Matrix and grid questions
Build a grid from Add question or bring one in with an import. Each row stays a full question, so results, exports and trends still work row by row.
- Admins writing surveys
- 5 min read
- Updated Oct 14, 2026
A grid is a way of showing several questions, not a question type of its own. Each row is a complete question underneath, which is what keeps exports, cohorts, branching and wave-over-wave trends working per row instead of per grid.
A matrix, or grid, asks several statements against one shared rating: "How much do you agree with each statement?" with a row per statement and the same columns across all of them. It's the compact way to ask five related things without five separate cards.
#Building a grid
In the poll wizard's Questions step on a desktop-width screen, open Add question and pick Matrix (grid of statements), below the question types. You get three rows, each a 1 to 5 scale labelled Strongly disagree to Strongly agree, under the heading "How much do you agree with each statement?" Replace the statements with your own, and use Duplicate on a row to add another one to the same grid.
Every row counts toward the poll's 25-question limit, because once results, branching and trends look at them, they really are that many questions.
#Grids from an import
A rating matrix in a Qualtrics or SurveyMonkey export also arrives as a grid: one question per row, grouped so the builder, the respondent page and the results view put them back together as the table you built in the other tool. See importing questions from another tool for what else changes on the way in.
#What the rows are
A row is a scale or a single choice question, and the rows of one grid should share the same columns. Each row keeps three things: its own full question text, the short row label shown in the table, and the grid it belongs to.
The full text matters more than it looks. The CSV, the snapshot and a wave trend all read the row's own question text, so a row that later leaves the grid is still a complete, sensible question rather than a fragment reading "Deadlines".
#Editing one
Each row appears as an ordinary question card with a note reading Part of the grid: followed by the grid's heading, and a Row label field. You can edit the row label there, and the question text, the options and the scale the same way you would for any other question.
Keep the columns the same on every row. The table takes its columns from the first row, so if you change one row's scale or options, change the others to match.
Rows of a grid have to sit next to each other. Move one away from its neighbours and it's shown as an ordinary standalone question, keeping its own wording. It still remembers which grid it came from, so moving it back beside the other rows puts it back in the table. A grid needs at least two adjacent rows; a single row on its own is shown as a normal question.
#What a respondent sees
On a normal screen, one table. The statements are row headers down the left, the rating runs across the top as columns, and each row is a set of radio buttons sharing a group, so a row is one tab stop with arrow keys between the options. The row and column headings are real table headers, which is what lets a screen reader announce each button with its row, such as "Deadlines: 4", rather than an unlabelled button in a sea of them.
On a phone the same rows are stacked, with each row's options beside it, because a five-column grid on a narrow screen is unusable rather than compact.
#How the results read
The results view draws the grid as a grid: one panel, one row per statement, compared against each other on the shared scale. That comparison is the thing a grid says that its rows don't each say alone.
Grids release like any other question. Nothing's readable until the poll's minimum group size has answered, and that's never below three. While the poll's open, the first results appear three answers after that, then new answers reach you in random groups of three to five, with a few always held in reserve until the poll closes. At close, everything shows. How batched release works.
Everything else still works per row, because a row is still a question:
| Surface | What it sees |
|---|---|
| Aggregate CSV | one row per member question |
| PDF report | the grid panel once, then each row's figures |
| Shared results slice | member questions, drawn as the grid |
| Cohort filters | each row, like any other question, once the poll has closed |
| Wave-over-wave trends | each row's movement across waves |
Grid rows can't be used as a demographic dimension.
An on-device poll digest describes a grid as one result rather than as a run of separate ones, for the same reason the results view draws it as one.
#AI and grids
The AI poll builder doesn't create grids, and an AI rewrite of a row can't dissolve one. A rewrite changes the wording of a single question, and the grid it belonged to is put back afterward, so a rewrite can't quietly turn a five-row table into five loose questions. Layout is yours, not the model's. See AI poll building.