Which file types can a Google Form accept?

Last updated September 2026 · ~9 minute read

Short answer: by default, any type. The owner gets one control — “Turn on Allow only specific file types and select the types” — and Google's help centre never prints the list of types it is talking about. The only place Google publishes them is its Forms API reference, as nine values naming broad categories, not extensions. Whether a restriction stops a wrong file, and what the responder sees if it does, Google does not say anywhere.

This page is about the type restriction only. For the size and count caps, whose Drive the files land in, and what happens when that Drive fills up, see Google Forms file upload limits. For adding the question in the first place, see how to add a file upload question.

What Google publishes about restricting types

Two Google pages document the control, and between them they spend one sentence each on it. The Choose a type of question for your form help page (checked 14 September 2026) lists it as the first of three things you can do with a File upload question: “Specify which file types responders can upload.” That is the whole entry — no list, no example.

The Workspace Learning Center's Tips to customize your forms page names the switch: “Specify which file types people can upload. Turn on Allow only specific file types and select the types.” Again, which types is left to the screen in front of you.

Two consequences follow immediately. First, the default is unrestricted — a setting you turn on is a setting that starts off, so a file upload question you have not touched accepts anything. Second, any article that reproduces the list of types has not taken it from Google's help centre, because Google's help centre does not contain one.

The nine categories, and the one place Google prints them

Google does publish the list — in the Forms API reference, where a file upload question carries a types[] field described as “File types accepted by this question”. Its FileType enum, with Google's own descriptions, reads:

A tenth member, FILE_TYPE_UNSPECIFIED, is documented as “Default value. Unused.” — protocol plumbing rather than a type you can choose. And ANY is not really a tenth tick box either: it is the restriction being off. That leaves eight categories you can actually select.

Read the descriptions side by side and something odd stands out. Three of them are named after Google's own apps — a Google Docs document, a Google Slides presentation, a Google Sheets spreadsheet — while the other five are generic nouns. DRAWING is documented in full as “A drawing.”, without saying whether it means a Google Drawings file, a vector file from some other tool, or a scan of something drawn on paper. Google does not reconcile this anywhere, which matters the moment a responder uploads a .docx rather than a Google Doc: the documented name of the category describes a Google Docs document, and Google publishes nothing about how an Office file is classified against it.

Categories, not extensions

This is the practical ceiling of the feature, and it disappoints people in the same way every time. The restriction can express “an image” but not “a PNG”. It can express “a document” but not “.docx only”. There is no MIME type list, no extension field, no size-of-image rule, no “must be a scan rather than a photo”.

Things you cannot do with this setting, and will have to do another way:

• Demand one format within a category. Allowing IMAGE allows JPEG, PNG, HEIC and whatever else the responder's phone produces.
• Block a specific format. There is no deny list — only an allow list of categories.
• Require a naming convention. Nothing in Forms inspects file names.
• Guarantee the file opens. A category is not a validity check; a corrupt PDF is still a PDF.

The workaround is the unglamorous one: say the requirement in the question text, and check on arrival. It is also what Google itself tells responders to rely on — see the next section.

Is the restriction enforced, or just advertised?

This is the question the setting really turns on, and Google answers it nowhere directly. Neither help page above says what happens when a responder picks a disallowed file. The strongest word Google uses is in the API reference, where types[] is “File types accepted by this question”.

The closest thing to an answer sits on a page about the setting's consequences rather than the setting: Fix common errors while you respond to a Google Form. Under the heading “If you can’t upload a file or files”, Google writes:

“For the file upload question, the form owner can set restrictions on the number, type, or size of files.”

“Check the instructions for any file requirements or limitations in the form. Contact the form owner if you're unable to submit a form due to file requirements or limitations.”

So Google does place a type restriction among the reasons a responder cannot upload a file — it is presented as a stop, not a hint. But look at what is missing. That same page carries a table of Forms error messages, quoting exact strings for required questions, invalid dates, grid rules and closed forms. There is no entry for a rejected file type. Google publishes no message, no indication of whether the file is refused when it is chosen or when the form is submitted, and no statement about whether a responder can get around it by renaming a file.

