What is Google Forms? Differences from Microsoft Forms

About this article

This article was generated using an automated workflow powered by generative AI.

Google Forms is not just a survey creation interface, but is organized as an input entry point in Google Workspace to "distribute questions, collect responses, and link to Sheets and other tools." Based on the official Google Forms product page, help documentation, and Forms API documentation, this guide summarizes the differences from Microsoft Forms, automation, and authentication for beginners.

Information Verification Date: September 19, 2026

Conclusion First: What is Google Forms?

Google Forms is a form service provided by Google that allows users to create surveys, application forms, quizzes, and tests in a browser and collect responses. You can combine multiple question formats, share them with respondents, and review the results.

You can also create a form from Google Sheets and automatically save responses to a spreadsheet. In Google Workspace, it is best understood as an "entry point for gathering information" when combined with Drive and Sheets.

Where is it located within Google's ecosystem?

flowchart LR
  Creator[作成者] --> Forms[Google Forms]
  Forms --> Respondent[回答者]
  Respondent --> Forms
  Forms --> Response[回答データ]
  Response --> Sheets[Google Sheets]
  Forms --> Drive[Google Drive]
  API[Forms API / Apps Script] <--> Forms

Rather than looking at Forms alone,Input = Forms -> Accumulation and Aggregation = Sheets -> Automated Processing = Apps Script/APIYou can understand the roles by looking at this workflow.

What can you do?

1. Create surveys and application forms

You can create forms by combining multiple question formats such as multiple-choice and text input. They can be shared via email or links, and can also be embedded in websites or blogs.

2. Create quizzes and tests

You can configure forms as quizzes, setting up answer keys, scores, and automated feedback. This can be used for checking comprehension after training or for simple internal tests.

3. Collect and analyze responses

Responses can be viewed in Forms and can also be linked to Google Sheets to be handled as a spreadsheet. Once passed to Sheets, you can sort, aggregate, chart, and develop further post-processing using Apps Script.

4. Control respondents

You can publish forms and share them with respondents. Depending on your settings, limiting responses to one per user requires a Google account login. Checking your settings to match your use case, such as whether to collect email addresses, is important.

5. Manage forms via API

The Google Forms API is a RESTful API.REST APIA REST API is a standard mechanism that uses HTTP to manipulate service data and features from applications.

The Forms API allows you to create and modify forms and quizzes, retrieve responses, fetch form content and metadata, and configure notifications.

Differences from Microsoft Forms

For Microsoft 365 users, thinking of it as the Google equivalent of Microsoft Forms is a good starting point. Both allow you to create surveys, quizzes, and polls, but they differ in their surrounding services and automation infrastructure.

Microsoft Forms allows real-time viewing of response results, built-in analytics, and export to Excel. Google Forms has a strong integration with Sheets, making it natural to flow from data collection to spreadsheet processing within Google Workspace.

Comprehension method for those with Microsoft experienceis to map the Microsoft Forms to Excel workflow to Google Forms to Google Sheets. However, do not assume permissions, APIs, and automation methods are identical; verify the respective management and development foundations.

Who is this relevant to?

General users and office workers

• Attendance confirmation

• Internal surveys

• Post-training comprehension tests

• Event registration

• Inquiry intake

• Equipment and work request intake

Initially, just three steps are sufficient: create a form, submit a test response yourself, and view the response list.

IT administrators

Verify respondent scope, external sharing, collection of personal information, storage destinations, retention policies, etc. Do not collect names, email addresses, or sensitive information simply because it is convenient; limit items to those necessary for the purpose.

Developers

Using the Forms API or Apps Script allows you to progress to creating standard forms, retrieving form content, collecting responses, and processing using notifications.

What can you do with the Forms API?

The official Google Forms API primarily handles the following.

What is a push notification?It is a mechanism where, rather than the application repeatedly checking for updates, you receive notifications triggered by changes in the target.

Note that there are functional differences between the REST API and the Forms Service in Apps Script. When automating, do not assume that all form operations can be done via the API; check the official documentation to see which service supports the required operations.

Google Cloud Project and Authentication for API Usage

If you are simply creating Google Forms in a browser, you do not need to set up a Google Cloud Project yourself.

When using the Forms API from a custom application, you must enable the Forms API in your Google Cloud Project and configure authentication and authorization such as OAuth.

OAuthis a mechanism that grants authorization—allowing an app to perform specific operations within a defined scope—without passing the password itself to the application.

