I have an airtable base with member data, including a table with basic member data and another table with scheduling selections each member makes that I then use a look up to connect. With over 50K schedule requests, I've been "over" the record limit in my base for a while. I now can't seem to add more and have hit a hard cap. Enterprise pricing is out of reach, I don't want to delete historical data because the members' usage over time is important data, and it seems like I can't separate the tables into two bases and connect them the same way using a look up. Is there any solution here or am I out of luck? 🥲
Solved
Too many records for base
+2Best answer by Ron_Williams
The 50K record limit is per table, not per base. I separate entries by year or quarter in separate tables, linked them all to a master table (in my case it was sales linked to a customer list) and used a combination of roll up fields and formula fields to give me the info I needed like last purchase date, total spent, total purchases, etc. At this time, I have 298K records between 11 tables in the same base. It does take a bit to load, but you can speed up viewing data by using an interface. If you have any questions about doing this let me know.
+12The 50K record limit is per table, not per base. I separate entries by year or quarter in separate tables, linked them all to a master table (in my case it was sales linked to a customer list) and used a combination of roll up fields and formula fields to give me the info I needed like last purchase date, total spent, total purchases, etc. At this time, I have 298K records between 11 tables in the same base. It does take a bit to load, but you can speed up viewing data by using an interface. If you have any questions about doing this let me know.
+35On the Pro Plan, the record limit is actually 50,000 records per base (not table). So I'm not sure how you were able to get 298,000 records in a base! That's pretty cool, though!
- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant
+12On the Pro Plan, the record limit is actually 50,000 records per base (not table). So I'm not sure how you were able to get 298,000 records in a base! That's pretty cool, though!
- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant
50K hard limit per table not base.
+2The 50K record limit is per table, not per base. I separate entries by year or quarter in separate tables, linked them all to a master table (in my case it was sales linked to a customer list) and used a combination of roll up fields and formula fields to give me the info I needed like last purchase date, total spent, total purchases, etc. At this time, I have 298K records between 11 tables in the same base. It does take a bit to load, but you can speed up viewing data by using an interface. If you have any questions about doing this let me know.
Holy heck, I had no idea this was a workaround. I just made a separate table and added the scheduling selections I couldn't add before there. I still have to make a bunch of new roll ups & formulas to combine the data from the two tables, which is a bit annoying. I have a bunch of columns to pull "last submission" / "first submission" / "last month submitted" etc from the linked table... and now I need to basically duplicate that for the new table and then combine the sets of data via another bunch of columns... but I'm excited to have a way to get all the data in one base regardless! Thank you!
+35@Ron_Williams It looks like Airtable isn't strictly enforcing their records limits that they list on their pricing page. I'm just curious -- are you on a Pro workspace or an Enterprise workspace? On Airtable's pricing page, Enterprise workspaces have a stated limit of 250,000 records per base (with a maximum of 100,000 records per table). Pro workspaces have a stated limit of 50,000 records for the entire base.
- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant
+35Oh, never mind... from your screenshot, I can tell that you're on a Pro Plan. That's pretty amazing!
- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant
+24This is also news to me. Did Airtable get their base and table terminology wrong in their workspace settings? 🤦🏻
... either way, I can't help but wonder - Just because we can, doesn't mean we should. 250,000+ records in a single base, I reckon there be dragons there! 🐉
+35Totally agree with @Karlstens! if they start strictly enforcing the actual limit, there could be problems. And even if they don’t enforce the limit, their infrastructure may not be able to handle that many records.
- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant
+12I believe the limits are there for maximum efficacy, similar to the attachment limit or API limits. The base does take longer to load the more records you have and the initial slow loading can be annoying at times. That being said, Ive been using bases over the limits (and pushing the limits of Airtable) for almost 3 years now. With the exception of slower initial loading time, I have not experienced any unexpected gremlins.
I feel like there are workarounds for almost all of the airtable limits. For example, I have 7 pro accounts that I switch all of my bases between throughout the month because I have several hundred thousand automations that run each month and when an account reaches the 50K run limit, I switch the bases to another account. It's a 10 minute inconvenience, but still hundreds cheaper a month than enterprise.
I agree this is probably not best practice and as @ScottWorld said that may enforce the limits someday which will cause problems. I guess it all depends on use case. For me, this base is historical data that could be on an excel spreadsheet. I just prefer it being in Airtable.
+24Interestingly, I have a couple of test Bases within my Free Workspace that are over the limit.
Now... here's where it gets interesting. These bases have been over the limit sitting idle for almost a year. But now I've opened them to take a screenshot for this very thread... (just to show you what happens when I go over a limit within a workspace)
I think simply opening the base has triggered this process to kick off...
Sooo... something to consider. A dragon as such! Maybe it's different for a Pro workspace? I would 100% ask that question with support (and report back here 😜)
+2Interestingly, I have a couple of test Bases within my Free Workspace that are over the limit.
Now... here's where it gets interesting. These bases have been over the limit sitting idle for almost a year. But now I've opened them to take a screenshot for this very thread... (just to show you what happens when I go over a limit within a workspace)
I think simply opening the base has triggered this process to kick off...
Sooo... something to consider. A dragon as such! Maybe it's different for a Pro workspace? I would 100% ask that question with support (and report back here 😜)
I think they started cracking down like ~6 months or so ago, so this doesn't surprise me too much 🥲
+12@Karlstens You are correct. I keep my backups in a free base and, as of February, can no longer add records to those bases, but the records that are in there are still accessible. They have not yet cracked down on the Pro accounts but I'm sure they will sometime in the future. I wish they had an option just to upgrade the space instead of having to upgrade to enterprise, but they don't. I've asked...
Free Base:
Pro Base:
Free workspace:
Email when they cut off adding records:
+2@Karlstens You are correct. I keep my backups in a free base and, as of February, can no longer add records to those bases, but the records that are in there are still accessible. They have not yet cracked down on the Pro accounts but I'm sure they will sometime in the future. I wish they had an option just to upgrade the space instead of having to upgrade to enterprise, but they don't. I've asked...
Free Base:
Pro Base:
Free workspace:
Email when they cut off adding records:
I've been pressing on support about it because it's crazy that there's nothing between pro/enterprise and to get more space you need enterprise. they eventually told me enterprise is $75/user but I'm not sure if there's a minimum user size (they said it's usually for 20+ people). if they can give that $75/user pricing to people for the # of users they need (1 or 2 for a small company like mine), that may be worth it. but at a certain point it may still be inaccessible to many who don't really need the enterprise functionality but just need more space
+24Well @Taly_Matiteyahu I guess they heard you. Just got an email about the new plans...
@Ron_Williams- unless I'm mistaken, the new "Team" plan looks to be a downgrade of the existing/legacy "Professional" plan. The Automation Runs have been halved, so have the attachments. This feels like a bit of a bait and switch to me for those on Professional.
I feel that Team should have been upped to 100,000 records per base, and Business 250,000.
+6It is 100% a bait and switch. Legacy Pro users who helped the brand grow to this point are about to have their services reduced. Attachment/storage space is also getting cut in half.
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