> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.usertick.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Create a survey

> Start a survey with AI, from questions you already have, from a template or from a blank survey, and follow its status from draft to archived.

**Create survey** opens the create dialog, which asks how to start. **Create with AI** asks where people answer the survey, and a template starts on the channel it is made for. Pasted questions and a blank survey start as a website survey. The channel can be changed in the editor at any time.

## Choose how to start

> [card] Create with AI
>
> After you describe what you want to learn in a chat, AI drafts the survey and you review it before it opens in the editor.

> [card] Templates
>
> A ready-made survey that you can adjust, searchable by type and industry. See [Templates](https://docs.usertick.com/surveys/templates.md).

> [card] Paste questions
>
> Questions you already have, pasted in any format, become a survey with the right type for each question.

> [card] Blank survey
>
> An empty survey where you write every question yourself.

**Create with AI** and **Paste questions** use AI and are available on every plan, within the monthly allowances for AI surveys and AI question imports: 3 each on Free, 20 on Starter, 100 on Pro and 300 on Business. Every way to start opens the same editor with the questions ready to adjust.

**Paste questions** keeps as much of the text as a survey holds: up to 200 questions, 250 options per question, 1,000 characters per question and 500 per option. When the pasted text holds more, the draft says that part of it was left out.

## Survey statuses

A survey has one of four statuses:

| Status | Behavior |
| - | - |
| **Draft** | The survey is being built and is never shown to anyone. |
| **Live** | The survey runs on its channel. Only live surveys are served by the widget and the hosted pages. |
| **Paused** | The survey stops showing immediately, and its responses are kept. It can be resumed at any time. |
| **Archived** | The survey is retired, and its results stay readable. |

Edits to a live survey are kept as a draft. The live version keeps running unchanged until you select **Publish changes**, so editing never interrupts a running survey.

## Delete a survey

To retire a survey and keep its results, archive it. **Delete** in the survey's menu on the survey list deletes the survey, its email sends (scheduled ones included) and its responses, with their files, notes and AI readings. Usertick deletes the responses permanently in the background shortly after the survey is deleted, and they no longer appear anywhere in Usertick from the moment you confirm. The confirmation lists what else stops: the survey's workflows and scheduled reports are paused, and webhooks and API or Zapier subscriptions stop sending its events. A deletion can't be undone. The responses still count toward the month they arrived in.

## Plan limits

The number of surveys is a plan limit: 3 on Free, 10 on Starter and unlimited on the Pro plan and above. Archived surveys don't count toward it, so archiving a survey frees a slot. On every plan, a survey can have up to 200 questions.

When the organization moves to a plan with fewer surveys than it has, the extra live surveys pause and show **Paused because of the plan limit.** Before the change, the owner chooses which surveys stay live in **Settings → Billing**; without a choice, the most recently published ones stay live. Their responses and results stay. While the organization has more surveys than the plan allows, a paused survey can't be resumed and a draft can't be published, so archive surveys until the count fits or upgrade; drafts stay editable, and a live or paused survey can still publish its changes. After an upgrade, the surveys the plan paused go live again by themselves. See [Plans and billing](https://docs.usertick.com/account/billing.md#items-over-the-limits-of-a-lower-plan).


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