Importing third-party data into Airtable

NOTE

Remember that once you have imported data into Airtable, any changes made within Airtable will not be reflected in the original Google sheet. Check out our Google Workspace article to learn how newly added rows in Google Sheets can be automatically added to your base's table through automations. 

1. Open your Airtable homepage.

2. Create your new base. 

3. Click + Add or import.  

4. Click Google Sheets.  

   1. A new window appears asking you to "Select a Google Sheet."

5. Click the ⌄ icon next to "Select a Google Sheet account."

6. If you previously connected your Google account to Airtable, skip steps 6-7. Otherwise, click Connect new Google account and select your preferred account.

   1. A new window appears stating, "Airtable wants additional access to your Google Account."

7. Click Continue to confirm. 

8. Click the ⌄ icon next to "Google Sheets account."

9. Click Google Sheets account.

10. Click the name of your preferred Google Sheet, then click Select. 

    1. A new window appears that includes the "Adjust your import" section. From here, you can manually select fields to include and toggle ON/OFF the ability to "Auto-select field types" and "Use the first row as headers."

11. Click Import.

1. Open your Airtable homepage. 

2. Open your preferred base and table where you want to import your Google Sheet.

3. Click + Add or import.  

4. Click Google Sheets.  

   1. A new window appears asking you to "Select a Google Sheet."

5. Click the ⌄ icon next to "Select a Google Sheet account."

6. If you haven't previously connected your Google account to Airtable, see this article. Click the ⌄ icon next to "Google Sheets account."

7. Click Google Sheets account.

8. Click the name of your preferred Google Sheet, then click Select.

   1. An "Import your file" window appears asking, "Where do you want to import into?"

   2. Click the ⌄ icon and select your preferred existing table.

   3. The "Import your file" window appears a second time asking, "Where do you want to import from?"

   4. Click the ⌄ icon and select your preferred sheet.

9. Click Next. 

   1. A new window appears that includes the "Adjust your import" section. From here, you can manually select fields to include and toggle ON/OFF the ability to "Auto-select field types" and "Use the first row as headers."

10. Click Import. 

1. Open your Airtable homepage.

2. Open your preferred base where you want to import your Google Sheet.

3. Click + Add or import.  

4. Click Google Sheets.  

   1. A new window appears asking you to "Select a Google Sheet."

5. Click the ⌄ icon next to "Select a Google Sheet account."

6. If you haven't previously connected your Google account to Airtable, see this article. Click the ⌄ icon and select "Google Sheets account." 

7. Click Google Sheets account. 

8. Click the name of your preferred Google Sheet, then click Select.

   1. An "Import your file" window appears asking, "Where do you want to import into?" 

   2. Click the ⌄ icon and select Create a new table.

9. Click Next.

   1. Another window appears that includes the "Adjust your import" section. From here, you can manually select fields to include and toggle ON/OFF the ability to "Auto-select field types" and "Use the first row as headers."

10. Click Import. 

1. Open your Airtable homepage.

2. Create your new base. 

3. Click + Add or import.

4. Click Microsoft Excel.

   1. A new window opens, allowing you to drag and drop or browse files to upload.

5. After selecting the file you want to upload, click Upload file.

   1. Another window appears that includes the "Adjust your import" section. From here, you can manually select fields to include and toggle ON/OFF the ability to "Auto-select field types" and "Use the first row as headers."

6. Click Import. 

1. Open your Airtable homepage.

2. Open your preferred base and table where you want to import your Excel file.

3. Click + Add or import.

4. Click Microsoft Excel.

   1. A new window opens, allowing you to drag and drop or browse files to upload.

5. After selecting the file you want to upload, click Upload file.

   1. An "Import your file" window appears asking, "Where do you want to import into?"

   2. Click the ⌄ icon and select your preferred sheet.

6. Click Next. 

   1. Another window appears that includes the "Adjust your import" section. From here, you can manually select fields to include and toggle ON/OFF the ability to "Auto-select field types" and "Use the first row as headers."

7. Click Import.

1. Open your Airtable homepage. 

2. Open your preferred base where you want to import your Excel file.

3. Click + Add or import.  

4. Click Microsoft Excel.

   1. A new window opens, allowing you to drag and drop or browse files to upload.

5. After selecting the file you want to upload, click Upload file.

   1. An "Import your file" window appears asking, "Where do you want to import into?"

   2. Click the ⌄ icon and select Create a new table.

6. Click Next.

   1. Another window appears that includes the "Adjust your import" section. From here, you can manually select fields to include and toggle ON/OFF the ability to "Auto-select field types" and "Use the first row as headers."

7. Click Import.

1. Open your Airtable homepage. 

2. Create your new base. 

3. Click + Add or import.

4. Click  CSV file. 

   1. A new window opens, allowing you to drag and drop or browse files to upload.

5. After selecting the file you want to upload, click Upload file.

   1. Another window appears that includes the "Adjust your import" section. From here, you can manually select fields to include and toggle ON/OFF the ability to "Auto-select field types" and "Use the first row as headers."

