Airtable collaborators can be given specific permissions that determine what they can and cannot edit in a workspace or base. Permissions are an important part of healthy team collaboration: with the right permissions, you can ensure that only certain people are permitted to change the information in your bases.

The different permission levels

A collaborator can be assigned one of five permission levels: owner, creator, editor, commenter, and read only.

Owner

If you are a workspace owner, you have all the permissions of a workspace creator, but can also modify billing settings and upgrade the workspace to a premium plan.

A few things to note about owners:

• You cannot be the owner of a base, only of a workspace.
• A workspace can have multiple owners.
• Only another owner can grant owner permissions.
• By default, the person who created the workspace is the owner.
• To change the owner from the default, you will need to ask the owner to make another person an owner. (After that, the new owner can remove the old owner's owner permissions or the old owner can remove their own owner permissions.)
• If you are the sole owner of a workspace with multiple members, you will need to transfer ownership of that workspace to another member before deleting your account.

Creator

If you are a creator, you have full access to the workspace or base that has been shared with you. Creator permissions differ slightly between workspace collaborators with creator permissions and base collaborators with creator permissions.

Creator permissions for workspace collaborators

As a workspace collaborator with creator permissions, you can:

• add, delete, modify, and comment on records in any base in the workspace
• add, delete, and modify views in any base in the workspace
  • exception: workspace collaborators with creator permissions can delete (but can neither add nor modify) other collaborators' personal views
• lock and unlock views in any base in the workspace
• add, delete, rename, and customize fields in any base in the workspace
• add, delete, and rename tables in any base in the workspace
• rename any base in the workspace
• add and delete bases in the workspace
• rearrange bases within the workspace
• move a base from the workspace to another workspace to which you have access
• rename the workspace
• add or modify the permission settings for yourself, other non-owner workspace collaborators, or any base collaborators on bases in the workspace
• create or remove workspace collaborator invite links for the workspace, at any non-owner permission level
• create or remove base collaborator invite links for any base(s) in the workspace, at any permission level

However, as a workspace collaborator with creator permissions, you cannot:

• adjust the billing settings or plan associated with the workspace
• give yourself owner permissions
• change the workspace owner or owners' permission levels

If you wish to perform any of the above actions, please contact your workspace owner.

Creator permissions for base collaborators

As a base collaborator with creator permissions, you can:

• add, delete, modify, and comment on records in the base that has been shared with you
• add, delete, and modify views in the base that has been shared with you
  • exception: base collaborators with creator permissions can delete (but can neither add nor modify) other collaborators' personal views in the base that has been shared with you
• lock and unlock views in the base that has been shared with you
• add, delete, rename, and customize fields in the base that has been shared with you
• add, delete, and rename tables in the base that has been shared with you
• rename the base that has been shared with you
• add or remove base collaborators at any permission level from the base that has been shared with you
• modify the permission levels for yourself or any other base collaborators on the base that has been shared with you
• create or remove a base collaborator invite link for the base that has been shared with you

However, as a base collaborator with creator permissions, you cannot:

• delete the base on which you are a base collaborator (you can only remove yourself from the base)
• modify the permission settings for any workspace collaborators with access to the base
• see or otherwise access any of the other bases on the workspace in which the shared base is located

If you wish to perform any of the above actions, please contact your workspace owner or a workspace collaborator with creator-level permissions.

Editor

Editors have a restricted set of permissions for the base or workspace to which they have editor-level access. Editor permissions differ slightly between workspace collaborators with editor permissions and base collaborators with editor permissions.

Editor permissions for workspace collaborators

As a workspace collaborator with editor permissions, you can:

• add, delete, modify, and comment on records in any base in the workspace
• add, delete, and modify views (except for other collaborators' personal views) in any base in the workspace
• add, modify the permission levels for, or remove editor or read-only workspace collaborators and base collaborators on bases in the workspace

However, as a workspace collaborator with editor permissions, you cannot:

• add, delete, rename, or customize fields in any base in the workspace
• add, delete, or rename tables in any base in the workspace
• lock or unlock views in any base in the workspace
• rename any base in the workspace
• add or delete bases in the workspace
• rearrange bases in the workspace
• move a base from the workspace to another workspace to which you have access
• rename the workspace
• add, modify the permission levels for, or remove creator- or owner-level workspace collaborators or creator-level base collaborators
• create or remove workspace collaborator invite links or base collaborator invite links

Editor permissions for base collaborators

As a base collaborator with editor permissions, you can:

• add, delete, modify, and comment on records in the base that has been shared with you
• add, delete, and modify views (except for other collaborators' personal views) in the base that has been shared with you
• add, modify the permission levels for, or remove editor or read-only base collaborators for the base that has been shared with you

