Lead capture into a sales base
Ask name, email, company and what they need, then create a record in a Leads table with a status of New. Your team works the list in an Airtable interface or view.
Airtable chatbot integration
The Airtable step writes what a visitor tells your chatbot into an Airtable base as a new record, updates an existing one, or reads records back so the bot can answer with them. Your base becomes the CRM, order book or waitlist behind the conversation.
Build on the Free plan. The Airtable step runs on Pro ($39/month) and above.
- Builder step
- Airtable: List, Get, Create, Update, Delete
- How you connect
- Airtable personal access token
- Type conversion
- On: text answers become numbers, dates, selects
- Plan
- Pro and above (native integrations)
What it does
What the Airtable step can do
Many teams already run their operations from an Airtable base: leads, applications, bookings, inventory, a content calendar. The Airtable step connects a chatbot straight to that base, so a conversation ends with a clean record in the right table instead of an email someone has to copy by hand.
It reads as well as writes. A bot can fetch a record by ID, or list records from a table, and use the result in its replies or conditions, for example to tell a customer the status of their application. If your team works in spreadsheets rather than Airtable, the Google Sheets integration does the same job for Sheets.
Create a record
Map chat variables to the table's fields, for example Name to ${name} and Email to ${email}. Each run adds one record. The field list comes from your table, so you pick fields rather than typing their names.
Update a record
Give a record ID (often saved from an earlier step) and the fields to change. Only the fields you map are changed; the rest of the record stays as it was.
Get one record
Fetch a single record by its ID, such as recXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, and keep it in a variable so the bot can quote its fields back to the visitor.
List records
Return up to 100 records from a table into a variable, for example to show the visitor what is available or to check a short list in a condition.
Delete a record
Remove a record by ID, for example when a visitor withdraws a booking or asks to be taken off a waitlist.
Chat answers fit your field types
Everything a visitor types arrives as text. Type conversion is on, so Airtable turns 3 into a number, 2026-11-20 into a date and a matching option into a single select. Fields whose variable is empty are left out instead of being written as blank text.
Reference
Fields in the Airtable step
| Operation | Fields |
|---|---|
| Create | Account, base, table, field mapping (field name to value or ${variable}). |
| Update | Account, base, table, record ID, field mapping for the fields to change. |
| Get | Account, base, table, record ID. |
| List | Account, base, table, maximum records (1 to 100). |
| Delete | Account, base, table, record ID. |
| All operations | Optional Save result variable holding the record or records Airtable returns. |
Setup
How to connect Airtable to your chatbot
About five minutes. You need a Pro or higher Conferbot workspace and an Airtable account with access to the base.
- 1
Prepare the table
Create the fields the bot will fill, with the right types: email, phone, number, date, single select. Field types decide how chat answers are converted.
- 2
Create a personal access token
Go to airtable.com/create/tokens and create a token with access to the base. Give it the scopes for the operations you will use: reading records, writing records and reading the base schema so the pickers can list your tables and fields.
- 3
Add the Airtable step and the account
Drag the Airtable step where the answers are complete, open the account menu, add an account with a name you will recognise and paste the token. It is stored encrypted and reused by every bot in the workspace.
- 4
Pick the base and table
The base and table menus load from Airtable. Choose the table the bot should write to or read from.
- 5
Map the fields
Choose Create, then pair each Airtable field with a value. Type
$to insert the variable that holds the visitor's answer. - 6
Test, then publish
Preview the bot, finish a test conversation and check the record appears with the right types. Then publish.
Recipes
Flows people build with Airtable
Applications and waitlists
Collect applications for a programme, a beta or a rental with the questions you would put on a form, and write each one as a record. Save the record ID so the same conversation can update it if the visitor adds details.
Status look-up
Ask for a reference the visitor already has, which is the Airtable record ID you sent them, fetch the record and reply with its status field. A simple self-service desk for orders or applications.
Bookings with a log
After the Google Calendar step books a slot, create an Airtable record with the time and the visitor's details, so bookings live next to the rest of your operations data.
Access
Permissions and access
Scoped to what you grant
A personal access token only reaches the bases you add to it and only does what its scopes allow. Give the chatbot's token just the base it needs.
Who records are created as
Records are created through the token's owner, so Airtable's revision history shows that user. Many teams create a dedicated Airtable user for integrations.
Rotating or revoking
Regenerate or delete the token in Airtable's developer hub at any time. Steps using it stop working until you add the new token to the account in Conferbot.
Good to know
Limits and behaviour to plan around
Airtable's rate limit
Airtable allows a limited number of requests per second per base. A chatbot makes one call per Airtable step per conversation, which is well inside that for normal traffic. See Airtable rate limits.
Record IDs, not search
Get, Update and Delete work on a record ID. Save the ID returned by Create in a variable, or send it to the visitor as their reference, so later steps can find the same record.
List returns up to 100
The List operation returns at most 100 records per step, which suits short look-up lists. For large tables, look up one record by ID instead.
Field names must match
If you rename a field in Airtable, re-map it in the step. A value for a field that no longer exists makes Airtable reject the record.
Troubleshooting
Fixing common Airtable problems
| What you see | Why, and the fix |
|---|---|
| The base or table menu is empty | The token does not include that base, or lacks the scope to read the schema. Edit the token in Airtable to add the base and scope, then refresh the menu. |
| Records are not created | A mapped field was renamed or deleted, or a value does not fit a strict field such as a single select with fixed options. Re-map the field or add the option. |
| Numbers or dates arrive as text | The Airtable field is a text field. Change it to a number or date field and type conversion handles the rest. |
| Update or Get fails | The record ID variable was empty or wrong. Check the variable is set by the earlier Create step or by the visitor's answer. |
| Authentication error | The token was deleted or regenerated. Paste the new token into the account in Conferbot. |
FAQ
Airtable integration: common questions
What can the chatbot do in Airtable?
Create, update, fetch, list and delete records in any table your token can reach. The result can be saved to a variable and used later in the conversation.
Does it use an API key or a personal access token?
A personal access token, created at airtable.com/create/tokens. Airtable retired the old API keys in favour of these tokens.
Which Conferbot plan includes Airtable?
Airtable is a native integration, included on Pro and above. You can build and preview the flow on any plan.
Will a number typed in chat become a number in Airtable?
Yes. Type conversion is on, so Airtable converts text answers into numbers, dates, checkboxes and select options where the field type allows.
What happens if the visitor skipped a question?
Fields whose variable is empty are left out of the record rather than written as blank text or as the variable name.
Can the bot look up a record by email?
The Get step looks up by record ID. For look-ups by another field, save the record ID when the record is created, or send it to the visitor as their reference.
Does Update overwrite the whole record?
No. Update changes only the fields you map and leaves every other field as it was.
What happens if Airtable is down?
The visitor finishes the conversation normally and the step's result variable stays empty, so you can add a fallback such as an email alert.
Airtable or Google Sheets?
Use Airtable when the data needs field types, linked records and views; use Google Sheets for a simple running log. Both are available as steps.
Turn every chat into a clean Airtable record
Start free with Conferbot - the free plan includes 600 conversations a month and needs no credit card, so you can build the flow today. The Airtable step switches on with Pro.
Checked against Conferbot's product and Airtable's documentation on November 3, 2026: Airtable Web API, Airtable rate limits, Airtable personal access tokens.
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