Survey Completion Time Calculator
Enter how many questions of each type your survey has. You'll get an estimated completion time and a drop-off risk band — most useful for comparing two drafts of the same survey before you send it.
Free, no signup, and everything is calculated in your browser.
10 questions · typical range 1:27–3:18
Per-question timings are published heuristics, not measurements of your audience. They’re useful for comparing two drafts of the same survey, not for promising a completion time.
How the estimate works
Each question type is assigned a typical number of seconds — 8 for a multiple choice, 20 for short text, 60 for an open-ended long-text question — plus overhead for the welcome screen and page transitions.
These constants are published heuristics, not measurements of your audience. They're shown openly rather than hidden, because an estimate you can't inspect isn't worth much.
Completion time is right-skewed: a few people take far longer than the median, which is why a range is shown rather than a single figure.
Questions people ask
How long should a survey be?
Under five minutes for most external audiences. Past seven minutes drop-off climbs sharply, and past twelve you're relying on goodwill or an incentive.
Should I tell people how long it takes?
Yes, and be accurate. An honest "about 3 minutes" outperforms silence, and an optimistic one that turns out to be wrong costs you completions and trust.
Further reading
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