Airtable AI Pricing: Credits, Cobuilder, and What the Free Tier Actually Gets You
Airtable launched AI features in 2025 with a credit-based pricing model that is independent of your plan tier. Every plan includes some free credits, but the amounts vary significantly: 500 on Free versus 25,000 per paid user on Enterprise. Credits do not roll over, additional packs cost $40/month, and the consumption per operation varies wildly depending on what you are asking the AI to do. This is the complete guide to Airtable's AI pricing, including real-world consumption models that Airtable's documentation does not provide.
AI Credits by Plan
Free
500
credits/mo
Team
15,000
credits/mo per paid user
Business
20,000
credits/mo per paid user
Enterprise
25,000
credits/mo per paid user
Credits do not roll over. Unused credits at the end of your billing cycle are lost. Additional credit packs: $40/month for 20,000 credits.
What Consumes AI Credits
| Operation | Credits/Operation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Simple categorization | 5-10 | Classify a record into predefined categories |
| Sentiment analysis | 5-10 | Determine positive/negative/neutral tone |
| Short text generation | 10-15 | Generate a brief description or title |
| Text summarization | 10-20 | Summarize long-form content |
| Long-form generation | 20-50 | Generate paragraphs of content |
| Document analysis | 50-200 | Analyze uploaded PDFs or documents |
| Deep research | 100-300 | Multi-step research with source synthesis |
| Image generation | 25-50 | Create images from text prompts |
| Cobuilder (simple app) | 100-200 | Generate a basic app from a text prompt |
| Cobuilder (complex app) | 300-500 | Generate a multi-table app with automations |
| Field Agent (per task) | 10-50 | AI agent performing a multi-step field operation |
Credit consumption varies based on input size, output length, and model used. These are estimates based on typical usage patterns.
Cobuilder: What It Does and What It Costs
Cobuilder is Airtable's natural-language app generator. You describe what you want ("a project tracker with tasks, deadlines, team assignments, and a Kanban view") and Cobuilder generates the entire base structure including tables, fields, views, and sample data. It is Airtable's most impressive AI feature and also its most credit-hungry.
A simple Cobuilder request (single table, basic fields) costs 100-200 credits. A complex request (multiple linked tables, custom views, automation suggestions) can consume 300-500 credits. On the Free plan with 500 credits, you get roughly 1-2 Cobuilder operations per month before exhausting your entire allocation. On Team with 15,000 credits, you could run 30-150 Cobuilder operations monthly, though most users use Cobuilder infrequently for initial setup rather than ongoing operations.
The real ongoing credit consumption comes from AI fields (categorization, summarization, generation applied to every record in a table) and Field Agents (AI performing multi-step operations). A table with 1,000 records and an AI categorization field consuming 5 credits per record uses 5,000 credits when the field is initially populated. Each new record added subsequently consumes another 5 credits. This is where credit budgets get strained.
Practical Credit Consumption Models
Real-world scenarios showing how quickly different usage patterns consume AI credits.
Support ticket categorization
2,500/mo500 support tickets per month, each auto-categorized (5 credits/ticket). This fits within Team's 15,000 allowance with plenty of room. Most light AI users fall into this category.
Content summarization
5,000/mo500 blog posts or articles summarized monthly at 10 credits each. Fits within Team but consumes a third of the allowance, leaving less room for other AI operations.
Weekly base summaries
1,000/moGenerating 10 weekly summary reports from 10 bases, each consuming roughly 25 credits for aggregation and synthesis. Minimal impact on any paid plan's allowance.
Document analysis pipeline
15,000/mo150 documents per month analyzed at 100 credits each. Exhausts Team's full allocation. Requires Business (20,000) or an additional credit pack ($40/month for 20,000).
AI-powered data enrichment
25,000/mo5,000 records per month enriched with AI-generated fields (categorization + summary + tags) at 5 credits per operation. Exceeds all plan allocations. Requires Business + one credit pack, or Enterprise.
Heavy Cobuilder + Field Agents
40,000/moRegular app prototyping with Cobuilder (10 apps/month at 300 credits each = 3,000) plus Field Agents processing 2,000 records daily at 10 credits each (600,000/month). This level requires Enterprise + multiple credit packs.
When to Buy Additional Credit Packs
Additional credit packs cost $40/month for 20,000 credits. This is sometimes cheaper than upgrading to the next plan tier. For example, if you are on Team (15,000 credits included) and need 25,000 credits, buying one credit pack ($40/month) is cheaper than upgrading to Business ($25/seat/month more). The break-even depends on your team size and whether you need Business features beyond AI credits.
For a single-seat user on Team ($20/month + $40 pack = $60/month for 35,000 credits) versus Business ($45/month for 20,000 credits), the credit pack route provides nearly twice the credits for only $15 more. For multi-seat teams, the math shifts: a 10-seat team on Team + pack costs $240/month, while Business costs $450/month but includes SSO, admin panel, and more records. Evaluate based on total feature needs, not just credits.
AI Features and Nonprofit/Education Discounts
Important caveat: AI credits and the Omni AI add-on are not included in Airtable's nonprofit and education discounts. Nonprofit organizations on the discounted Team plan ($12/user/month instead of $20) receive the standard 15,000 AI credits per month, but additional credit packs are billed at the full $40/month rate. This means AI-heavy nonprofit use cases may find the cost savings from the discount partially offset by AI credit pack purchases.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many AI credits does Airtable Free include?
Airtable Free includes 500 AI credits per month. Credits do not roll over. This is enough for roughly 50-100 simple AI operations (categorization, summarization) or 10-20 complex operations (document analysis, long-form generation). Most casual users will not exhaust 500 credits, but teams using AI fields across large datasets will quickly need more.
How much do additional Airtable AI credits cost?
Additional AI credit packs cost $40 per month for 20,000 credits. This is a flat add-on that applies to any plan. Credits in purchased packs also do not roll over. At $40 for 20,000 credits, the effective rate is $0.002 per credit. Compare this to the included credits: Business plan at $45/seat includes 20,000 credits, making the add-on pack equivalent in value to the base plan's AI allocation.
What consumes Airtable AI credits?
Credit consumption varies by operation type and complexity. Simple categorization or sentiment analysis uses 5-10 credits per operation. Text summarization uses 10-20 credits. Document analysis and deep research can use 50-200 credits per operation. Image generation uses 25-50 credits. Cobuilder (app generation from prompts) uses 100-500 credits depending on complexity.
Are AI credits included in the nonprofit discount?
No. AI credits and the Omni AI add-on are explicitly excluded from Airtable's nonprofit and education discounts. Nonprofit organizations on the discounted Team plan ($12/user/month) receive the standard 15,000 AI credits per month but cannot receive discounted additional credit packs. This is an important caveat for budget-conscious nonprofits considering AI features.