With Respondent copy (Pro and Business), people who submit your form can download a PDF of their own answers straight from the confirmation screen — proof of what they sent, without an e-mail and without anything extra stored on our side. It is off by default on every form.
Steps
- Open the form and go to Settings → Advanced.
- Switch on Respondent copy. On Free the switch carries a Pro badge and cannot be switched on.
- Publish changes — like every setting, it reaches respondents only once published.
If your plan changes later, nothing breaks: respondents are simply no longer offered the copy, and a note under the setting tells you so. Publishing is never blocked because of it.
What respondents see
After submitting, the confirmation screen shows Download a copy, with a hint to save it now: once they leave the page, their answers cannot be shown again.
Now or never
The copy can only be made on that screen, at that moment. The answers exist only in the respondent's open page — there is no link to come back to, and nothing readable on our side to rebuild it from. If they close the tab without downloading, there is no second chance. If the copy matters for your process, say so in your thank-you message.
With a redirect. If your form sends people to another page after submitting (see “Custom thank-you page and redirect”), the copy changes the ending: the automatic countdown does not run. The respondent sees Download a copy and Continue, and leaves when they are ready. Forms without the copy keep the countdown.
What the PDF contains
- The form's name and your organisation — the name from the form profile.
- A reference (the submission's id) and the date and time it was submitted.
- Every question the respondent was actually shown, with their answer, in the language they filled the form in.
- Signatures, embedded as images.
- Uploaded files by name only — the files themselves are not included; the respondent already has them.
- Smiley and emoji scales as readable text, for example 4 / 5.
What is not in it: questions your conditional logic skipped, hidden questions (even when prefilled), and a personalised link's label and note. The respondent gets what they saw and answered — nothing you added behind the scenes.
Built in the browser. The PDF is created on the respondent's own device from the answers still on their screen. None of it is sent to or stored on our servers.
Try it in the preview. The builder's preview lets you press Download a copy and look at the PDF yourself. Nothing is stored or reported from the preview.
The Copy taken marker
When a respondent downloads the copy, that submission shows a Copy taken chip in the side panel of your inbox; hover over it for the date. The setting tells you this in advance: You will see which responses took a copy.
- What it proves: that a PDF of these answers was created for the respondent, at that moment.
- What it does not prove: what the PDF looked like, or that the respondent saved, printed or read it.
- When it is recorded: once per submission, only within 15 minutes of submitting, and only on forms where you switched the copy on — so never on Free.
Note
The Copy taken marker — a date on the submission — is the only thing the respondent copy adds to what we store. The PDF itself never leaves the respondent's device.
Tip
Worth switching on wherever people need a record of what they sent: applications, registrations, consent forms, complaints. It saves you the "could you send me what I filled in?" e-mail — which, with end-to-end encryption, only you could answer anyway.