Airtable licensing is the set of terms under which Formagrid Inc, doing business as Airtable, sells its cloud platform for building relational databases, interfaces and automations. Airtable is delivered only as a hosted service, with browser, desktop and mobile apps. It is sold in plans named Free, Team, Business and Enterprise Scale, and the unit of charge is the collaborator seat rather than a processor, device or record.[1][2] The Terms of Service describe a “Subscription Plan” that can be free or paid, set for a Subscription Term, and renewed automatically.[3]
Three features make Airtable different from many per-user SaaS products and are the focus of this set of articles. First, bills are connected to a workspace rather than an account, so one company can have several workspaces on different plans.[2][4] Second, whether a person is a seat depends on the permission level they hold on any workspace, base or interface, so the number of billable seats can differ from the number of people who log in.[4] Third, usage allotments such as records, API calls, automations and AI credits are plan limits that cap or block use instead of being billed in arrears, although the Terms of Service allow overages to be invoiced.[1][3]
Editions
Airtable’s help centre describes two plan types. Self-serve plans, which are bought and managed in the product with monthly or annual billing, are Free, Team, self-serve Business, Non-profit, Student and Education. Sales-led plans, which are built with Airtable’s sales team, are sales-led Business and Enterprise Scale.[2][5]
| Plan | Who buys it | List price shown |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Individuals and very small teams | No charge[1] |
| Team | Teams building shared workflows | 20 US dollars per user per month billed annually, or 24 monthly[2] |
| Business (self-serve) | Departments needing admin features | 45 per user per month billed annually, or 54 monthly[2] |
| Business (sales-led) | Larger departments | By quote[2] |
| Enterprise Scale | Organization-wide deployments | Custom pricing[1] |
Business and Enterprise Scale require a private email domain, so public domains such as Gmail or Yahoo cannot be used to upgrade.[2] Airtable also states that existing customers on its legacy Enterprise plan see no changes until renewal, when the account team discusses plan options.[1] The plans, limits and trials article covers each plan in depth.
Metrics
The main licensing metric is the billable collaborator. On Team, workspace Owners, Creators, Editors and Commenters count, as do base and interface collaborators with those permissions who can reach at least one base or interface in the shared workspace. On self-serve Business only Owners, Creators and Editors count.[4] Read-only collaborators, anyone using a shared view link, and form submitters are not counted on paid plans, and on the Free plan all users are free.[1][4]
A second metric is the AI credit, a monthly pooled allowance. Free plans receive 500 credits per user with Editor permission and above, Team plans 15000 per billable collaborator, Business plans 20000 per paid user and Enterprise Scale plans 25000 per paid user at list price.[6] A third group is the usage limits per base or workspace: records, attachment storage, API calls and automations.[2] See collaborators, seats and billing and Terms of Service and AI credits.
Counting and floors
Counting is by permission, not by login. A person who appears non-billable in the workspace collaborator list can be billable through base or interface access.[4] Charges are prorated for users added part-way through a month, but on an annual plan a newly added billable collaborator is charged for the full remaining annual contract, and removing a collaborator mid-cycle does not reduce the current invoice.[1][4]
Airtable states no minimum seat count in the retrieved documents. The Free plan allows unlimited Read only collaborators but only 5 collaborators with Editor or Creator permission and 50 with Commenter permission per workspace.[2]
Virtualization and partitioning
Not applicable. There is no installable server product, and the documents contain no processor, core or virtual-machine metric.
Cloud and BYOL
There is no bring-your-own-licence program. Software distributed with the Services, such as apps and extensions, is licensed under a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right during the Subscription Term, solely as reasonably necessary to use the Services.[3] Airtable may assign the Terms without restriction, while customers need written consent to do so.[3]
Programs
- Team trial. The first workspace of a new account receives a 14-day complimentary Team trial; adding a payment method during the trial upgrades the workspace and starts billing.[2]
- Discounts. Non-profits receive 50 percent off the monthly Team cost, students may receive a free Team workspace for 6 to 24 months, and educational institution employees may receive 50 percent off.[2]
- Referral credits. Airtable credits earned by referrals offset Free and Team bills but are not available on Business or Enterprise Scale.[7]
- Legacy plans. Plus and Pro plans that pre-date 2023-08-23 moved to Team in September 2023.[8]
- AI credit packs. Additional monthly credits can be purchased in packs.[6]
Audits and compliance
The Terms of Service contain no customer licence-audit clause in the retrieved version. Compliance is enforced by plan mechanics: seat counts are recalculated at each billing cycle, usage limits block or cap use, and the Terms allow overages to be included in a true-up invoice.[4][3] The only audit right in the Terms applies to developers: Airtable reserves the right to audit a developer’s Extensions to determine whether they violate the Terms.[3] Late payments incur a 1.5 percent monthly service charge or the legal maximum if lower, plus collection costs.[3]
Renewal and cancellation
Paid plans renew automatically for terms equal to the original term at the price in force on the renewal date, and the customer must cancel before the end of the term in Account Settings.[3] A cancelling customer generally receives no refund for the current term; customers in the European Union or Turkey may cancel within 14 days of purchase for a refund.[3] Downgrades take effect at the end of the current billing cycle, and declined payments automatically downgrade a paid workspace to Free.[5]
Out of scope
This set does not cover the Privacy Policy, the Acceptable Use Policy, the Developer Terms or HIPAA-specific terms, and it does not compare Airtable with other products.[3]