Finding the sum of fields in Airtable

Finding the sum of fields in Airtable overview

Note

If your goal is to quickly view a field's total without using it in another formula, toggle on the “Sum function” in the summary bar at the bottom of a grid view. No additional fields are needed.

Because formulas in Airtable apply only to fields within the same record, it's not possible to create a standalone formula in one record that references values across other records. Instead, summing field values requires a combination of a linked record field and a rollup field.

There are 2 approaches depending on the goal:

• Sum all records in a field — Link every record to a single calculation record, then use a rollup field to total them

• Sum a subset of records — Link only the relevant records to a calculation record, then roll up just those values

Finding the sum of fields in Airtable

Step 1: Create a linked record field in the Values table

1. Open your Airtable home screen.

2. Open the base that contains the records that you want to sum.

3. Click + at the end of the field headers in the “Values” table to add a new field.

4. Select “Linked to another table” as the field type.

5. Choose Create a new table and name it “Calc” (short for Calculation).

6. Click Save.

Step 2: Link every record to a single record in the Calc table

1. In the “Values” table, click the first cell in the new linked record field.

2. Click + to create a new linked record and name it “All.”

3. Click the second cell in the linked record field.

4. Select the “All” record.

5. Repeat for each remaining record or use the fill handle to populate all cells with the “All” record.

Step 3: Add a rollup field in the Calc table

1. Navigate to the “Calc” table.

2. Click + to add a new field.

3. Select “Rollup” as the field type.

4. Under "Linked table field to summarize," select the linked record field from the “Values” table.

5. Under "Summarize by," choose the number field to total.

6. In the formula box, enter “SUM(values).”

7. Click Save.

The rollup field in the “All” record now displays the total of every value in the linked number field.

Sum a subset of records

Note

A single record in the “Values” table can be linked to more than 1 record in the “Calc” table, which allows the same value to appear in multiple calculations.

To calculate the total of only certain records, link those records to a separate record in the Calc table rather than the All record.

1. In the “Calc” table, create a new record and give it a descriptive name (for example, “Q1 Total”).

2. In the “Values” table, click the linked record field for each record to include in the subset.

3. Select the new record (“Q1 Total”)) instead of “All.”

4. The rollup field in the Calc table will display a separate total for each calculation record.

FAQs