I’m working with the AirTable API and I’m getting way too much information back from my requests. When I call the API endpoint for my database table, it returns all the columns and data for every record. This is creating a lot of unnecessary data transfer and making my app slower.
What I really need is to only get specific fields back, like just the movie titles from my Movies table instead of all the details like director, year, genre, etc. I’ve been trying different parameters in my API call but I keep getting errors or the same massive response.
Is there a way to specify which fields I want returned? I’m pretty new to working with REST APIs so I might be missing something obvious. Any help would be great!
yea use the fields param in ur API call, like ?fields[]=Movie%20Title for just titles. u can add more fields as needed. dont forget to replace spaces with %20. it really helps with the amount of data u get!
Yeah, use the fields parameter - here’s the exact syntax since it’s tricky at first.
Add fields as a query parameter with your exact field names:
https://api.airtable.com/v0/YOUR_BASE_ID/Movies?fields=Movie%20Title
For multiple fields, repeat the parameter:
https://api.airtable.com/v0/YOUR_BASE_ID/Movies?fields=Movie%20Title&fields=Director
I hit this same issue building a dashboard that only needed names and IDs. My response size dropped from 2MB to 200KB just by limiting fields.
Watch out - field names must match exactly what’s in Airtable, including spaces and caps. If you’re getting errors, check your spelling.
If you’re using axios or fetch, make sure you URL encode field names properly. Some libraries do this automatically, others don’t.
The fields parameter works great, but try bracket notation if you’re running into encoding problems. Structure it like fields[]=Movie%20Title&fields[]=Director instead of repeating the parameter - it’s way more reliable across different HTTP clients. One thing that tripped me up: Airtable field names are case-sensitive and you need to match special characters exactly. Got a field called “Movie Title (Original)”? Those parentheses better be perfect. This filtering happens server-side, so you’ll actually see performance gains in response time and bandwidth. I’ve cut API response times in half by limiting to 2-3 essential fields instead of pulling everything. Makes a huge difference when you’re dealing with tables that have image attachments or long text fields.
