and delete records. Pro and Enterprise plans can also sync CSV data containing up to 10K rows.

Airtable's official API client is a Javascript library, and there are community built API clients for Ruby, .NET, and Python.

API access is authenticated using Personal Access Tokens, which can be created in Airtable's "Builder Hub." As of May 2025, the API is limited to 5 requests per second per base, and monthly rate limits vary by plan level, starting with 1,000 calls per month on the free plan.

See Airtable's API Documentation for more information on creating records.

Other Integrations

Airtable also supports integrations with more than 25 other services and data types including XML, Microsoft Access, Google Drive, Asana, Jira, Miro, Trello, and Tableau. However, the availability of these integrations vary by plan level.