How to Make a Google Form: Publish, Share, View Responses

Making a Google Form takes a few steps. Open a blank form at forms.google.com, add your questions, then click Publish at the top right and send the responder link. Responses appear in the Responses tab of the form or in a linked Google Sheets spreadsheet. The form creation steps follow the Google Help article how to use Google Forms, and the reference date is October 14, 2026.

Make a Google Form in 4 steps

According to Google Help, you can create a form in three places. The simplest is to click Blank form on the Google Forms home page (forms.google.com). In Google Sheets, choose Tools > Create a new form. In Google Drive, choose New > Google Forms. If you create the form from a spreadsheet, responses go straight into a new sheet.

1. Open a blank form and type the form name where it says 'Untitled form'.
2. Add questions and pick a question type. Turn on Required for questions that must be answered.
3. Click Publish at the top right and choose who can respond.
4. Send the responder link, then check incoming answers in the Responses tab.

Choose a question type by the shape of the answer

Pick the question type based on the kind of answer you want. Use short answer for short values, multiple choice to let people pick one option, and checkboxes to let them pick several. The 12 types in Google's question type guide are as follows.

Question type	Answer you get
Short answer	A word or two (you can set a maximum character rule)
Paragraph	Several sentences (you can set minimum and maximum character rules)
Multiple choice	One of the options (you can add an Other option)
Checkboxes	Several options (you can add an Other option)
Dropdown	One item from a list
File upload	A file uploaded by the responder. Responders must sign in to a Google account
Linear scale	A scale starting at 0 or 1 (ending at 2 to 10)
Rating	A rating from 3 to 10 using stars, hearts, or thumbs up
Multiple choice grid	One column per row
Checkbox grid	Several columns per row
Date	A date (year and time are available in the more menu)
Time	A time of day or a duration

File upload is not available for forms stored in a shared drive or forms with data loss prevention enabled. A form with a file upload question requires responders to sign in with a Google account, so collect text values such as name and contact details with short answer.

Set response options and publish the form

Before publishing, set the response conditions under Settings at the top right. The publish and share a form help page lists three settings.

• Limit to 1 response: Turn it on under 'Responses' so each person can submit only once.
• Allow response editing: Responders can change their answers after submitting.
• View summary charts: Turn it on under 'Presentation' to show aggregated results to responders.

When settings are done, click Publish at the top right. An unpublished form cannot collect responses. After publishing, Published appears at the top right, and you can copy the responder link from that button. To choose who can respond, add specific users or groups under Manage, or open the form to anyone with the link under 'General access'.

Share a Google Form link or embed it

Send the form to responders by link, email, or embed it in a web page. According to Google Help, you can copy the link from the Preview, Published, or Share menu, and choosing Shorten URL after publishing gives you a short address. To put the form directly in the body of an email, the form must have no file upload or rating questions, no images in questions or options, and no security quiz. If it has any of these, send only the link.

To send a form with some answers filled in ahead of time, fill in the fields under Get pre-filled link in the more menu, then copy the link. To put the form on a blog or website, choose the HTML embed option in the more menu and paste the copied code. Both methods are in Google's publish and share a form help page.

Check Google Form responses and link a spreadsheet

According to the Google Forms responses help page, the Responses tab at the top of the form shows content only when there is at least one response. Open Responses > Summary for an overview, or Responses > Individual to view one person at a time. To see the answers as a table, click the Sheets icon at the top right of the same screen to open them in a spreadsheet.

According to the help page Choose where to store form responses, you set the destination sheet under Responses > Summary > More > Select response destination, using Create a new spreadsheet or Select existing spreadsheet. If you click Unlink form, new responses no longer go to the sheet, and data already collected stays. To get an email each time a response comes in, turn on Responses > More > Get email notifications for new responses.

You can check that the form works by opening the published link and submitting it once yourself. It worked if the Responses tab shows 1 response and the same content appears in the linked sheet. The Responses tab only appears when there is at least one response.

Google Forms response limit

According to Google Help, from September 2026 a single form accepts up to 500,000 responses and 1GB of total storage. Files uploaded by responders do not count toward this storage. When you reach the limit, the owner can download existing responses, delete them, and continue collecting. Google advises closing the form before deleting. For long-running forms, download responses on a regular schedule.

Frequently asked questions

Can I export Google Form responses to Excel?

According to Google Help, use Responses > More > Download responses (.csv) to get a CSV file.

How do I stop accepting responses partway through?

Click Published at the top right of the published form, then turn off Accepting responses. You can also set an end date or a response limit under 'Accept responses' (Google Help).

Can responders edit the answers they submitted?

If you turn on Allow response editing under 'Responses' in settings, responders can edit their submitted answers (Google Help).