Adding, duplicating, and deleting Airtable records

Updated on 01 May 2023
2 Minutes to read

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Article Summary

A record is an individual item in a table. Records are the basic unit of data that are pulled into various views and interfaces.

Introduction

Plan availability	All plan types/levels
Permissions	Owners/Creators and Collaborators with editor permissions
Platform(s)	Web/Browser, Mac app, and Windows app
Related reading	Add data with records
Airtable terminology	Record - A record is an individual item in a table. Records are the basic unit of data that are pulled into various views and interfaces. Record details -In interfaces, record details can be opened from a record, and can include all of the information in all of the fields for a single record in a full-size page or modal. Record details can also include any comments made on the record, and several possible record-level actions.

Adding records

To add a record:

Visit your Airtable homepage.
Click Create a base or open an existing base.
Once inside your base, click the + icon in the bottom-left corner of your bases’ table.

Note

Alternatively, records can be added by clicking the + icon at the bottom of your base or by right-clicking on any record and selecting Insert record above/below.

Duplicating records

To duplicate a record:

Visit your Airtable homepage.
Open your preferred base.
Right-click on the record you want to duplicate and select Duplicate record.

Note

Alternatively, records can be duplicated by selecting a record, clicking the Ctrl/Option key, and dragging and releasing the record.

Deleting and archiving records

To delete a record:

Visit your Airtable homepage.
Open your preferred base.
Right-click on the record you want to delete and select Delete record.

Note

To delete multiple records simultaneously, select the checkboxes next to the records you intended to delete, then right-click and click Delete all selected records.

Note

After deleting a record, it will temporarily be available in your workspace trash for 7 days. Learn more about base and workspace trash in our Trash for deleted bases and workspaces article.

To archive a record:

Instead of deleting records, you can archive records by applying filtering conditions to your views to hide content that is no longer relevant.

Suppose any records are updated to match your archive filter criteria. In that case, those records will automatically appear in the archived records view. They will no longer be visible in any views which exclude archived records. We recommend reviewing our Advanced filtering using conditions article for more on customizing your filtering conditions with condition groups.

Note

Keep in mind that archiving doesn’t free up record limits. We recommend checking our records limits article for additional context.

We do not currently offer the ability to archive a base, but you can remove a base from your workspace by deleting it.

FAQs

What is the best way to duplicate a record multiple times?

Records can be duplicated using the fill handle.

Is it possible to merge records?

We recommend using the dedupe extension or this delete duplicates script to merge, delete, and duplicate records.

Can I delete records using an automation?

At this time the only way to delete a record using an automation is to do so via the Run a script action.

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What's Next

Expanding records

Table of contents

Introduction
Adding records
Duplicating records 
Deleting and archiving records 
FAQs