How do we calculate time to complete a survey?
When participants take a survey, they're given an estimate of how long it might take them to complete. This appears on the survey welcome page, and in the emails they receive about the survey: the invitation, any reminders, and the email sent if you extend the closing date.
By default we work this out for you, based on:
- how many questions are in the survey, and
- the question types are included (e.g. Agree-Disagree).
It is roughly 30 seconds per free-text question and 8.5 seconds for all other questions. Free-text questions take longer to answer because they require participants to enter their own answers rather than select from a list of predefined answers.
Setting your own estimated time
If the calculated time doesn't feel right for your survey, you can set your own. This is useful when your survey has lots of comment boxes, long free-text questions, or steps that happen outside the survey itself, as the calculation can't account for those.
To set your own time:
- Go to Step 2: Settings in the create survey flow.
- Find Estimated time.
- Choose a time from the list.
The list is set to Automatic (based on your questions) by default. The other options are:
- 1 to 2 minutes
- 3 to 5 minutes
- 5 to 10 minutes
- 10 to 15 minutes
- 15 to 20 minutes
- 20 to 25 minutes
- 25 to 30 minutes
- 30 to 45 minutes
- more than 45 minutes
Whatever you choose is what participants see everywhere the estimate appears: the welcome page, the survey invitation, reminders, and the message sent if you extend the closing date. Your choice replaces the calculated time completely, including the skip logic range described above.
You can change it at any time, or set it back to Automatic to use the calculated time again.
Impact of skip logic of time to complete
If you've used skip logic in your survey, we calculate the shortest and longest paths a participant could take and display the middle range.
For example:
- shortest path (lowest possible number of questions that could be asked) = 2 to 5 mins
- longest path (highest possible number of questions that could be asked) = 10 to15 mins
Estimated time to complete survey is then = 5 to 10 mins
This applies when your estimated time is set to Automatic. If you've chosen a time yourself, participants see your chosen time instead.