MotherDuck vs Airtable Pricing (2026)

How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.

MotherDuck Airtable
Starts at $250/mo $24/mo
Number of plans 3 4
Free plan
Free trial
Pricing model hybrid per-seat

Lite

$0/mo
  • Up to 3 internal active users and 2 service accounts
  • 10 GB free storage
  • 10 hrs Pulse compute per month included
  • Pulse instances only
  • Role-based access control (preset roles)
  • Community support

Business

Popular
$250/mo
  • Up to 10 internal active users and unlimited service accounts
  • 5 instance types and read-scaling replicas
  • Flights: agent-native data pipelines
  • 90-day snapshot retention
  • Query history
  • Role-based access control (preset roles)
  • Support from MotherDuck experts
  • 99.9% availability SLA

Enterprise

Custom
  • Unlimited internal active users and service accounts
  • Fixed-cost capacity pricing
  • AWS PrivateLink connectivity
  • Role-based access control (custom roles)
  • HIPAA BAA

Free

$0/mo
  • 500 AI credits per editor each month.
  • Unlimited bases
  • 1,000 records per base
  • Up to 5 editors
  • 1 GB of attachments per base
  • 100 automation runs
  • Interface Designer

Team

Popular
$24/mo
  • 15,000 AI credits per paid user each month.
  • 50,000 records per base
  • 25,000 automation runs
  • 20 GB of attachments per base
  • Standard sync integrations
  • Extensions
  • Gantt and timeline view
  • Expanded color, formatting, and calendar options

Business

$54/mo
  • 20,000 AI credits per paid user each month.
  • 125,000 records per base
  • 100,000 automation runs
  • 100 GB of attachments per base
  • Premium sync integrations
  • Verified data
  • Two-way sync
  • Admin panel
  • SAML-based single sign-on
  • App Sandbox
  • Roadmap view and Exec Summary cards
  • AI Admin controls

Enterprise Scale

Custom
  • 25,000 AI credits per paid user each month at list price.
  • 500,000 records per base
  • 500,000 automation runs
  • 1,000 GB of attachments per base
  • Enterprise Scale Integrations
  • App Library
  • HyperDB
  • Enterprise Hub
  • Enhanced security and admin controls
  • Enterprise API
  • Extension and integration management
  • Audit logs and DLP
  • AI Admin controls

MotherDuck vs Airtable FAQ

Which one is cheaper?
Airtable is the cheaper option, starting at $24/mo vs $250/mo for MotherDuck.
Can I use either one for free?
Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
How do they charge?
Different approach here. MotherDuck uses hybrid pricing, while Airtable goes with per-seat. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
Which one is a better deal?
Depends on what you need. MotherDuck: Positioned as a cost-efficient alternative to Snowflake and BigQuery for teams that don't need a full data warehouse — the $250 base is approachable, but the compute rates (especially Jumbo and above) put it in mid-market territory. They're clearly targeting data-savvy startups and mid-size teams who want DuckDB's speed without managing infrastructure themselves. Airtable: Airtable sits in the premium middle of the no-code/database workspace category — more expensive than Notion, cheaper than Smartsheet at scale, and directly competing with Monday.com and Asana for team workflow budgets. They're not chasing the budget buyer; the pricing signals they want teams that see this as a serious ops tool, not a free Trello alternative.

Keep tabs on both.

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