Survey quotas

Quotas help you collect the right amount of data for your study. They track how many respondents meet specific conditions—like age ranges, locations, or product usage—so you can ensure balanced sampling and control costs. If you’re paying per completed interview, quotas can save you from overshooting your target groups.

Timing matters

Quota counts update only when respondents submit their survey. Since multiple people can complete surveys simultaneously, quotas might exceed your exact target by a few responses.

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Create quota

1. Determine which questions the quotas will apply to

   You can create quotas directly on the source question (the one respondents see), or on a hidden recode of it. Rule of thumb: if the source question’s answers already match your quota groupings, use it directly. But if you need different groupings—say, combining age ranges or regions—create a hidden question with an Action Command that recodes the source question into your desired quota groups.

2. Set up separate Instruction objects at the end of the survey to handle different completion scenarios

   You’ll need different end screens depending on how respondents finish:

   • OUTOK — Set Finish Action to Finished Successfully. Add text thanking them for completing the survey.
   • OUTQUO — Set Finish Action to Finished Quota Full. Let them know their quota is full so they don’t need to continue (thank them for their time anyway!).
   • OUTFAIL (if required) — Set Finish Action to Finished Exclusion. Explain that they didn’t qualify for this particular survey.

   Naming is flexible

   Variable names like OUTOK, OUTQUO, and OUTFAIL are just examples—name them whatever makes sense to you.

3. Generate the quotas

   Survey Editor (Legacy)
   • Right-click the question you want to apply quotas to in the survey flowchart
   • Select Create Quota
   • In the Quota Exceed Target dropdown, select OUTQUO (the question respondents skip to when their quota group is full)
   • Click the Generate Quota button
   • In Default Quota Limit, enter any number and click Generate (this number gets assigned to all quota groups—you can change individual limits in the next step)
   • Click Continue
   • To adjust the quota limit for any specific group, click Manage Quota, modify the limit, and click Continue
   • Click OK to exit the Question Quota dialog box
   Survey Editor (Beta)
   • Click the more icon (⋮) on the question’s card and select Create Quota (Edit Quota if it already has one). The Question quotas dialog opens.
   • In Question quota exceeded target, select OUTQUO (the question respondents skip to when their quota group is full). Only questions later in the survey are listed.
   • In Quota limit for every answer, enter any number and click Generate quota. This sets the limit for every answer and turns on Use quota management.
   • To change the limit for one answer, edit its Quota limit. Leave it empty for no limit.
   • Optionally, set a different Quota exceeded target for an answer
   • Click Save, then save the survey. The quotas aren’t saved until you save the survey.

   Quotas can only be created on Single Response - Vertical Radio, Single Response - Horizontal Radio and Multiple Response - Checkbox questions. To count several answers towards one limit, choose the same Shared quota for each of them.

   To remove a quota, click Remove quota on an answer, or the Remove quota button at the bottom to remove them all, then click Save.

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Question type for quotas

Quota groupings are typically mutually exclusive—someone can only belong to one quota group at a time. That’s why Single Response questions work best: they prevent double-counting respondents. You can also use Multi Response questions for quotas if you’re just monitoring rather than enforcing strict limits.

Using a Bucket for quotas

For more advanced quota control, Survey Shaper includes a dedicated Bucket question type. While the quota creation approach above works directly on any question, a Bucket gives you a visual, reusable quota object in your survey flowchart—ideal when you need to manage multiple quotas across different groups.

Key differences:

Approach	Best for
Quota on a question	Simple, single-question quota limits
Bucket	Multiple or complex quotas with visual flow control and filtered logic

Pro move

If you’re managing quotas across several demographic groups or need different redirect logic per group, use a Bucket instead. It keeps your flowchart clean and your quota logic easy to follow.

Placement of quota questions

Place your quota questions near the beginning of your survey. Here’s why: once quotas are full, new respondents get screened out immediately. No point asking them 10 questions before telling them they don’t qualify.

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Test quotas

Quotas can’t be tested in preview or test mode—you’ll need to test them live. Set your quota limits to a low number (like 2 or 3), publish the survey, and complete some surveys using the actual live link.

Before launching for real, remember to convert those test records to test data so they don’t count toward your actual quotas.

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Modify quotas

Need to adjust quotas mid-survey? Here’s how:

1. Open Survey Shaper
2. In the Survey Shaper section in the content table, click the more icon (⋮) on the survey
3. Select Collect Responses > Manage Basic Quotas. See Manage quotas for other ways to open it.
4. To update an individual quota group, enter the revised number directly into the appropriate cell (current count or limit)
5. Click the Save button

Updating multiple quota groups at once? Here’s the faster way:

• Select the quota question(s) to change from the dropdown list
• Enter the new count or limit in the Value box
• Click the quota cells you want to update:
  • Current — Updates completed survey counts
  • Limit — Updates the maximum respondents allowed in that quota group
  • Both — Updates both current counts and limits
• Click the Save button