How to Close a Google Form (Stop Accepting Responses, Add a Closed Message, Reopen)
Dvir Atias
Jul 14, 2026
How to Close a Google Form
To close a Google Form, open the form in edit view, click the Responses tab at the top, and turn off the Accepting responses toggle. The moment you switch it off, the form stops taking new submissions and anyone who opens the link sees a message saying the form is no longer accepting responses. Nothing you have already collected is deleted, and you can turn the toggle back on at any time to reopen.
That is the whole task in one sentence. The rest of what teachers usually want to know sits around that toggle: how to leave a polite closed message, how to do it from a phone, why there is no button to close the form automatically at a set time, and how to reopen when you are ready. This guide walks through each one honestly, including the part where Google Forms simply cannot do what you might expect.
How to close a Google Form for responses
The core steps take about ten seconds:
- Open your form in edit view (the screen where you build questions), not the live answering view.
- Click the Responses tab near the top of the form, next to Questions and Settings.
- Find the Accepting responses toggle. It sits at the top of the Responses tab and is green or filled in when the form is open.
- Click the toggle so it switches off. The label changes to Not accepting responses.
Once it is off, the form is closed. You do not need to save anything and you do not need to unpublish or delete the link. The link stays the same, so if you reopen later, everyone you already shared it with can still use it.
How to close a Google Form from accepting responses with a custom message
When you switch the toggle off, a text field appears labeled something like Message for respondents. This is the note anyone sees if they open your form after it has closed. The default message is generic, so it is worth replacing with something that tells people what happened and what to do next.
Good closed messages answer three questions in a sentence or two:
- Is this closed on purpose or broken? ("This form is now closed.")
- Why did it close? ("The sign-up window ended on Friday.")
- What should I do if I still need something? ("Email me if you missed the deadline.")
Type your message into the field and it saves automatically. You can edit it as often as you like while the form is closed. If you reopen the form, the message is simply hidden again until the next time you close it.
How to close a Google Form on mobile
There is no separate Google Forms editing app, so on a phone you close a form the same way you would on a laptop: through a browser. On both Android and iPhone the steps are the same.
- Open your phone's browser and go to the form's edit link, or open Google Drive and tap the form to edit it.
- If the page loads in the live answering view, tap the link or icon that opens the editor (you must be signed in as the form owner).
- Tap the Responses tab.
- Tap the Accepting responses toggle to switch it off.
The mobile browser layout is narrower, so the Responses tab may sit under a menu rather than across the top, but the toggle behaves exactly the same. Editing a form in the small Google Forms view on a phone can be fiddly, so if you have a laptop nearby it is usually faster there. The result is identical either way.
Can you schedule a Google Form to close automatically?
This is the honest limitation: Google Forms has no built-in scheduler. There is no native setting that says "close this form at 5 pm on Friday" or "close after 30 responses". If a deadline matters, you have to flip the Accepting responses toggle off yourself at the right time.
Teachers work around this in three practical ways:
- Set a reminder and close it manually. The simplest and most reliable method. Put the deadline in your calendar and switch the toggle when it arrives.
- Use an add-on. Third-party add-ons built for Google Forms can watch the clock or the response count and flip the form closed for you. That is genuinely useful for hard deadlines, but it means installing and trusting an add-on, so treat it as an extra step rather than a native feature.
- Control the window a different way. If the reason you want an automatic close is to keep a quiz to a fixed time window, a timer solves the same problem from the other direction. Formswrite Proctor adds a timer to a Google Forms quiz and turns it into a timed test, so the assessment ends when the clock runs out rather than depending on you closing the form at the exact minute.
The key point is to not go looking for a native scheduler setting that does not exist. Plan around the manual toggle, or add a tool that fills the gap.
How to reopen a Google Form
Reopening is the same toggle in reverse. Go to the Responses tab and switch Accepting responses back on. The form starts taking submissions immediately and the closed message disappears for anyone who opens the link. Because the link never changed, you do not need to reshare it, though a quick reminder to your class never hurts.
One thing to watch: reopening does not reset or clear existing responses. New submissions are simply added to the ones you already have. If you wanted a clean slate, you would need to make a copy of the form or export and clear responses separately.
What closing a Google Form does not do
Closing the form controls new submissions only. It does not:
- Delete existing responses. Everything collected before you closed is untouched and still in your responses and linked spreadsheet.
- Notify respondents. People are not told the form closed unless they try to open it and read your message.
- Lock editing. You can still edit questions while the form is closed, which is handy for fixing a typo before you reopen.
- Stop a shared link from being seen. The link still resolves; visitors just meet the closed message instead of the questions.
Quick answers
How do I stop a Google Form from accepting responses? Open the form, go to the Responses tab, and turn off the Accepting responses toggle. New submissions stop right away.
Where is the close button on a Google Form? There is no button labeled "close". The control is the Accepting responses toggle on the Responses tab.
Can I close a Google Form on my phone? Yes. Open the form's editor in a mobile browser, tap the Responses tab, and switch off the toggle. There is no separate editing app.
Can I schedule a Google Form to close automatically? Not natively. Google Forms has no scheduler, so you either close it manually at the deadline or use a third-party add-on to do it for you.
Does closing a Google Form delete the responses I already have? No. Closing only stops new submissions. Your existing responses stay exactly as they were.
How do I reopen a closed Google Form? Go to the Responses tab and turn the Accepting responses toggle back on. The same link works again immediately.
Ready to transform your documents?
Convert Google Docs, PDFs, and spreadsheets into Google Forms in one click.
Start free →Or go straight to a converter: Google Docs to Forms, PDF to Google Form, Word to Google Form, Google Forms Quiz Generator
The bottom line
Closing a Google Form is a single toggle on the Responses tab, and it is fully reversible, so there is no risk in flipping it. Spend your effort on the two things Google does not automate for you: write a clear closed message so people are not confused, and plan for the deadline yourself, because there is no native scheduler. If timing is the real reason you keep wanting an automatic close, add a timer to the quiz instead and let the clock, not the toggle, end the assessment.
Ready to transform your documents?
Convert Google Docs, PDFs, and spreadsheets into Google Forms in one click.
Start free →Or go straight to a converter: Google Docs to Forms, PDF to Google Form, Word to Google Form, Google Forms Quiz Generator