Airtable Conditional Formatting: How to Color Records and Fields

Airtable does not color individual grid cells the way Excel or Google Sheets does. It can color records in views, and some Interface layouts can color field values or number cells based on conditions.

I’ll use a Tasks table as the example. Each task has a Status, Due date, and Priority. The goal is to make overdue and high-priority work easier to spot.

Color records in a view

Open the view that contains the tasks and click Color in the view bar. Choose Conditions, then add a rule such as:

Due date is before today AND Status is not Done

Choose a red color for that condition. Add another condition for Priority is High and choose a different color if needed.

You can add several colors and conditions. If a record matches more than one condition, Airtable uses the first matching color in the list, so put the most important condition first.

Record coloring is available on paid plans. In a grid view, the color appears as a flag beside the primary field. In calendar, timeline, gallery, kanban, and other views, the color appears according to that view's layout.

If the value that should control the color lives in another table, add a Lookup field to the current table first. Choose the linked record field, then choose the field whose value you want to bring in. You can then use that Lookup field in the view's color conditions.

For example, if a task's project has the Status field, add a Lookup in Tasks that brings in the project's status. You can then color the task records based on that value instead of copying the project status into every task.

Color records by a Single select field

If Status is a Single select field, choose Color by select field instead of building conditions manually. Airtable uses the colors assigned to the options, such as gray for Not started, yellow for In progress, and green for Done.

This is the simplest choice when the value already tells you what color the record should have.

Color fields in an Interface

If people work in an Interface, open the grid or list visualization and check its Appearance settings. Some Interface layouts let you add field colors based on conditions.

Interface field coloring is different from grid-view record coloring. It applies to supported numeric fields, such as number, currency, percent, duration, count, and formulas that return numbers. A formula that returns text is not supported for this type of field color.

For example, you could color a Profit value red when it is below zero and green when it is above zero.

What Airtable cannot color

Airtable does not provide Excel-style conditional formatting for individual cells in a normal grid view. You cannot set a custom background color for one text cell while leaving the rest of the row unchanged.

If you want to color individual cells or rows in a normal Airtable grid, use Cell Coloring. It adds Excel-style highlighting to Airtable and keeps the colors when you sort, filter, or switch views.