Adding fresh options to multi-select dropdown in Airtable

Other Questions Airtable
1

I’m struggling with creating new choices for a multi-select field in Airtable. Every time I try to insert a record that contains a new option that doesn’t already exist in the dropdown, I keep getting an error message.

The error looks something like this:

{
  error: 'INVALID_MULTIPLE_CHOICE_OPTIONS',
  message: 'Unknown choice values: Freelancer',
  statusCode: 422
}

Here’s the code I’m using:

table('Companies').create({
    CompanyName: 'Sample Corp',
    Category: ['Freelancer']
  }

Is there a simple method to automatically add new dropdown options when creating records? I don’t want to manually go into the field settings every time I need a new choice.

2

Nope, you can’t dynamically add new options to multi-select fields through the API. The field config is read-only, so you have to manually add new choices through the web interface first. I hit this same wall building a client intake system a couple years back. My workaround? Pre-load the multi-select with every value I could think of, plus generic ones like ‘Other’ or ‘Custom.’ Then I threw in a separate text field for extra details when someone picked those catch-all options. Not perfect, but it beat constantly updating fields manually. You could also just use a long text field with comma-separated values if you want total flexibility - though you’ll lose that nice multi-select UI.

3

Yeah, super frustrating. Hit the same wall building a project tracker - the API won’t let you touch field configs.

I went with a hybrid workaround. Kept the multi-select for common options I knew upfront, then added another multi-select called “Additional Categories” with generic values like “Custom 1”, “Custom 2”, etc.

When someone needed a new category, I’d map it to one of those generic slots and kept a lookup table tracking what “Custom 1” actually meant per record. Ugly but functional.

Also helped to use Airtable’s metadata API to grab current field options before inserting records. Let me validate choices existed and handle the mapping.

If you’re constantly dealing with dynamic data like this, might be worth checking out tools that sync and transform data between different field types.

4

Nope, Airtable’s API won’t let you add new options to single-select or multi-select fields. The field schema is locked - you can only change it manually through the web interface. I hit this same wall last year building an automation system and had to completely rethink my approach. What worked for me was ditching the select fields and using linked records instead. I made a separate table for categories and linked it to my main table. Now I can create new category records whenever I need them without running into schema limits. It’s messier to set up but gives you the flexibility you want. Trade-off is you lose the clean multi-select interface, but you get full programmatic control.