Google Forms has a genuinely useful feature buried in its overflow menu: you can generate a link that opens the form with some answers already filled in. Send that link and the recipient sees their name, their account number, and the project reference already there. It takes about a minute to set up and it solves a real problem. It also has four hard limits that catch people out only after they have built a process around it, and all four are worth knowing before you do.
In Google Forms, open the three-dot menu and choose "Get pre-filled link", fill the answers you want pre-populated, then submit to generate a URL. The recipient opens it with those fields already completed. The link cannot lock those values, cannot collect a signature, cannot pre-fill a file upload, and produces a spreadsheet row rather than a document.
How do I create a prefilled Google Form link?
Open your form in edit mode, click the three vertical dots at the top right, and choose Get pre-filled link. The form opens in a preview; type the values you want pre-populated into the relevant questions and click Get link, then copy it. The result is a long URL carrying the answers as parameters — you will see chunks like entry.1234567890=Maria in it.
To personalise per recipient at any scale, generate one link, then find those entry. parameters in the URL and swap the values with a spreadsheet formula. That is the whole trick, and it is why a mail merge into Google Forms is a five-minute job rather than an integration project.
Can the recipient change the answers I prefilled?
Yes, and there is no setting that stops them. A prefilled link is a suggestion, not a lock — every prefilled field remains editable, and the URL parameters are visible in the address bar. Anyone who wants to submit a different value can, either by typing over it or by editing the link.
For a friendly convenience — "here's your details, correct anything wrong" — that is fine and arguably the right behaviour. For anything where the prefilled values are the terms of the arrangement, it is a problem. Do not use a prefilled Google Form link to send someone an agreed price, a scope of work, or a policy number you need to hold steady.
Can I get a signature on a Google Form?
Not a meaningful one. Google Forms has no signature question type. The workarounds people reach for — a text field saying "type your full name to sign", or a drawing widget bolted on via an add-on — produce something that looks like assent but sits in a spreadsheet cell with no document, no tamper-evident record, and no copy in the signer's hands.
If what you actually need is a signed document, a form response is the wrong artefact. You need the finished PDF or Word document, signed, with a copy going to both sides. Our guide on how to send someone a prefilled form to sign covers that pattern, which is the same shape as the Google Forms one — fill what you know, send a link, let them correct and sign — but ends in a document rather than a row.
What about forms that are already a PDF or Word file?
This is the limitation people hit hardest. A prefilled Google Form link only works for a form you built in Google Forms. If your form is a supplied PDF — a government form, a landlord's application, a client's vendor onboarding pack, an insurer's claim form — there is nothing to prefill. Rebuilding it as a Google Form does not help either, because the receiving party wants their own document back, not your spreadsheet.
The other two smaller gaps in the same family: prefilled links cannot pre-populate a file-upload question, and forms restricted to your organisation will still prompt for sign-in before showing the prefilled values, which surprises people sending links to outside recipients.
When should I use each approach?
A rough division that holds up in practice:
- Use a prefilled Google Form link for collecting information at volume where the answers are data, not commitments: event sign-ups, feedback, availability, internal requests.
- Use a prefilled document when the output has to be the form itself — anything signed, submitted to a third party, filed, or kept as a record.
Filly AI covers the second case. You upload the actual PDF or Word form, it reads the fields and fills them from a saved client profile, you review, and you either export the finished file or send it as an e-sign link the recipient opens in any browser with no account. Scanned and flat forms work too — OCR runs first and the answers are placed onto the page where there are no fields to fill. The free plan covers 10 forms, 5 clients and 10 fills a month without a card. A job application or a mutual NDA are typical first moves off a Google Form. For the wider vocabulary — prefill, pre-populate, autofill and where each belongs — see our guide to pre-populating forms.
Frequently asked questions
Do prefilled links work on mobile?
Yes. The parameters are part of the URL, so the form opens prefilled in a phone browser the same as on desktop. Very long links can be awkward to send over SMS, so shorten them if that is your channel.
Can I prefill some questions and leave others blank?
Yes — only the questions you complete in the pre-fill preview end up in the URL. Everything else opens empty, which is the normal way to use this: fill what you know, leave what only they know.
Does a prefilled link expire?
No. The link keeps working as long as the form accepts responses, which also means a link forwarded to someone else works for them too. Do not put anything into a prefilled link you would not want a third party to read.
Is a prefilled Google Form link secure enough for personal data?
Treat it as not private. The values sit in a URL that lands in browser history, server logs, and anything the recipient forwards. For dates of birth, ID numbers, or financial details, use a channel where the data is not carried in the address bar.
Can I turn Google Form responses into a filled PDF?
Only with an add-on or a script that merges responses into a document template. If the finished document is the point, it is usually simpler to start from the document rather than collect into a spreadsheet and merge back out.