This article discusses frequently asked questions related to the mechanics of billing.
Who counts as a user for billing purposes?
What happens if I downgrade my plan or remove collaborators, and have a positive balance?
What happens if I change my plan from annual to monthly? And vice versa?
What happens if my workspace is on the annual plan and I change the number of collaborators?
What happens if my workspace is on the Pro trial plan and I let the trial expire?
Who counts as a user for billing purposes?
Who counts as a user largely depends on the permission level of the user in question. The following types of users DO count toward your workspace's per person per month count:
- Workspace collaborators at the permission levels of owner, creator, editor, or commenter
- Base collaborators for a base in the given workspace at the permission levels of creator, editor, or commenter
The following types of users DO NOT count toward your workspace's per person per month count:
- Read-only workspace or base collaborators
- Any workspace or base collaborators who have been invited to Airtable, but have not yet accepted their invitations
Note that you can mouse over the number of collaborators on the plan and billing section of the workspace settings page to see the names of the collaborators for whom you are being charged.
Example:
The workspace Sharkley's Surf Shop is on the monthly Plus plan ($12/person/mo), and has the following collaborators:
- Charles Sharkley, a workspace collaborator and the owner of the workspace
- Squidney Poitier, a workspace collaborator with creator permissions
- Salmon Rushdie, a workspace collaborator with read-only permissions
- Dolphin Lundgren, an outside contractor who's a base collaborator with editor permissions on the base "Sharkley Marketing"
In this instance, all of these collaborators EXCEPT for Salmon Rushdie (who has read-only permissions) would count as paid collaborators.
Therefore, the monthly rate for Sharkley's Surf Shop would be 3 people * $12/collaborators/month = $36/month.
Why does the billing overview on the workspace settings page say one amount, but I was charged a different amount?
The billing overview page shows you how much you will be charged based on the number of collaborators at that point in time, and for the currently selected plan. For example, if a workspace with 5 collaborators is on the monthly Pro plan, the card on that workspace will be charged $120 for that month.
However, the following factors will cause the actual amount you are charged to differ from the billing overview:
- Whether new collaborators are added or removed from the base (note that read-only collaborators are free)
- Whether you upgrade/downgrade the plan
- Whether you transfer credit to the workspace
So, if you add/remove collaborators or upgrade/downgrade your plan, you will be charged on a pro-rata basis for each collaborator. If you change plans, the next invoice will be charged part of the month for one plan, and part of the billing cycle for the other plan (on a pro-rata basis).
Example 1 (adding a collaborator during a billing cycle):
Your team of two workspace collaborators decides to go onto the monthly Pro plan ($24/collaborator/month). Immediately upon upgrading, you pay $48 (2 collaborators * $24/collaborator/month).
After about three weeks, you decide to add a third collaborator to the workspace. On the next billing cycle, you will be charged about $78:
- $72 for the three workspace collaborators for the next month (3 collaborators * $24/collaborator/month)
- Plus a debit of $6 (since you have not yet paid for the fraction of the month in which the third person was collaborating on your workspace)
Example 2 (downgrading during a billing cycle):
You are the sole collaborator in your workspace, which is on the monthly Pro plan ($24/collaborator/month). You pay $24 at the beginning of the monthly billing cycle.
Halfway through the month, you decide to switch to the Plus plan ($12/collaborator/month). On the next billing cycle, you will be charged $6:
- $12 for one collaborator for the next month
- Minus a credit of $6 (since you initially paid $24, but should have paid only $18 based on your actual usage—half of $24 plus half of $12)
What happens if I downgrade my plan or remove collaborators, and have a positive balance?
If, at the beginning of a billing cycle, you have not used all of your service credits from the previous month, the value of those service credits will be converted to Airtable credits. If, in the future, you upgrade your plan or add additional collaborators, these credits will automatically be applied the next time you are billed.
What happens if I change my plan from monthly to annually? And vice versa?
If you are on monthly plan and change to the annual plan, you will be instantly changed to the annual plan, but you will not be invoiced for the entire year's commitment until the end of the current month. At that point, you will be charged for each billable collaborator for exactly 12 months (at the discounted rate for the annual billing plan).
Conversely, if you are on the annual plan and you change to the monthly plan, but you still have several months left on your old annual plan, you will be refunded for the rest of your annual commitment, but not until the end of the month.
What happens if my workspace is on the annual plan and I change the number of collaborators?
Every billing cycle is one month long, so at the end of the current month, you will receive an invoice that will charge or credit you appropriately.
Example 1 (adding a collaborator):
Your workspace of two collaborators decides to upgrade from the free plan to pay annually for the Pro plan ($240/collaborator/year). Your card is immediately charged for $480 (2 collaborators * $20/collaborator/month * 12 months).
2.5 months into your annual commitment, you add one more collaborator. At the end of the third month, you will be charged for the new collaborator's half of month 3 as one line item ($10) and for the new collaborator's next 9 months as another line item ($180), for a total charge of $190.
Example 2 (removing a collaborator):
Your workspace of three collaborators decides to upgrade from the free plan to pay annually for the Plus plan ($120/collaborator/year). Your card is immediately charged for $360 (3 collaborators * $10/collaborator/month * 12 months).
6.5 months into your annual commitment, you remove one of the collaborators. At the end of the seventh month, you will be refunded for the ex-collaborator's half of month 7 as one line item ($5) and for the remaining 5 months of the annual plan as another line item ($50), for a total credit of $55.
What happens if my workspace is on the Pro trial plan and I let the trial expire?
If your workspace is on a Pro trial and you let the trial expire, your workspace will lose access to the premium features only available on the Airtable Pro plan:
- You will no longer be able to create premium forms with custom header images and/or logos, and you will not be able to remove Airtable branding from your forms.
- You will no longer be able to use the full 40-color palette for single and multiple select fields.
- You will no longer be able to create personal views.
- You will no longer be able to restrict your base and view share links by email domain or with passwords.
- Instead of having 1 year of snapshot and revision history, you will only have 2 weeks of snapshot and revision history.
- Instead of supporting 50,000 records per base, each base will only support 1,200 records.
- Instead of supporting 20GB of attachments per base, each base will only support 2GB of attachments.
Furthermore, while we will not remove any of your records and attachments that go over the limits, you may lose the ability to edit and/or add more records and attachments.