Question Total

A per-choice limit caps each option on its own. A question total caps the whole question: one shared pool of spots that every option draws from, however the sign-ups are distributed.

That is the difference between "20 seats in each workshop" and "30 seats across the whole day, whichever workshops people pick". You can set both at once.

Setting a Question Total

1. Open your Google Form
2. Click the Add-ons (puzzle piece) icon → Choice Eliminator → Start
3. Open the Choices tab and click a question
4. Click the pencil next to Question Limit
5. Turn on Limit total spots for this question
6. Set Total spots for this question
7. Click Save

Turn the switch off for no total. The counter under the field shows how many spots are already taken.

Show How Full the Question Is

A question total is invisible to the people filling in your form — they only discover it existed when the options disappear. Turn this on and the count is added to the question's description, so they can watch it fill up.

1. In the same dialog, turn on Show how full this question is
2. Set Show when this many spots remain — the count stays hidden until the question is at least that close to full
3. Optionally write a description; the count is added to the end of it
4. Click Save

Respondents then see something like:

Bring your own apron. (97/100)

That is spots taken out of the total, not spots left. A figure like 3/100 is read almost everywhere as "3 of 100 done", so counting down would suggest a nearly-empty question when it is nearly full.

The count is hidden entirely while the question is further from full than your threshold (set it to 0 to show from the very first response), once it is full — the "No spots available" message already says that — and whenever the add-on has paused the question, because the number would no longer be enforced.

Your Description Stays Yours

The add-on takes over the description while the count is on: your own text is kept and the count is added after it. Turn the switch off and your description comes back exactly as it was.

If you edit that description in Google Forms rather than here, the add-on notices and stops updating the count instead of overwriting what you wrote. The sidebar then offers to use your Forms version — accept it and the count resumes on your new text.

How It Works

Both limits apply independently. An option stays on the form only while both are true:

• the option is under its own limit, and
• the question is under its total

When the spots run out, every remaining option is removed and respondents see your "No spots available" message, exactly as they do when every option has filled individually.

Checkbox Questions Use One Spot Per Tick

On a Checkbox question a respondent can tick several options in one submission, and each ticked option uses one spot.

A response that ticks 3 options uses 3 of your total, not 1. With a total of 30, that is 10 such responses, not 30.

This is deliberate: the total counts claimed spots, not people, because that is what capacity means when someone can claim several things at once. Multiple Choice and Dropdown questions only allow one pick, so one response always uses one spot there.

Question Total vs Apply to All

These sit next to each other and do opposite things:

• Apply to All is a typing shortcut. It writes the same number into each option's own limit. Apply 10 to five options and you have created capacity for 50.
• Question total is one shared budget. Set 10 and the five options share those 10 between them.

If you want "each option gets 10", use Apply to All. If you want "10 in total, spread however people choose", use the question total.

Combining the Two Limits

Any combination is allowed.

Caps Above the Total

30 seats overall, no more than 20 in any one workshop. Set the total to 30 and each option's limit to 20. This is the most common shape — the per-option limits stop one option swallowing everything, while the total controls the real capacity.

No Caps, Total Only

30 people, pick any slot. Leave every option unlimited and set the total to 30. Any distribution is fine until the 30th spot goes.

Caps Below the Total

If every option is capped and those caps add up to less than the total, the total can never be reached and will never do anything. The sidebar points this out with a hint. It is harmless — nothing breaks, the total simply never applies — and it usually means either a cap or the total is not the number you intended.

When Spots Free Up

If you delete a response or raise the total, the freed spots come back on the next recount — when you next open the sidebar, or when the next response arrives. Google Forms does not tell add-ons when a response is deleted, so there is nothing to react to at the moment you delete it.

You can force it immediately with the Recount button.

Tips

• The question total is independent of the form-wide response limit — one caps a question, the other closes the whole form
• Lowering the total below the spots already taken closes the question immediately; raising it again reopens the options
• Removed options come back on their own when spots free up, so there is no need to restore them by hand
• Set a total of 1 to make a question a single-claim question, whichever option is chosen