QR code for a Google Form

A Google Form has two addresses: the one you see while building it, and the one respondents should get. Only the second belongs in a QR code.

1. Open the form in the editor and choose Send.
2. Select the link option (shown as a chain-link icon) rather than email or embed.
3. Tick Shorten URL. The link changes to a short forms.gle/… address.
4. Copy it and paste it into the generator.

The short link matters more than it looks. A full viewform URL runs to around a hundred characters, which produces a noticeably denser code than the short version; on a small handout that is the difference between a code that scans at a glance and one that needs a steady hand. How much data a QR code can hold shows why.

The biggest cause of lost responses is not the code; it is a form that asks phone users to sign in to Google before they can answer. Many people scanning a code are not signed in to a Google account in their phone’s browser, and most of them will close the page rather than log in.

Look in the form’s settings, under the responses options, for these:

• Restrict to users in your organisation. Common on work and school accounts, and sometimes on by default. Anyone outside the organisation is blocked.
• Collecting verified email addresses. Forces a Google sign-in so the address can be confirmed. Choosing the option where respondents type their email instead avoids it.
• Limit to one response. Needs a sign-in to know who has already answered.
• File upload questions. Also require respondents to sign in.

Some of these are worth the trade — a staff-only survey should be restricted. Just make the choice deliberately, knowing it costs responses from anyone not already signed in.

Test in a private or incognito window on a phone before printing. You are signed in as the owner on your own devices, so the form will look open to you even when it is not to everyone else.

• Event sign-in sheets. A code at the door replaces a clipboard and a queue, and the list arrives already typed; see the event QR code generator.
• Classroom exit tickets. A code projected for the last two minutes of a lesson collects answers from every student; see QR codes in presentations for sizing on a screen.
• Feedback surveys. On a counter card, a receipt, or the last slide of a talk.
• RSVPs. On an invitation or a poster, with the deadline in the caption.

Put the code where people are when they have the answer: the feedback card at the exit, the sign-in code at the entrance, the exit ticket at the end of the lesson. A form code on a poster across town gets scanned far less than one at the point of use. Caption it with what it is and how long it takes — “Two-minute feedback survey” — because that is what decides whether people bother.

When the event is over or the survey has enough answers, turn off accepting responses in the form’s Responses tab rather than deleting the form. Anyone who scans an old code then sees a short message saying the form is closed — which you can edit to point them somewhere useful.

Deleting the form, or the account that owns it, breaks the link, and every printed code with it. The code itself never expires — a static code simply holds the URL — so its lifespan is the form’s lifespan. Do QR codes expire? covers this in more detail.

• For a recurring event, reuse one form and clear old responses, so last year’s printed code still works.
• Make the form from an account that will still exist next year, not a personal account of someone who might leave.
• Codes from this site are static, so they cannot be re-pointed after printing and count no scans. The form’s own response count is your measure.

Paste your forms.gle link and download the code:Generate a QR code