# Airtable vs Teable

> Airtable scores 70.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Teable's 61 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Teable leads on maintenance & community. Both do sheets records. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtable-vs-teable
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtable-vs-teable.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtable-vs-teable.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtable-vs-teable.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Airtable scores 70.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Teable's 61 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Teable leads on maintenance & community. Both do sheets records.

- Airtable: grade BB, 70.9/100, rank #124 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/airtable.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/airtable.json
- Teable: grade C, 61/100, rank #379 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/teable.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/teable.json

## Which one, for what

### Airtable (BB)

Good for: Teams that already keep operational data in Airtable and want an agent to read, filter and update typed records or build bases through MCP.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 94 against 72
- Security & auth, 78 against 62
- Transparency & trust, 86 against 64

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No incidents deducted, where Teable loses 3 points for them

Watch for: 5 requests a second per base, and a 429 blocks further requests for 30 seconds

### Teable (C)

Good for: Teams that want Airtable-style typed tables on PostgreSQL that they can also self-host, with an agent reading and writing records through tokens limited by scope and project, or through the vendor's CLI and skill.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 76 against 49

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: The OpenAPI file documents only 200 and 201 responses for nearly every operation, and the error page lists HTTP statuses without a table of error codes


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Airtable | Teable | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 94 | 72 | Airtable +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 75 | Teable +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 65 | Airtable +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 78 | 62 | Airtable +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 49 | 76 | Teable +27 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 64 | Airtable +22 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **70.9 · BB** | **61 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Airtable | Teable |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Formagrid Inc (Airtable) | Teable AI, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.airtable.com` | `https://app.teable.ai/api` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Airtable's Terms of Service and Developer Terms. The airtable.js client and the MCP CLI on GitHub are MIT | AGPL-3.0 with additional brand terms for the backend and web app, MIT for the packages directory. Enterprise functions and the `@teable/cli` package (ISC on npm) are built in a private repository |
| Tools exposed | 40 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `com.airtable/mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-08-07 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2024-05-31 | 2026-05-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-15 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 2.2k stars, 569k npm/wk | 22k stars, 179 npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**Airtable.** Tokens are limited by scope and by base, and the official MCP server at mcp.airtable.com covers records, schema, interfaces and automations in 40 tools. The REST API allows 5 requests a second per base with a 30-second lockout after a 429, writes take 10 records a call, and the Free plan stops at 1,000 calls a month.

**Teable.** Personal access tokens and OAuth tokens carry per-action scopes, and tokens can be limited to chosen spaces and projects. The public OpenAPI file covers 841 operations. Error responses beyond 200 and 201 are missing from that file, no idempotency keys were found, and the cloud allows 10 requests a second on every plan.

## Before you call either

### Airtable

1. Create a personal access token with only the scopes needed and add each base to it. A token with no base added sees nothing
2. Stay under 5 requests a second per base. After a 429, wait 30 seconds before the next call
3. Send writes in batches of 10 records, and use `performUpsert` with `fieldsToMergeOn` so a repeated call updates instead of duplicating
4. Use table and field IDs, not names, and set `returnFieldsByFieldId` so a rename doesn't break the call
5. POST to `/listRecords` when a `filterByFormula` would push the URL past 16,000 characters

### Teable

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer <token>` to `https://app.teable.ai/api`. A 403 with code `restricted_resource` usually means a missing scope or a project outside the token's list
2. Page records with `take` of 100 at most. Personal keys created on Teable Cloud since 10 September 2026 are capped at 100 a request
3. Ask for totals from `/api/table/{tableId}/aggregation/row-count`. Record lists stopped returning them by default on 2 September 2026
4. Keep to 10 requests a second, back off on 429, and check before retrying a failed write because no idempotency key exists
5. Pass `fieldKeyType=id` so renamed fields don't break writes, and leave `typecast` off unless values need converting

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Airtable or Teable?

Airtable scores 70.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Teable's 61 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Teable leads on maintenance & community.

### Do Airtable and Teable need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Airtable and Teable without installing anything?

Yes. Airtable has a hosted endpoint at https://api.airtable.com and Teable at https://app.teable.ai/api.

### Are Airtable and Teable open source?

No open-source release is listed for Airtable. Teable is open source (AGPL-3.0 with additional brand terms for the backend and web app, MIT for the packages directory. Enterprise functions and the `@teable/cli` package (ISC on npm) are built in a private repository).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtable-vs-teable.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtable-vs-teable.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "airtable", "b": "teable"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare airtable teable`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/airtable.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/teable.json

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