Question types

You build your typeform out of questions. Here are all the different question types that you can use to create your typeform.

You’ll find all the questions in the Create panel. To get here, log in to your account, open an existing typeform or start a new one, and the Create panel will open. Click on the Add new question icon to open the menu:

You can change an individual question's type from the drop-down menu under Question settings, in the right-hand sidebar. Read on to learn more about the Question panel:

Note! You will not be able to change the question type of Calendly, Welcome Screen, Ending, or Question Group blocks.

Here’s the question menu. Read on for a short description of each question type, and links to further reading:

Contact info

Phone Number

Whenever you’re collecting contact details, this question is what you need for phone numbers. It lets respondents choose their country code, and each country is configured so they can only enter a correctly formatted number. Read more about Phone Number.

Email

This only accepts correctly formatted email addresses as answers: [e-mail]. If someone tries to add text in the wrong format, they will see a warning message, and have to try again.

Website

Use this to collect websites and links from your respondents.

Date & scheduling

Date

The Date question allows people to select a date, in the three most common formats:

Month-Day-Year

Year-Month-Day

Day-Month-Year

For more details, read about Date here.

Calendly

Use the Calendly app to find a convenient time to meet with respondents. Learn more about Calendly appointments here.

File upload

File Upload

Let people upload files to typeforms. Great for job applications, this question type is available on our paid plans. Learn more in this article.

Text

Short Text

If you want a short written answer from people, this is what you need. You can choose a character limit for answers, from 0-999 characters.

Long Text

This is ideal if you want people to write you long answers. You can also choose a character limit, like with Short text questions. If you don’t use Character limit, answers can be as long as people want!

Payment

Payment

If you’re making a shopping basket or asking for donations, our Payment question lets you do that safely and securely. This question type is available on our paid plans. Find out more about Payment.

Legal & consent

Legal

This allows you to add a legal note/disclaimer to your typeform. If you need people to agree to your Legal question to complete your typeform and submit responses, set this question as Required.

Number

Number

This only accepts numbers as an answer. When you want to know how many of something someone wants, use this to make sure they give you a numerical answer. The number question only supports positive whole numbers of up to fifteen digits – you cannot use decimal points, or negative numbers.

For ZIP codes you must use the Short Text question type.

Rating & ranking

Ranking

Use this to let people rank their choices. When people see this question, they'll be able to select a number from the dropdown list to choose the order of options. Read more about Ranking.

Opinion Scale

This lets people give a rating from one to ten. You can define the range with the steps tool. Read more about Opinion Scale.

Rating

Give people a visual way to rate something. You can use stars, crowns, cats and many more! Read more about Rating.

Matrix

This question type lets your respondents evaluate one or more row items within a set of column choices. You can also create Likert Scale questions with this question type. Find out more about Matrix.

NPS®

NPS® is a research metric commonly used to ask people how likely they are to recommend a company, product or service to someone on a scale from 0 to 10. Respondents are grouped into promoters (a rating of 9 or 10), passives (a rating of 7 or 8), and detractors (a rating of 6 or lower). Learn more about NPS®.

Choices

Multiple Choice

Use this when you want to offer a range of answers to a question. You can also allow multiple selections. Read more about Multiple Choice.

Picture Choice

This is like Multiple Choice, but instead you can give people a choice of images. Find out more about Picture Choice.

Yes/No

Use this for closed questions – where the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Dropdown

If you want to give people many options to choose from, a dropdown question is a neat solution. It’s ideal for something like selecting year of birth, or country of origin. Read about Dropdown here.

Form structure

Welcome Screen

Make a great first impression! Read more about Welcome Screens.

Endings

All typeforms finish with an Ending screen by default, and you can customize them to your heart's content – read more here.

Statement

When you want to say something, but don’t need an answer, this is what you need. Add a quote, or inspiring message to your typeform with a Statement. These are great for making a pause or introducing the next part of your typeform.

Question Group

These are great if you have lots of questions, and want to organize them thematically, or break your typeform into parts. Find out more about Question Groups.

Question settings

Every question type has a settings menu that you'll find on the right side of the screen in the Question panel. 

Here you can set your question to Required, set the maximum number of characters for responses, add an image or video and more. See each question type article for more (see above).

Every question also has a Question reference. These refs are for developers using our APIs – it’s a unique identifier that allows you to easily identify each question in your code. Clicking Block references in the Settings panel allows you to change this reference to whatever you like:

Note! The Question reference field will accept any alpha character (a-z, A-Z), any digit (0-9), ‘-‘ (dash), and ‘_’ (underscore). It will not accept any special characters such as $#%&, spaces, or empty text. If you are see an “Argh” error when setting your refs, make sure you’re not using any special characters.

Do you want to improve your customer journey? Are you perfecting the employee experience? Then write brilliant survey questions that get actionable feedback.