Airtable makes it easy to get started with data from an existing CSV file, Google Sheet, or Excel Workbook. This article covers creating a new base by uploading a CSV file or pasting cell data directly from a spreadsheet program. For other import options, please see these articles: 

• Import CSV data into an existing base
• Import data from Google Sheets
• Import data from Microsoft Excel

You can also add new records to an existing table in your base from a CSV file using the CSV import app (available to pro and enterprise customers). 

Importing data from a CSV file

To import an existing spreadsheet or CSV, open the new base dialog by clicking the New Base icon:

Clicking this button will open a dialog with three options—click the option to Import a spreadsheet.

This will open the "Import data" dialog.

To import a CSV file, just click the "CSV file" button.

Then, in the Choose a CSV file dialog, click the "Choose a .CSV file" button.

From the attachment upload dialog, you can select a CSV file from your computer (or from a variety of other supported services). Note that there is currently a 5MB limit on CSV uploads.

Importing data by pasting from a spreadsheet

In a spreadsheet application, select a range of cells and copy them using ⌘ + C.

In the Import data dialog, click the "Paste table data" button.

You can then paste that data into the text box in the Paste table data dialog using ⌘ + V.

Preview your pasted data

You will be shown a preview of the header cells that will be created in your new base based on the pasted data.

If the first row in the pasted table is not a header, you can uncheck the "First record is a header" option, and every row pasted in will be added as records to the table.

Cleaning up the data

Once you've imported your CSV or pasted data, a new base will appear called Imported Base.

After clicking into the base, you'll see a table comprised of single-line text fields. To get the most out of Airtable, we highly recommend that you take the time to convert fields from single line text fields to other field types, where appropriate. Some examples of conversions you might wish to make:

• Changing a field containing numbers into a number field
• Changing a field containing lists of tags into a multiple select field
• Changing a field containing long paragraphs of text into a long text field
• Changing a field containing values that are important enough to warrant their own table into a linked record field (which will create a new table)

Converting text fields with commas

An important thing to note if you want to convert a field from a single line text field into a multiple select field or linked record field is that Airtable will read commas as separators and create an appropriate number of select tokens/links based on the number of commas.

This means that if you wish to create a link to a record with a comma in its name, you will need to delimit the desired record name with quotation marks.

So if you wanted to create a single record for the city of Denver, CO, you would need to delimit the text strings with double quotation marks so that "Denver, CO" becomes a single record, [Denver, CO], rather than two records, [Denver] and [CO].