Microsoft Forms lets you build surveys, quizzes and polls, send them to people who can answer in almost any web browser or on a mobile device, and watch the results arrive in real time. You sign in with a work, school or personal Microsoft account, select New Form, add your questions, and the form saves automatically while you build it.
Here's the catch. If you delete a question, Microsoft deletes it permanently along with any response data already collected for it. There's no undo for the answers. So once a form is live and responses are coming in, edit a question rather than deleting it, or you'll lose that column of data for good.
Who can use Microsoft Forms
As of October 2026, Microsoft says Forms is generally available to three groups: Office 365 Education customers, Microsoft 365 Apps for business customers, and anyone with a personal Microsoft account, which means a Hotmail, Live or Outlook.com address. If you only want to know what it costs, I've covered what Forms costs and the free account limits separately. This page is about how it works.
One thing to clear up early. Microsoft states that Forms isn't a replacement for Microsoft InfoPath. It's built for quick surveys, quizzes and polls, not complex business forms. If you need more advanced branding, question types and data analysis, Microsoft points you to Dynamics 365 Customer Voice instead.
The four steps Microsoft gives for every form
- Sign in with your Microsoft 365 work or school credentials, or your Microsoft account, and create a new form or a new quiz.
- Adjust the settings for your form or quiz.
- Send it to others and collect responses.
- Check your form results or your quiz results.
That's the whole loop. Results come in as they're submitted, Forms has built-in analytics to help you read them, and you can export everything to Excel for more analysis or for grading a quiz.
Where you can start a form
You don't have to start on the Forms website. As of October 2026 there are four routes, and two of them come with conditions that trip people up.
| Where you start | How | The condition |
|---|---|---|
| Forms on the web | Go to Microsoft Forms, or log in to Office.com, find the Microsoft 365 icons on the left and select Forms | Work, school or personal Microsoft account |
| OneDrive for work or school | Select New, then Forms for Excel, name it and select Create | Only OneDrive for work or school and new team sites connected with Microsoft 365 Groups |
| Excel for the web | Open the workbook, then select Insert, Forms, New Form | The workbook must be stored in OneDrive for work or school |
| OneNote for the web | On the Insert tab select Forms, then New Form under My Forms | Office 365 Education users only, in Class or Staff Notebooks |
If the Forms button in Excel is missing or greyed out, check where the workbook lives. Microsoft says the button only works when the file is stored in OneDrive for work or school. A workbook on your desktop or in a personal OneDrive won't show it.
How to build your first form on the web
- Go to Microsoft Forms and sign in.
- Select New Form.
- Give your form a title and, if you want, a description. Titles can have up to 90 characters and descriptions up to 1,000.
- Select Add new to add a question.
- Pick a question type, such as Choice, Text, Rating or Date. Select More question types for Ranking, Likert, File upload or Net Promoter Score.
- Select Section if you want to group your questions.
- Select Preview to see how the form looks on a computer, and use the mobile view to check it on a phone.
- Answer the questions in Preview mode and select Submit to test it, then select Back to keep editing.
You can format text as you go. Highlight words in the title or a question and choose Bold (Ctrl or Cmd plus B), Italic (Ctrl or Cmd plus I), Underline (Ctrl or Cmd plus U), Font color, Font size, Numbering or Bullets.
The question types, side by side
| Where to find it | Question types |
|---|---|
| Main menu under Add new | Choice, Text, Rating, Date |
| More question types | Ranking, Likert, File upload, Net Promoter Score |
| Structure | Section, to organise questions into groups |
Once you've got the basics, Microsoft lists the next layer: a form theme, a picture or logo in the form header, pictures or videos next to questions, sections, branching logic and templates to start from.
Sharing, collaboration and the rest of Office
Forms has two separate kinds of sharing, and it's worth knowing which you want. You can collaborate with colleagues on the same form or quiz, or you can share it as a template so someone else gets their own copy to use independently.
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You can also put a form inside other Microsoft tools. Microsoft lists inserting a form or quiz into PowerPoint and into OneNote for the web, creating, editing and collaborating on one in Microsoft Teams, and using the Microsoft Forms web part. If you want each new response to kick off something else, such as a message or a new row somewhere, that's a job for a flow in Power Automate.
My verdict on Microsoft Forms
For a small business already on Microsoft 365, Forms is the obvious first choice for a customer survey, an event sign-up or a quick team poll. It saves as you go, the answers land live, and they export to Excel. Two habits will save you pain: test every form in Preview before you send it, and never delete a question once responses are in. If you need heavier branding or deeper analysis, Microsoft itself says look elsewhere, and if you're comparing outside the Microsoft world, I've also looked at the Typeform free plan.
Forms is a good way to start collecting what your customers think. Turning those answers into something your team acts on is where the time savings are. I run AI training and workshops for teams, and help businesses with AI enablement, AI automation and GEO, which is about getting your business seen and cited in AI answers. Most of that work is with SaaS marketing teams and small businesses. Here's how we can work together.
Frequently asked questions
Who can use Microsoft Forms?
Microsoft says Forms is generally available to Office 365 Education customers, Microsoft 365 Apps for business customers, and users with a Microsoft account (Hotmail, Live or Outlook.com).
How long can a Microsoft Forms title be?
Form titles can have up to 90 characters and descriptions can have up to 1,000 characters.
Does Microsoft Forms save automatically?
Yes. Your form is saved automatically while you create it.
What happens if I delete a question in Microsoft Forms?
It's permanently deleted along with any response data that's been collected for it.
Can I export Microsoft Forms results?
Yes. You can see results in real time, use built-in analytics, and export results to Excel for more analysis or grading.
