Exploring the Cost and Value of Airtable’s AI Add-on
Airtable's AI field lets you integrate generative AI directly into your company's data. In this post, we'll take a look at the pros and cons to see if it's worth it for your team.
May 26, 2025
AI tools are everywhere these days, and they're increasingly showing up as premium add-ons in your favorite business apps. If you're already using Airtable for your business operations, you've probably noticed their AI feature promising to transform your databases. But with a $6 per seat monthly price tag, is it actually worth the investment?
After testing Airtable AI extensively with real client projects and our own internal builds, XRay.Tech has discovered several compelling advantages – and a few important limitations – that every business should consider before choosing whether or not to upgrade
Flexible new AI fields: What you get for $6 per month
Airtable AI introduces an intelligent AI field type that can process information from other columns using either pre-built prompts or completely custom instructions.
The system can summarize lengthy text, generate fresh content by combining multiple data points, translate between languages, extract insights from your data, or process information using any custom prompt you create.
It can even browse and scrape the web for current information.
You can also use Airtable AI to suggest tags for your records, or intelligently extract numbers and currency values from long text.
Airtable AI credits: complexity comes at a cost
Airtable AI’s pricing works on a credit system where complexity determines cost. A quick sentiment analysis might use just 1 credit, while generating a complete 750-word blog post could consume around 15 credits.
All users get 500 free credits monthly, while the paid add-on provides 3,500 credits – seven times more capacity.
If you need additional credits, Airtable also offers a “monthly credit pack” that adds another 10,000 credits to your account. However, pricing this pack isn’t available publicly.
Airtable AI applies to every seat on Team & Business accounts
One important catch to note: Team and Business plan users must purchase the AI add-on for everyone on their plan. For these subscription tiers, there's no option to selectively upgrade just the team members who need it most.
However, enterprise customers can contact Airtable to negotiate custom arrangements.
Game-changing advantages of Airtable AI
Access to Multiple AI Models
Unlike standard chatbot interfaces that lock you into a single AI provider, Airtable AI gives you access to an entire arsenal: OpenAI's latest ChatGPT models, Anthropic's Claude, Meta's Llama, and IBM's enterprise-caliber Granite.
This isn't just about brand names – it's about having the right tool for each specific task.
Need to keep costs down? Airtable clearly labels budget-friendly options.
Need maximum performance for critical analysis? Choose the most powerful model available.
Easily test the strengths and weaknesses of each model
The real magic happens when you create multiple AI fields using different models but identical prompts, allowing you to A/B test results side-by-side.
This kind of comparison would normally require juggling multiple browser tabs or writing complex API code, but Airtable makes it effortless.
Scalable AI processing for your business
While chatbots like ChatGPT excel at creative tasks and problem-solving, they're not ideal for processing large datasets. Airtable AI seamlessly integrates with your existing databases, allowing you to run identical AI operations across hundreds or thousands of records simultaneously.
For instance, you might have something like a product database with 5,000 items that need SEO-optimized descriptions.
Rather than copying and pasting into a chatbot or juggling CSV exports and imports, Airtable AI handles everything in one place.
The system can process your entire dataset automatically or require approval before each run, giving you the perfect balance between efficiency and control.
Feed your data directly into AI prompts
What makes this truly powerful is how Airtable AI treats each field in your database as a dynamic variable.
Your prompts can pull in any combination of data points from each record, creating hyper-contextual AI outputs and enabling sophisticated prompt libraries for consistent results across your organization.
Important limitations to consider
Budget challenges for larger teams
The all-or-nothing pricing structure can create budget challenges. At $6 per person monthly, costs add up quickly when you're required to upgrade every team member rather than just those who need AI capabilities most.
However, you can secure more flexible Airtable AI pricing for your team with an Enterprise plan.
Restrictive configuration options
Airtable provides relatively basic settings for controlling AI outputs. While you can select your preferred model and adjust "randomness," you're missing the type of advanced configuration available through direct API access.
If you need precise control over parameters like context length or temperature settings, you’ll find Airtable's interface somewhat restrictive.
Limited Credit Usage Visibility
Perhaps most frustrating is the current lack of granular reporting on credit consumption. When your team burns through credits faster than expected, there's no detailed breakdown showing which bases, automations, or AI fields are consuming your quota. This makes optimization difficult and essentially leaves you operating in the dark regarding usage patterns.
The only way to see which bases are using up credits is to check the billing settings of each workspace individually. We'd like to see some aggregated reporting soon to make things easier to understand at a glance.
The bottom line
Airtable AI won't replace ChatGPT or Claude for conversational AI needs, but it offers something those tools can't: direct integration with your existing databases.
If your business regularly processes large amounts of structured data and could benefit from systematic AI analysis across your organization, the $6 monthly investment delivers a unique and versatile value.
The key is understanding whether your use case justifies the cost. For teams that need to scale AI operations across substantial datasets while maintaining consistency and control, Airtable AI provides a unique solution that standalone chatbots simply can't match.
Ready to explore how AI and automation can transform your business workflows? Schedule a 15-minute consultation to discover how we can help streamline your operations.
