Airtable automation trigger: When record created

Updated
  • Updated on Apr 1, 2025
  • Published on Jul 4, 2022
  • 2 minute(s) read

Plan availability

All plan types with varying limitations

Permissions

  • Owner / Creator - Create, delete, duplicate, configure, or rename an automation and edit an automation's description.

  • Editor - View an automation's configuration or copy an automation's URL.

Platform(s)

Web/Browser, Mac app, and Windows app

  • The "When record created" trigger is triggered whenever a new record is created. This means that if you are manually entering data, this trigger will likely fire before you've finished inputting your data.

  • The "When record created" trigger is best used when a row is created programmatically (i.e via a form or another automation). We recommend using the "when a record matches conditions" trigger or the "When a record enters a view" trigger for situations where you'd like an automation to fire whenever a certain preset condition is met.

  1. To start creating an automation, from the open base of your choice click on Automations in the upper left corner of your screen to open the automation configuration window.

  2. Click the + Create automation option to begin the setup process. If you would like, you can rename the automation right away to make it easier to understand what it does.

  3. Next, you will need to click + Add trigger option.

  4. Once clicked, the available triggers will be displayed for you to choose from. Choose the When record created option.

  5. Under the “Table” section, select the table where created records will trigger this automation to run.

  6. Next, test the trigger step. It’s important to test the trigger at this point so that you can utilize dynamic tokens in the automation action steps. Dynamic tokens allows you to pull in information from the created record that triggered this automation such as record ID or time of creation. You can click Use suggested record to allow our system to choose a random record that aligns with the trigger type you selected or you can click Choose record to be able to select a specific record of your choice that may fit your needs when testing other steps of the automation. You will see a green “Step successful” message under the “Results” section after the trigger step has successfully tested.

  7. Then, you want to add one or more automation actions. Check out our help center’s Automation actions section to learn more about each action Airtable offers.

  8. Finally, test and turn on the automation. Be sure to test all of the steps in the automation that you are building. Once every part of the automation has tested successfully, you’ll be ready to turn the automation on. Find the red colored “OFF” toggle and click it so the automation now appears as “ON” in green.