How we calculate responses

Wondering how your responses add up?

A response is counted towards your account whenever a participant takes one of your surveys. It doesn't matter how many questions the survey has or how many of them they answer: one person taking one survey is one response. So if you have a 3 question survey and a participant fills out the whole thing, you tally up 1 response. If they stop after the first question, that's still 1 response.

Each question they answer is tracked separately as an answer. Answers are shown throughout your dashboard so you can see how much data each question is collecting, but they don't count toward your plan limit.

Previews of your own surveys from the Zigpoll dashboard and synthetic (AI) research never count as responses.

Responses, answers, and write-ins

You'll see three different counters on your dashboard and in the API. Here's what each one means:

• Responses — one participant taking your survey. This is the number your plan limit applies to.

• Answers — one question answered by one participant. A single response can produce many answers, one for each question they answer.

• Write-ins — free-text content given back (short answers, long answers, dynamic "other" inputs). A subset of your answers, tracked separately so you can see how much qualitative feedback you're collecting.

A 3 question survey completed by 10 participants would show 10 responses and 30 answers.

Synthetic research has its own separate monthly quota per plan, measured in synthetic answers. It never counts toward your response limit.

When a repeat visit counts again

By default a survey can only be taken once per participant, so returning to a survey you already started continues the same response rather than starting a new one. If you turn on Allow Resubmissions in the survey's settings, every fresh start of the survey is a new response.