6. Click Import. 

1. Open your Airtable homepage.

2. Open your preferred base and table where you want to import your CSV file.

3. Click + Add or import.

4. Click  CSV file.

   1. A new window opens, allowing you to drag and drop or browse files to upload.

5. After selecting the file you want to upload, click Upload file.

   1. An "Import your file" window appears asking, "Where do you want to import into?"

   2. Click the ⌄ icon and select your preferred sheet. 

6. Click Next. 

   1. Another window appears that includes the "Adjust your import" section. From here, you can manually select fields to include and toggle ON/OFF the ability to "Auto-select field types" and "Use the first row as headers."

7. Click Import.

1. Open your Airtable homepage.

2. Open your preferred base and table where you want to import your CSV file.

3. Click + Add or import.

4. Click  CSV file.

   1. A new window opens, allowing you to drag and drop or browse files to upload.

5. After selecting the file you want to upload, click Upload file.

   1. An "Import your file" window appears asking, "Where do you want to import into?"

   2. Click the ⌄ icon and select Create a new table.

6. Click Next.

   1. Another window appears that includes the "Adjust your import" section. From here, you can manually select fields to include and toggle ON/OFF the ability to "Auto-select field types" and "Use the first row as headers."

7. Click Import. 

• If every data cell in the column is a number, the converted field type will be a number.

• If every data cell is an integer, the resulting number format is an integer. Otherwise, the resulting number format is a decimal whose precision is determined by the maximum fraction digits of the numbers in the cells.

• We only recognize US dollars ($) right now.

• A column containing values such as $123, $1,234, or ($1,234) will be converted to the Currency field type.

• A column containing values such as 2020-09-28, 09/28/2020, 09/28/2020 18:01, 2020-09-28 18:01 will be converted to Date field type.

• If any data cell in the column contains a time field, the resulting Date field type will contain a time portion.

• If every date cell value uses US date formatting such as 09/28/2020, the resulting Date format will be “Local”.

• If date cell values in the column use mixed date formats (for example, using both 09/28/2020 and 2020-09-28), the resulting Date format will be “ISO”. Unrecognized date formats will be converted to the ISO date format.

• Time-only cell values such 18:02 are not supported. If a column contains any of these, they will be converted to a Single Line Text field.

The type conversion operates on the computation result of the formula. The formula itself is not converted.

If data cells in the column follow one “convention” to represent true and false, the column will be converted to the Checkbox field. However, conventions cannot be mixed. If a column has both cell value “Y” and cell value “X”, then it is not considered a Checkbox field.Conventions are case insensitive and we support the following:

• “checked” / “unchecked”

• “x”

• “yes” / ”no”

• “y” / “n”

• “1 checked out of 1” / “0 checked out of 1”

• “[x]” / “[ ]“

• “☑”

• “✅”

• “✓”

• “✔”

• “enabled” / “disabled”

• “on” / “off”

• “done”

If every cell in the column is a comma-separated string, and does not contain any other punctuations, and no separated token is longer than 20 latin characters (note that it gets tricky with emoji or other language glyphs), and no separated token contain newline character, and no separated token is digits only, and no separated token is repeated multiple times in one cell, the field will be converted to a multi-select field.
Examples that will not be converted to a multi-select include:

• “foo, foo, bar” ← tokens repeated in one cell.

• “foo, bar.” ← punctuations other than the comma.

• “foo, , bar” ← contain one empty token.

• “fooooooooooooooooooooo, bar” ← a token that contains more than 20 latin characters.

• “foo bar, 123, baz” ← a token is digits only.

Google Sheets features two types of styling: cell-level styling and text-level styling. For example, you can select a cell and make it bold, and that will be cell-level styling. If you select a few characters in the cell and make it bold, this is text-level styling. If any cells in the column contain text-level styling and are not the first column, the column will be converted to a Rich Text field. Only some inline styles are supported, namely: bold, italic, and strikethrough.

If any cells in the column contain newline characters, the column will be converted to a long text field.

This is the fallback field type if the cells do not follow the rules above.

Each workbook sheet is converted to its own table, and the sheet name is converted to the table name. 

For each sheet, the first row is treated as field names—similar to our CSV import extension. If that row is empty, a fallback field name is automatically generated.

Airtable's import file size is limited to 5MB.

Airtable reads commas as separators and creates an appropriate number of select tokens/links based on the number of commas. To create a link to a record with a comma in its name, you must denote the desired record name with quotation marks.

Example

For example to create a single record for the city of Denver, CO, denote the text strings with double quotation marks so that "Denver, CO" becomes a single record, [ Denver, CO], rather than two records, [ Denver] and [ CO].

Yes. After selecting and copying a range of cells in your CSV, select and paste your data into your preferred table(s).