Setting up a quota
1
Open the question
In the study editor, select a Multiple Choice question. The Quotas section sits below its logic rules.
2
Add a row per option
Click Add quota, pick the match type and the option, and enter the number of completes. Options without a row are unlimited. A question can hold up to 50 rows, one per match type and option.
3
Save the study
Quotas are saved with the rest of the study. Questions that carry a quota show a target icon in the question list.
Equals vs Includes
Custom text typed into an Other option never matches an option quota. On an Equals quota, an Other entry alongside the option also means the answer is no longer an exact match, so it doesn’t count.
Matching is language-aware: a translated option label counts toward the same quota as the original.
Closing an option
Set the limit to 0 to close an option: the next participant who chooses it is screened out. Remove the row to lift the cap.What participants see
A participant whose answer lands on a full option is screened out at that moment, and their response is marked screened out rather than complete. They land on the study’s screen-out destination: the screen-out message, your custom URL, or the per-channel source redirect. Other options keep accepting answers.Question quotas don’t gate entry. Participants can start the study and answer earlier questions before reaching a full option, so place quota questions early, typically with your screener, to keep screened-out sessions short. Use a study quota when you need to turn participants away at the door.
What counts toward a quota
- Only completed interviews count. Screened-out and in-progress interviews don’t.
- Mock interviews, previews, and AI simulations never count, and a mock interview is never screened out by a quota.
- Archived interviews don’t count.
Caps are approximate. The count is checked when a participant answers, and everyone already past the question can finish, so a few participants answering at the same moment can push an option slightly past its limit.
Good to know
- Quotas match on option text. Renaming an option in the editor carries its quota along. Deleting an option, or changing the question to another type, removes its quotas.
- An Includes quota only works while the question is multi-select. If you turn multi-select off, switch the quota to Equals or remove it before saving; the study won’t save with an Includes quota on a single-select question.
- Quotas are enforced in every conversation mode, including voice.
- Manage question quotas programmatically with the API or the MCP server’s
set_question_quotastool.