How to Make a Google Form: A Step-by-Step Guide

Google Forms is a free online tool for building surveys, quizzes, sign-up sheets, feedback forms and order forms that you can share with a single link. If you have a Google account, you already have everything you need — there is nothing to install, responses are collected automatically, and the results can be read as tidy charts or sent straight into a spreadsheet. This guide walks you through making a Google Form from scratch, step by step, then covers quizzes, the new Gemini AI helper, response limits, file uploads, privacy in New Zealand and the mistakes that trip people up.

What is Google Forms?

Google Forms is a web-based form builder that lets you collect information from other people and see their answers in one place. You create a form in your browser, share a link (or embed it on a website), and every submission is saved to the form and can be exported to Google Sheets. It is part of the same free toolkit as Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides, and it works on Windows, macOS, Chromebooks, Linux, and on phones and tablets through a browser or the Google Drive app.

Because it is browser-based, there is no software version to update and no file to email around. The form owner controls who can respond, when responses close, and who can see the results. Common uses include event RSVPs, customer feedback, job applications, class quizzes, club membership sign-ups and quick team polls.

What you need before you start

You need one thing: a Google account. A free personal account (the kind you use for Gmail) is enough to build and share unlimited forms. A paid Google Workspace account — the business and school version — adds extra controls, such as restricting a form to people inside your organisation and, on eligible plans, the Gemini AI features described below.

It also helps to decide two things in advance: what question you are actually trying to answer with the data, and who the respondents are. A form built around a clear goal is shorter, gets more completions, and is far easier to analyse afterwards.

How to make a Google Form step by step

Making a Google Form takes only a few minutes once you know the layout. The steps below follow the current 2026 interface, including the “Publish” sharing flow that replaced the old “Send” button.

Step 1 — Open Google Forms

Go to forms.google.com and sign in, or open Google Drive and choose New → Google Forms. Both routes open the form editor in your browser. On a phone, the easiest path is the Google Drive app, then New → Google Forms.

Step 2 — Start from blank or a template

You can begin with a Blank form for full control, or pick a ready-made layout from the template gallery at the top of the Forms home page. The gallery includes templates for event RSVPs, contact information, customer feedback, party invites, job applications and quizzes. Templates are a good head start for beginners; you can change every field afterwards.

Step 3 — Name and describe your form

Click Untitled form at the top and give it a clear name — this is what respondents see and what the file is called in your Drive. Add a short description underneath so people know what the form is for, how long it takes and what you will do with their answers. A one-line purpose statement noticeably improves completion rates.

Step 4 — Add your questions

Click the first question block, type your question, then use the floating toolbar on the right to add more. The + icon adds a new question, and the Add section icon (two stacked rectangles) splits a long form into separate pages, which feels less overwhelming to respondents. You can drag questions to reorder them and duplicate a question to save retyping.

Step 5 — Choose the right question type

Each question has a dropdown on the right where you pick its type. Choosing the correct type keeps answers clean and makes the results easy to chart. The main types are set out in the table below.

Step 6 — Mark questions required and add logic

Toggle Required at the bottom of any question to stop people skipping it. The three-dot menu on each question adds extra options such as answer validation (for example, force a valid email or a number within a range) and “Go to section based on answer”, which sends respondents down different paths depending on what they choose. Keep required fields to the minimum — every extra mandatory question lowers your completion rate.

Step 7 — Customise the look

Click the palette icon at the top to open Customise theme, where you can change the colour, font, header image and background. A header image or your logo makes the form feel trustworthy, which matters if you are collecting personal details. Keep it simple: one accent colour and a readable font beat a busy design.

Step 8 — Check your settings

Open the Settings tab at the top. Here you decide whether to collect email addresses, whether respondents can edit their answers after submitting, whether to show a progress bar, and the confirmation message people see after they submit. This is also where you turn the form into a quiz (see below).

Step 9 — Preview and publish

Click the eye icon to preview the form exactly as respondents will see it, then fix anything that looks off. When you are ready, click Publish in the top right. Google replaced the old “Send” button with this publish step: you choose who the responders are — Anyone with the link, or (on Workspace) only people in your organisation — and then copy the responder link. Tick Shorten URL for a tidy forms.gle address, or use the embed option to place the form on a website. A newly built form only accepts answers once it is published.

Step 10 — Collect and read responses

Switch to the Responses tab to watch answers arrive in real time. Forms shows a summary with automatic charts, an individual view for one submission at a time, and a green Sheets icon that links the form to a Google Sheet for deeper analysis. Once your data is in a spreadsheet you can total, filter and cross-tabulate it with Google Sheets formulas, or turn a summary into a slide deck with a tool like Canva slides. You can also export responses as a CSV file.

How to turn a Google Form into a quiz

To make a self-marking quiz, open Settings and switch on Make this a quiz. Each question then gains an Answer key where you set the correct answer and assign a point value, so Google Forms grades submissions automatically. You can choose to release the score immediately or after a manual review, and you can add feedback that appears for correct or incorrect answers.

Quizzes work well for classroom tests, staff training checks and self-assessment. Multiple choice, checkboxes, dropdown and short answer all support automatic grading; paragraph answers usually need a human to mark them. If you plan to reuse a quiz, duplicate the form rather than editing the original so you keep a clean master copy.

Using Gemini AI to build a form

In 2026 Google added a Gemini AI helper that can draft a whole form or quiz from a plain-English description. You type what you want — for example, “a five-question customer feedback survey for a Wellington cafe” — and Gemini generates the questions, question types and, for quizzes, the answer keys. You can then review the draft, refine your prompt, or click Recreate for a different version.

