# Fillout vs Google Forms API

> Google Forms API scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Fillout's 52.2 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do forms responses. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-google-forms
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-google-forms.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-google-forms.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-google-forms.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Google Forms API scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Fillout's 52.2 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do forms responses.

- Fillout: grade D, 52.2/100, rank #567 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fillout.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fillout.json
- Google Forms API: grade BB, 70.8/100, rank #127 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-forms.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-forms.json

## Which one, for what

### Fillout (D)

Good for: An agent that reads form responses, files submissions on a person's behalf or subscribes a webhook to a form someone has already built.

Watch for: No operation creates or edits a form. Zite's MCP server lists forms and its docs say creating forms is not supported over MCP

### Google Forms API (BB)

Good for: Agents that build forms and quizzes in a Google account and read the answers back, where people already use Google Forms.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 91 against 70
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 63
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 47
- Security & auth, 66 against 37
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 61 against 46
- Transparency & trust, 80 against 69

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: Push notifications go only to a Cloud Pub/Sub topic in the caller's project, which needs Cloud billing, and they carry no form or response data


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Fillout | Google Forms API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 91 | Google Forms API +21 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 78 | Google Forms API +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 47 | 72 | Google Forms API +25 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 37 | 66 | Google Forms API +29 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 35 | Google Forms API +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 46 | 61 | Google Forms API +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 80 | Google Forms API +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **52.2 · D** | **70.8 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Fillout | Google Forms API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Restly, Inc. (trading as Zite) | Google |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.fillout.com/v1/api` | `https://forms.googleapis.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Price for forms responses | $15 per month (plan) | free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Fillout's terms of service. The TypeScript API client on GitHub is MIT | Proprietary service under the Google APIs Terms of Service. The client libraries are Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | 2022-07-02 | 2021-11-09 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-10-07 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.8k npm/wk | 32k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**Fillout.** Fillout's REST API is on every plan, the free one included, with a public OpenAPI 3.0.1 spec, llms.txt and submission filters by date, status and text. It has eight operations and none creates or edits a form. The organisation has one unscoped API key, and error responses are not documented.

**Google Forms API.** Six OAuth scopes separate form structure from responses, and batchUpdate applies a batch atomically with a revision check. Notifications go only to a Cloud Pub/Sub topic and carry no response data, the API can't list forms or create file upload questions, and the release notes were last updated on 8 April 2025.

## Before you call either

### Fillout

1. Build the form in the Fillout editor first. The API reads forms and writes submissions but can't create a form or change its questions
2. Read the base URL from the Developer settings page. EU-hosted accounts use https://eu-api.fillout.com/v1/api
3. Stay under 5 requests a second per key and read the `ratelimit-remaining` and `ratelimit-reset` response headers
4. Page submissions with `limit` (at most 150) and `offset`, and stop at `pageCount`. `status=in_progress` returns unfinished ones
5. Send at most 10 submissions per create call and don't retry blindly, because the call has no idempotency key

### Google Forms API

1. Call forms.create with a title only, then add items with forms.batchUpdate. Any other field in the create body is disallowed
2. Publish with forms.setPublishSettings before sharing. Google's notice says forms created through the API after 30 June 2026 start unpublished
3. Pass pageSize on forms.responses.list. With none set a page can hold up to 5,000 responses. Use filter=timestamp > N to fetch only new ones
4. After a Pub/Sub notification, call forms.responses.list yourself. The message holds only formId, watchId and eventType. Renew each watch within seven days
5. Send writeControl.requiredRevisionId on forms.batchUpdate, and read the form before retrying a timed-out forms.create, which has no idempotency key

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Fillout or Google Forms API?

Google Forms API scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Fillout's 52.2 (D), and leads in every scored category.

### Which is cheaper for forms responses, Fillout or Google Forms API?

Google Forms API, at free against $15 per month (plan) for Fillout. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Fillout and Google Forms API need an API key?

Fillout takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Google Forms API uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Fillout and Google Forms API without installing anything?

Yes. Fillout has a hosted endpoint at https://api.fillout.com/v1/api and Google Forms API at https://forms.googleapis.com/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-google-forms.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-google-forms.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "fillout", "b": "google-forms"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare fillout google-forms`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fillout.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-forms.json

## Other comparisons with Fillout or Google Forms API

- [Formstack vs Google Forms API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formstack-vs-google-forms.md)
- [Google Forms API vs Jotform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-jotform.md)
- [Google Forms API vs SurveyMonkey](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-surveymonkey.md)
- [Google Forms API vs Tally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-tally.md)
- [Google Forms API vs Typeform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-typeform.md)
- [Fillout vs Formbricks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-formbricks.md)
- [Fillout vs Formstack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-formstack.md)
- [Fillout vs Jotform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-jotform.md)
- [Fillout vs Paperform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-paperform.md)
- [Fillout vs SurveyMonkey](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-surveymonkey.md)
- [Fillout vs Tally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-tally.md)
- [Fillout vs Typeform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-typeform.md)
- [Google Forms API vs Paperform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-paperform.md)
- [Formbricks vs Google Forms API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-google-forms.md)