How to Make Microsoft Forms Anonymous (2026)
Anonymous responses are how you run honest surveys, feedback forms, and votes in Microsoft Forms. Anonymity depends on two settings: who can respond, and whether names are recorded. Set both correctly and submissions arrive without any identity attached.
1. Set the Audience to Anyone
- Open your form at forms.office.com.
- Select Collect responses.
- At the top, choose Anyone can respond.
A form limited to people in my organization records the respondent’s name automatically and can’t be made fully anonymous within your tenant.
2. Turn Off Name Recording
- In the same Collect responses panel (or More form settings (…) > Settings), find the Record name option.
- Make sure Record name is off.
With Anyone can respond selected, name recording is off by default — but confirm it, especially if you switched the form from an internal audience.
3. Remove Identity Questions
Anonymity also depends on what you ask. Review your questions and remove or make optional anything that identifies someone — name, email, employee ID, or department — unless you genuinely need it.
4. Confirm It’s Anonymous
- Open the Responses tab.
- Submit a test response yourself, then check it under View results.
- If the response shows Anonymous instead of a name, the form is configured correctly.
5. Troubleshooting
Responses still show names
The form is set to people in my organization, which forces sign-in and records names. Switch to Anyone can respond to drop identity capture.
I need internal-only but anonymous responses
Microsoft Forms ties internal responses to accounts. To stay anonymous you must use Anyone can respond, then share the link only with the intended group.
The “Anyone can respond” toggle is greyed out
Your admin may restrict external/anonymous forms. Ask your Microsoft 365 admin to allow anonymous responses in the Forms settings.
An email question is collecting addresses
Forms only auto-collects email when Record name or the email setting is on. Remove any manual email question and confirm Record name is off.
Related Microsoft Forms guides: How to use Microsoft Forms · How to create a survey · How to share Microsoft Forms · How to see responses · How to export to Excel
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
