Skip to main content
InviziPoll
Sign inStart free trial

Viewing results

When poll results open, what you see once they do, how answers arrive in batches with a reserve pool, and how to download CSV and PDF files or publish.

  • Workspace admins
  • 7 min read
  • Updated Oct 29, 2026

Nothing is readable until your poll reaches its Minimum group size (never fewer than three, five by default). While the poll is open, the first results appear once three more than that have answered, and show that many answers: with the default of five, results open at eight responses and show five; until then the results page shows Locked until and that number, with no charts, and nobody in the workspace can read any answer; the dashboard still shows how many people have responded, so you can see participation moving, but a count on its own tells you nothing about what anyone said.

The results page for a poll called Team pulse. A banner explains this is a sample poll containing eight invented answers, decrypted in the browser. The header strip shows 8 responses, results Open, poll Collecting, and a closing date, with tabs for Results and the Speak-up inbox.
Decrypted results for the sample poll, with the response count and collection status in the header.

#Prerequisites

Note

Scores and choices come back as totals. Written answers are shown word for word, shuffled and undated, once results open. Nobody sees per-person rows, timestamps or the order answers came in. Where the poll allows it, anyone who'd rather not be read can send just the topics they pick instead.

  1. Open the poll. From Polls, open the poll you want to review.
  2. Check the header. It shows Responses, Results (Open, or Locked until and the number of responses results wait for), Poll (Collecting or Closed) and the closing date. Responses counts the answers you can read, so while results are locked it reads Hidden.
  3. Read the totals. Once results are open, your browser decrypts the answers and draws a chart for each question: counts and percentages per option or scale point, a score for net promoter questions, and mean rank for ranking questions.
  4. Read written answers. Open-text questions list every answer sent as words, word for word, under Answers, in a shuffled order, with no dates. Below them, Topics only counts the topics people sent instead of their words, once five people have answered that way. See Send topics instead of your words. Word clouds show every word by how many people used it.
  5. Optional: filter, after the poll closes. If you tagged demographic questions, or sent the poll to a contact list with roster attributes, use Filter by demographic or roster. Breakdowns by group unlock only when the poll closes; until then the results tab tells you the date. A group needs at least five responses, or the poll's minimum group size if that's higher, and a group that could reveal someone when compared with the others is left out. Always-on polls, like an Exit pool or a speak-up channel, never show breakdowns. See Roster attributes and cuts.
  6. Optional: download or publish. See below.

#New answers arrive in groups

After the first results, new answers reach you in random groups of three to five, and three are always held in reserve while the poll is open, so no change you see can be pinned on one person. When the poll closes, everything shows, reserve included. A speak-up channel is the exception: its first reports show at the minimum group size, and after that each report reaches you as it arrives. How batched release works. For what the thresholds protect against, and where they stop, see Aggregate results and anti-inference.

While the poll is open, a line under the header reads: "A few answers are always held in reserve until the poll closes, so no one's answer can be picked out." The dashboard's participation count includes them; the header's Responses doesn't.

#Downloads

Downloads appear once results are open and decrypted in your browser. Everything is built on your device from the answers you can already see.

  • Download CSV (in the Download menu): one file with a block per question: option, count and percentage, plus the total. Ranking questions get one row per option with mean rank and first-choice counts. If a filter is on, the file says which group it covers. While the poll is open, the file starts with the reserve line above.
  • Download PDF report (same menu): the charts and totals as a report. You can choose to include the on-device AI summary, labelled as an AI draft.
  • Written answers (CSV): from Export on an open-text question: one row per answer, in the same shuffled order as the screen.
  • Word counts (CSV) and Raw answers, shuffled (CSV): from Export on a word-cloud question.

None of the files carries names, dates or submission order.

#Summaries on your device

On an open-text question with five or more answers, Summarise on this device drafts a summary with an AI model that runs in your browser. The answers never leave the browser to reach us or a model provider. See On-device AI summaries.

#Publishing results and the cut catalog

The public results link doesn't show a live tally. It shows a summary you chose to publish, with the date on it. The Publish results control sits on the results page once results are open and public results are on. Your browser builds the summary from the responses it has decrypted, signs it with your workspace key, and stores that one document. Readers see "As of <date>" and a line saying whether the signature checks out. Written answers are never shown on the public link. How it works, and what happens when a poll or wave closes, is in Publishing results as a signed document.

Once the poll has closed, the published document also carries a fixed cut catalog: one cut per value of each roster attribute and each demographic question, plus a few standard pairs, each with at least five responses, or the poll's minimum group size if higher. Groups that are too small, or that could reveal someone by comparison with the others, are left out rather than marked. A document published before close carries no cuts. Your live filter on this page stays in your browser; the catalog is what leaves it. See Roster attributes and cuts.

#If the poll closes first

If the poll closes with at least its minimum group size, everything shows at close, even if it never reached the first release while open. If it closes below that, results stay locked for good. Plan the window, reminders and expiry together so you're likely to get there.

#What you won't see

There's no view of individual ballots, no submission order and no per-response timestamps. That's deliberate: honest feedback depends on people trusting that nobody can work out which answers are theirs.

Next: Inviting a team member or Setting up team folders.

#FAQ

Your poll's Minimum group size, never fewer than three. While the poll is open, the first results wait for three more than that, then new answers arrive in groups of three to five with three held in reserve. At close, everything shows.