I’m building an automated workflow in Airtable that needs to fetch live currency exchange rates from an external API. My base has a table where I track financial transactions, and I want the automation to automatically pull the current USD exchange rate whenever a new record gets added.
I’ve set up the basic automation trigger, but I’m stuck on how to actually make the HTTP request to get the rate data. Does Airtable automation support making outbound API calls? If so, what’s the proper way to configure this in the automation script? I need to send a GET request and then use the response data to update my record fields.
Yeah, totally doable. Built something similar for expense tracking at work last year.
Script actions work great for this. Pro tip - don’t just grab the rate and update immediately. Always validate the response first since currency APIs sometimes return null values or weird formats during maintenance.
Something like:
if (data && data.rates && data.rates.USD) {
// then update your record
}
Watch out for API limits too. Free ones can be pretty restrictive. I switched to a paid tier after our automation kept failing during busy periods. Few extra bucks saved me way more headaches than dealing with broken records.
Also - log your API responses while testing. Airtable’s script logs saved me when the API structure changed slightly and broke my parsing logic.
Absolutely possible with script actions. I do this exact thing for inventory cost calculations. One thing that tripped me up at first - make sure your whole function is async and you await both the fetch call and record updates. Also throw in some basic error handling for when the API goes down or sends back weird data. I learned this the hard way when my automation broke over a weekend and left dozens of records half-finished. Another tip - cache the exchange rate if you’re processing multiple records quickly. Most currency APIs only update every few minutes anyway, and you’ll hit their rate limits fast if you’re hammering them with requests.
for sure! u can do it with Airtable’s script action in automations. just use fetch() for the GET request - let response = await fetch('your-api-url') and then let data = await response.json() to get the rates. then update your record fields after that!
Yes, Airtable automations can definitely make outbound API calls using the Script action. I’ve done this before and here’s what works: set up your trigger, then add a Script action with standard fetch API syntax. Always wrap it in try-catch blocks because external APIs fail more than you’d think. If your automation runs a lot, watch out for rate limits - most currency APIs cap your requests. Pro tip: store the API response in a temp variable first, then parse out the exchange rate you actually need.
Been doing this for months - works great. One thing though: handle timeouts because some currency APIs are ridiculously slow. Set a timeout on your fetch or you’ll have automations hanging forever. Also consider caching rates in a temp table so you don’t spam the API when multiple records get added at once.