Airtable sharing levels: workspaces, bases and interfaces
Sharing in Airtable takes a few clicks, and that's the problem. When you share without a plan, it can take months to notice the damage: records go missing, a field gets renamed, a base no longer looks the way your team expects, and automations quietly start breaking. By then, nobody is sure who has access to what.
The fix is a sharing model you decide on early, ideally before you bring in clients or a freelancer. This guide covers the three places you can share in Airtable, what each permission level allows, and a simple starting model you can adapt.
The three places you can share
Airtable lets you give someone access at three levels. Each one reaches a different amount of your data.
Workspace. This is the top level. A workspace collaborator gets access to every base in that workspace at their permission level.
Base. Sharing from a base's Share button gives someone that one base, plus every published interface built on it.
Interface. Interface-only collaborators can use specific published interfaces without having access to the base underneath. This is a paid-plan feature, available on Team, Business and Enterprise Scale.
Two rules make this easier to reason about. First, when someone has both workspace and base access, Airtable gives them whichever permission is higher. A lower base-level permission never reduces what their workspace access allows. Second, base access carries through to every interface in that base, so you can't narrow a base collaborator down to one dashboard by inviting them to it.
To see who has access right now, open your workspace's sharing settings and look at the list of people with access. Someone listed as a workspace collaborator can see everything in the workspace. Someone listed with specific bases only has access to those bases.
What each permission level can do
Airtable uses five permission levels. Owner and Creator are the ones that can change how your base is built. The other three work inside the structure you've set up.
Level | What they can do | Good fit for |
|---|---|---|
Owner | Everything a Creator can do, plus manage billing and assign other Owners at the workspace level | You, and one backup |
Creator | Add, change and delete fields and tables, create and configure automations, build and publish interfaces, create base invite links | The person who actually builds and maintains your bases |
Editor | Add, edit and delete records and create views, but not change fields or tables | Staff who keep the data up to date |
Commenter | Comment on records and create personal views | Reviewers who give feedback but shouldn't change data |
Read-only | View records, download CSVs and copy view data | People who only need to look |
One detail surprises people: Read-only and Commenter users can still download a CSV or copy data out of a view. Read-only means they can't change your data. It doesn't mean they can't take a copy of it. If certain records shouldn't leave the base, keep those people off the base and give them a scoped interface instead.
Billing works differently by plan, and on the Team plan, Read-only workspace collaborators and interface-only viewers don't count as billable seats. This guide is about who can do what, though, so check Airtable's plans page for current pricing.
Why Creator is the level to guard
It's tempting to make everyone a Creator so nobody gets blocked. The trouble is that Creator access includes the structure of your base. A Creator can delete or change any existing field, rename tables, and create or edit automations. If a field an automation depends on gets renamed or deleted, the automation can stop working without anyone noticing right away.
Most people who touch your base every day need Editor, not Creator. Save Creator for the one or two people who are responsible for how the base is built.
Use interfaces as scoped dashboards
Interfaces are dashboards and pages you build on top of a base. They're the best tool Airtable gives you for limiting what someone can see and do. You might build one that only shows the tasks assigned to a single person, or a list of items that are ready for review. Each person sees what their part of the workflow needs and nothing else.
Keep these points in mind:
Interface-only access comes in three levels: Editor, Commenter and Read-only. There's no interface-only Creator.
Sharing only some interfaces requires a Team, Business or Enterprise Scale plan.
On Free and Team plans, interfaces can only be shared with people who have a verified Airtable account.
A Creator can turn on the setting that restricts interface sharing, so interface-only collaborators can't share the interface with anyone else.
A starter sharing model
Here's an example model for a small company that runs on Airtable. It's a starting point, not a rule, so adjust it to the way your team works.
One or two Owners at the workspace level. Airtable recommends two Owners for larger teams, so access doesn't depend on one person.
Creator only for the people who build and maintain bases.
Editor at the base level for staff who update records in that base, rather than workspace access to everything.
Interface-only access for clients, contractors and anyone who only needs one view of the work.
Commenter or Read-only for people who review but don't change data, with the CSV caveat above in mind.
How to put the model in place
If your workspace is already shared, work through it in this order.
Review who has access in your workspace's sharing settings, and note who is a workspace collaborator and who only has specific bases.
Confirm your Owners, and add a second Owner if you're the only one.
Move anyone who doesn't build bases from Creator down to Editor or lower.
Move people from workspace access to base access if they only work in one or two bases.
For clients and contractors who should only see a dashboard, remove their base or workspace access first, then share the specific interface with them. They'll lose access briefly in between, so give them a heads-up.
Turn on restricted interface sharing for interfaces that outside people use.
Ask one person at each level to confirm they see what they should, and nothing more.
Troubleshooting
I removed someone from a base, but they can still see it
They probably still have workspace access. Workspace access covers every base in the workspace, and Airtable uses the higher of someone's workspace and base permissions. Change or remove their workspace access too.
I invited someone to one interface, but they still see everything
If they already have access to the base, they can see every published interface in it at their base level. Inviting them to one interface doesn't narrow that. Remove their base or workspace access first, then share the interface.
I can't share just one interface
Sharing specific interfaces without base access requires a Team, Business or Enterprise Scale plan. On Free and Team plans, the person also needs a verified Airtable account.
Set the limits before you need them
If you're running your company on Airtable, learn these levels from the start. Today it might be fine to share with everyone on your team. Eventually you'll want to share with a client, or bring in a freelancer to help, and it's much easier to have limits in place than to scramble later to figure out who has access to what.
If you're new to building in Airtable, our guide to an Airtable project tracker for beginners is a good place to start. And if your team also connects AI tools to your data, it's worth setting Claude connector limits with the same care.
Need help setting up Airtable, streamlining your processes or moving off Google Sheets? This is what we do every day at Coconut Breeze Media.
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