There are real limits to be aware of before you rely on it. The feature is plan-gated: it needs an eligible Google Workspace or Google AI plan and is rolling out through Google’s Workspace Experiments programme, so it is not available on every account (Business Starter is excluded) and currently works only on desktop. At the time of writing it cannot create forms with multiple sections, cannot edit an existing form (a new generation replaces the current one), and offers no way to revert to a previous version. Treat it as a fast first draft that you tidy up by hand, not a finished form.

Limiting and controlling responses

Google Forms does not impose a fixed maximum on the number of responses a form can collect. The practical ceilings come from where the data lands: a linked Google Sheet stops at 10 million cells, and file-upload answers are capped by the form owner’s Google Drive storage. For most surveys you will never reach these limits.

You can also set your own limits. Google added a native option to stop accepting responses automatically after a chosen number of submissions or on a set date and time — useful for capped events or timed quizzes. In Settings you can switch on Limit to 1 response to stop people submitting twice, but note that this forces every respondent to sign in to a Google account so the form can identify them. If your audience will not have Google accounts, leave that setting off.

File uploads in Google Forms

A file-upload question lets respondents attach documents, images or PDFs, which then land in your Google Drive. The trade-off is that adding even one file-upload question makes the whole form require sign-in — including for people who skip that question — so it is best kept for internal or known audiences rather than anonymous public surveys.

The limits are generous: respondents can attach up to 10 files per question, each file can be sized from 1 MB up to 10 GB, and the total storage a form will accept defaults to 1 GB but can be raised in the question settings. Because the files count against your Drive storage, keep an eye on space if you expect heavy uploads. If you are collecting PDFs and want to reuse their contents, you can later convert them with a PDF to Google Docs workflow.

Google Forms and your privacy in New Zealand

If you collect personal information through a Google Form — names, contact details, opinions, anything that identifies someone — you are handling personal information under New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020. The Act’s 13 Information Privacy Principles apply to businesses, clubs, schools and government bodies alike, and they expect you to collect only what you need, tell people why you are collecting it, keep it secure, and let individuals see and correct their own information.

In practice that means writing a short line in the form description explaining what the data is for and who will see it, turning off unnecessary fields such as email collection when you do not need it, and restricting the responder audience where you can. Remember that the data is stored on Google’s servers; for most personal and small-business use this is fine, but organisations with strict data-residency requirements should check their obligations before collecting sensitive information. A notifiable privacy breach — one likely to cause serious harm — must be reported to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Common mistakes to avoid

Most problems with Google Forms come from a handful of avoidable errors:

• Forgetting to publish. A form built in the new interface does not accept responses until you click Publish and share the responder link — not just the editor URL.
• Sharing the wrong link. Copying the address from your browser bar sends people to the editor (and may expose your responses). Always use the responder link from the Publish panel.
• Requiring sign-in by accident. Adding a file-upload question or the “Limit to 1 response” setting forces respondents to log in, which quietly cuts response rates for public forms.
• Using the wrong question type. Free-text where a dropdown would do creates messy, hard-to-chart data. Pick the type that matches how you want to analyse the answer.
• Too many required questions. Every mandatory field lowers completion. Make only the essentials required.
• Not testing first. Always use the preview and submit a test response yourself to confirm the logic, grading and confirmation message work as intended.

Who should use Google Forms — and the alternatives

Google Forms suits anyone who needs to gather structured information quickly and free of charge: small businesses collecting customer feedback, teachers running quizzes, clubs taking sign-ups, and teams running internal polls. It is especially handy if you already live in Google’s ecosystem, because responses drop straight into Sheets and files into Drive. You can even pair it with a Google Sheets calendar template to track event RSVPs against dates.

It is less ideal when you need advanced branching logic, payment collection, heavy branding, or offline data capture — paid tools such as Microsoft Forms, Jotform and Typeform go further there. If you would rather keep everything in a downloadable, offline document instead of the cloud, a free desktop suite is worth a look; see our roundup of OpenOffice alternatives for word-processor and spreadsheet options that run on your own machine. For most everyday survey and quiz needs, though, Google Forms is the fastest free option available.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is Google Forms free to use?

Yes. Google Forms is completely free with any Google account, including a personal Gmail account, and there is no limit on how many forms you can create. Paid Google Workspace plans add business controls and, on eligible plans, the Gemini AI features, but the core form builder costs nothing.

Do people need a Google account to fill out my form?

Usually no. Anyone with the responder link can answer a public form without signing in. However, two settings change this: turning on “Limit to 1 response” and adding any file-upload question both require respondents to sign in to a Google account.

How do I see the answers to my Google Form?

Open the Responses tab at the top of the form editor. You will see a summary with automatic charts, an individual view for each submission, and a green Sheets icon that sends all responses into a linked Google Sheet for deeper analysis. You can also download the responses as a CSV file.

Can I turn a Google Form into a self-marking quiz?

Yes. In Settings, switch on “Make this a quiz”, then set an answer key and point value for each question. Google Forms will grade multiple-choice, checkbox, dropdown and short-answer questions automatically and can release scores instantly or after your review.

How many responses can a Google Form collect?

There is no fixed maximum. The practical limits are the linked Google Sheet, which holds up to 10 million cells, and your Drive storage for any uploaded files. You can also set your own cap to close the form after a chosen number of responses or on a specific date.