However, as a base collaborator with editor permissions, you cannot:

• add, delete, rename, or customize fields in the base that has been shared with you
• add, delete, and rename tables in the base that has been shared with you
• lock or unlock views in the base that has been shared with you
• rename the base that has been shared with you
• add, modify the permission levels for, or remove creator-level base collaborators on the base that has been shared with you
• create or remove a base collaborator invite link for the base that has been shared with you
• delete the base on which you are a base collaborator (you can only remove yourself from the base)
• modify the permission settings for any workspace collaborators with access to the base
• see or otherwise access any of the other bases on the workspace in which the shared base is located

If you wish to perform any of the above actions, please contact your workspace owner or a workspace collaborator with creator-level permissions.

Commenter

Commenters have an even more restricted set of permissions for the base or workspace to which they have commenter-level access. The purpose of the commenter permission level is to give certain collaborators the ability to see and directly comment on records in a workspace or base, without allowing them to modify any of the records, fields, tables, or collaborative views.

If you are a workspace collaborator with commenter permissions, you can comment on records in any base in the workspace. You can also add other commenter or read only workspace collaborators, or commenter or read only base collaborators. Furthermore, if the workspace you are a part of is on a premium plan, you can create, delete, and modify your own set of personal views for every base to which you have access.

If you are a base collaborator with commenter permissions, you can comment on records in the base that has been shared with you. You can also add other commenter or read only base collaborators to that shared base. Furthermore, if the base to which you have access is part of a workspace on a premium plan, you can create, delete, and modify your own set of personal views for that base. As with all other base collaborators at all permission levels, you cannot see or otherwise access any of the other bases on the workspace in which the shared base is located.

Read only

The most limited permission level is read only. If your workspace is on a premium plan, please note that unlike for creators, editors, and commenters, read only workspace collaborators and base collaborators will not be counted as users for the purposes of billing.

As a workspace collaborator with read only permissions, you can view—but not edit—all the bases in a workspace. You can add other read only workspace collaborators, or read only base collaborators.

As a base collaborator with read only permissions, you can view—but not edit—all the information in the base that has been shared with you. You can add other read only base collaborators to the base that has been shared with you. As with all other base collaborators at all permission levels, you cannot see or otherwise access any of the other bases on the workspace in which the shared base is located.

Viewing and changing permissions

To view or change the permission settings of a workspace collaborator, go to the workspace share dialog, which can be accessed by clicking on the big green share button next to a workspace's name on the homepage.

To view or change the permission settings of a base collaborator, go to the relevant base share dialog, which can be accessed by clicking the share button in the top right corner of the base. The base share dialog will show you which collaborators with access to the base are workspace collaborators and which are base collaborators.

To change a collaborator's permission level, select the permission level you want from the dropdown menu next to that collaborator's name.

A few general tips on changing permission levels:

• You cannot change permission levels for a base collaborator from the workspace share dialog. Similarly, you cannot change permission levels for a workspace collaborator from a base share dialog.
• You cannot change permission levels for yourself (or anyone else) if doing so would grant you greater edit access to the data. For example: if you are an editor, you cannot grant yourself or anyone else creator permissions; if you are a read-only collaborator, you cannot grant yourself or anyone else editor permissions.

Workspace/base invite links and permissions

Workspace invite links and base invite links are standalone links you can generate that will grant access (at the specified permission level) to anyone who opens the link. Some permissions-related notes about workspace and base invite links:

• Only creators and owners can create workspace or base invite links. Editors, commenters, and read-only collaborators cannot create workspace or base invite links.
• Only owners—not creators—can create owner-level workspace invite links.
• Creator-level base collaborators can create and remove base invite links for the base(s) that have been shared with them, but they cannot create workspace invite links for the workspace in which the base is located.

Permission levels and billing

The cost of upgrading a workspace (and of paying for subsequent months/years of a premium Airtable plan) is affected by the permission levels of your collaborators.

When calculating your bill, the following people do count toward the number of users in your workspace (and will therefore increase your per-month or per-year charge):

• Workspace owners
• Workspace collaborators at the creator level
• Workspace collaborators at the editor level
• Workspace collaborators at the commenter level
• Base collaborators at the creator level with access to at least one base in the workspace in question
• Base collaborators at the editor level with access to at least one base in the workspace in question
• Base collaborators at the commenter level with access to at least one base in the workspace in question

However, neither of the following types of collaborators will count toward the number of users in your workspace (and therefore, neither will increase your per-month or per-year charge):

• Read only workspace collaborators
• Read only base collaborators
• Workspace or base collaborators at any level that have been invited to create an Airtable account, but who have not yet accepted the invitation

If you have more questions about how billing works, please refer to our billing and workspace administration articles.