OAuth scopesdefine these permission limits. For operations that only require reading, a best practice is not to request unnecessary write permissions.

sequenceDiagram
  participant U as 利用者
  participant A as 自作アプリ
  participant O as Google OAuth
  participant F as Forms API
  U->>A: フォーム情報を確認
  A->>O: 必要な権限を要求
  O->>U: 同意画面
  U-->>O: 許可
  O-->>A: アクセス許可
  A->>F: forms.get / responses.list等
  F-->>A: フォーム・回答情報

Important Note for 2026: Publishing Forms Created via API

Google is modifying the publishing behavior of the Forms API. Official documentation states thatnew forms created via the API after June 30, 2026, will be unpublished by default.

Consequently, successfully creating a form via the API does not mean respondents can submit answers. You must explicitly configure publication settings as needed and verify that the form is ready to accept responses.

This is a critical point to watch out for when using older sample code as-is.

Safely Experimenting via the GUI

Creating a small form via the GUI before using the API makes the concepts easier to understand.

1. Create a blank form in Google Forms.

2. Set the title to "Test Questionnaire".

3. Add a multiple-choice question: "Did you understand today's explanation?"

4. Submit a test response yourself.

5. Confirm under [Responses] that one submission has been recorded.

6. Connect to Sheets if necessary and verify that the response data is visible as a single row.

Success criteriais that the responses submitted from the form can be viewed on the Forms response screen.

If you change just one place, change the question type from "Multiple choice" to "Short answer". You can experience how form design alters the data that is easy to aggregate later versus free-text data.

To test safely using the API, start with "Read"

When learning the API using an existing form, rather than suddenly performing deletions or bulk updates, it is safer to start with a read operation such as forms.get() getting the form content first.

Verification point: The returned title and question structure match the test form.

Success criteria: Being able to retrieve the intended form metadata rather than encountering an HTTP error.

The single modification to make is to specify the target form only in your local execution environment rather than saving actual IDs in articles or GitHub. Do not save OAuth tokens, client secrets, etc., in the repository.

Pricing, Accounts, and Delivery Formats

Google Forms can be used with a Google account, and organizational use involves Google Workspace contract and management settings. Because feature differences and pricing by edition are subject to change, verify the current official Google Workspace page when making deployment decisions.

There are usage limits for the API. Google officially sets quotas for the Forms API on a per-project and per-user basis, and states that HTTP 429 is generally returned when limits are exceeded. Quota checking is required for high-volume automated processing.

Security and Personally Identifiable Information

• Do not include unnecessary personal information as question items.

• Verify the target respondents before making the form publicly available.

• When exporting response data to Sheets, also verify the sharing settings of that Sheet.

• Use the minimum necessary OAuth scopes for the API.

• Do not store OAuth tokens, client secrets, or Service Account JSON files in GitHub.

• Do not embed real email addresses, account IDs, or form IDs in samples.

• Perform testing using dummy data.

Official Information

• Google Forms Official Product Page

• Google Forms Help: Publish a Form and Share with Respondents

• Google Forms Help: Create and Grade Quizzes

• Google Forms API Overview

• Google Forms API: Retrieve Forms and Responses

• Google Forms API: Usage Limits

• Google Forms API: API Changes

• What is Microsoft Forms (Official Microsoft Documentation)

What Should You Do Next?

For general users and administrative staff, start by creating a test form with only three questions, submit a response yourself, and link the responses to Sheets.

For IT administrators, verify external response settings, email address collection, and the sharing scope of the Sheets document where response data is stored.

For developers, set up a test Cloud Project and a dummy form, and begin with the Forms API Quickstart or read operations. For forms created via the API after June 30, 2026, include public status verification in your test items.

Papanda TRY: Experience the Forms to Sheets workflow once

A demo creating a fictional "PC Lending Request" form, submitting a single response, and verifying that a row is added to the destination Sheets is ideal. Apps Script can also be used to integrate Forms and Sheets and process form submissions via triggers.

Success Criteria: One test response is added as a single row to Sheets. Next, add a single choice option, submit a response, and verify the changes in columns and values. Daily Code Candidate:google-forms-to-sheets-demo。

What kind of service is it overall?

Google Forms isa service within Google Workspace used to create an entry point for gathering information from people.

While its use cases are very similar to Microsoft Forms, it is easier to understand Google Forms by focusing on how it connects to Drive, Sheets, Apps Script, and the Forms API. Office workers can use it for surveys and registration forms, administrators can use it for sharing and personal data management, and developers can gradually scale it up to automation using APIs and OAuth.

The most straightforward way to start is by building a simple form via the GUI and reviewing the responses in Google Sheets.