Skip to content

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey hosts surveys and puts the answers in an analysis view. How you share the survey affects who can answer and what identifying information is recorded.

Visit SurveyMonkey

Should you share one link or invite people individually?

A Web Link is public by default. An Email Invitation can help you track who was invited and who responded. SurveyMonkey calls each way of distributing a survey a collector, and each collector can have its own settings.

If you want to keep identities out of the results, turn on Anonymous Responses for each collector. For a Web Link, choose On. Web Links otherwise record IP addresses in results by default. For an Email Invitation, choose the option to exclude all respondent information. The option to exclude only personal information can still keep other contact data in the results.

Leave identifying questions, contact data and link variables out of the survey setup. Respondent Authentication uses the person’s sign-in profile, so a survey with that option enabled is never anonymous. SurveyMonkey also documents separate handling of IP addresses in its own logs.

Can you take the actual answers into a spreadsheet?

The Analyze results area shows question summaries and individual responses. Paid plans support result exports. Choose individual responses if you need each person’s answers on the same row, then select CSV when the export options allow it.

A question summary helps you report how common an answer was. Individual rows help you see which answers were given together. Review exported columns before sharing them so contact details and other respondent information go only to the people who need them.

What should you verify before sending a link?

Use a separate sample survey with no real invitations, customer details or connected services. Confirm the collector and destination are for the sample before you submit. If you can’t confirm that, inspect the collector options without opening or answering the survey.

  1. Inspect the invitation method
    Decide what the sample should record about the respondent and check the actual collector settings.
  2. Try the respondent view
    Use a private window to send a made-up answer. Check what appears when you finish. The default is a SurveyMonkey page. Available alternatives depend on the collector and plan.
  3. Check the result
    Find the sample in Analyze and compare the visible respondent fields to what you expected.

What happens when you reach a response limit?

Basic limits how many responses you can view per survey. Do not read that as a promise that the survey stops collecting at the limit. SurveyMonkey says over-limit responses are hidden and later deleted.

If an account-wide allowance applies to your self-serve plan, responses across surveys count together per billing cycle. As of November 2026, the help page lists an overage charge of USD 0.15 per extra response in that case. Check the plan and billing cycle before sending widely.