Where Google is silent, this page stays silent: treat the restriction as real, and treat its exact behaviour as undocumented. Two things follow for anyone designing a form. Put the requirement in the question text — Google's own advice to a stuck responder is to “Check the instructions for any file requirements or limitations in the form”, which only works if you wrote some. And test your own form with a wrong file before you send the link, because the behaviour you observe is the only evidence that exists.

One more responder-side rule from the same page, and it has nothing to do with types: “You can’t upload a file from a shared drive.” That is separate from the owner-side blocker — Google also states you cannot use the question type at all if “The form is stored in a shared drive” or if “Your administrator turns on Data Loss Prevention”.

What a type restriction does not change

Narrowing the types is a small lever, and it is worth being clear about everything it leaves alone:

• Sign-in stays mandatory. “To answer this question, responders need to sign in to a Google Account.” That belongs to the question type, not its settings, so an image-only question is exactly as un-anonymous as an anything-goes one.
• The storage bill stays yours. “For the form owner, uploaded files are stored in a new folder on Google Drive.” Allowing only PDFs does not make them cheaper; it just makes them PDFs.
• The size and count caps are separate settings. If you are restricting types to keep a form small, the per-file size cap and the form-wide total are the controls that actually do that — see file upload limits.

Choosing well is mostly about matching the category to the job: IMAGE alone for photos, screenshots and signatures; PDF alone for signed paperwork and invoices; DOCUMENT plus PDF for CVs, accepting that you will still receive formats you did not picture. Ticking all eight is not a stricter form of ANY — it is the same thing spelled out at length.

Doing this from an iPhone or iPad

Forms+ is a native client for your real Google Forms, and it exposes this setting directly. Opening a File upload question shows an Allowed types row whose picker lists the same eight categories — Document, Presentation, Spreadsheet, Drawing, PDF, Image, Video, Audio — alongside the maximum number of files and the maximum file size. Tick every one of the eight and Forms+ records the question as unrestricted, which is the honest reading of what you asked for. Forms+ applies your choice to the real form through the Google Forms editor on your behalf when you save.

Two things to know. Adding a File upload question, converting an existing question into one, and opening an uploaded file from the responses screen are all Forms+ Pro features. And the Signature question Forms+ offers is not a separate Google feature — it is a File upload restricted to Image, which is the clearest illustration on this page of what a type restriction is for.

Frequently asked questions

Which file types can a Google Form accept?

Any type, unless the owner narrows it. Google's help pages describe the control but never list the categories; the only Google-published list is the Forms API reference, whose FileType values are ANY, DOCUMENT, PRESENTATION, SPREADSHEET, DRAWING, PDF, IMAGE, VIDEO and AUDIO. ANY is not a category so much as the restriction being off, which leaves eight things you can actually tick.

Does Google Forms actually block the wrong file type?

Google never says so in the setting's own documentation. The closest it comes is its responder troubleshooting page, which lists “For the file upload question, the form owner can set restrictions on the number, type, or size of files” under the heading for not being able to upload a file, and tells the responder to “Contact the form owner if you're unable to submit a form due to file requirements or limitations.” That places a type restriction among the causes of a failed upload, but Google publishes no error message, and no statement of whether the file is refused at the picker or at submit. Treat it as a real restriction whose exact behaviour is undocumented.

Can I allow only PDFs in a Google Form?

Yes. PDF is one of the published categories, documented in the Forms API reference as simply “A PDF.” Turn on Allow only specific file types and tick PDF alone. What Google does not publish is what a responder holding a Word file is shown when they try, so state the requirement in the question text as well.

Can I restrict a Google Form to a file extension like .docx?

No. Every published value is a broad category, not an extension or a MIME type, so there is no way to allow .docx while blocking .odt, or to demand PNG rather than JPEG. Google also does not document how an uploaded Office or Apple file maps onto categories it describes in terms of its own apps, so a rule finer than the categories has to be enforced by you, after the responses arrive.

Does restricting file types remove the Google sign-in requirement?

No. The sign-in requirement belongs to the question type, not to its settings: “To answer this question, responders need to sign in to a Google Account.” Restricting types changes nothing about who can answer, where the files land, or whose Drive quota pays for them.

Can I set the allowed file types from an iPhone?

Yes, with Forms+, whose Allowed types picker lists the same eight tickable categories and applies your choice to the real Google Form. Ticking all eight is recorded as no restriction at all. Adding a File upload question, or converting an existing question into one, is a Forms+ Pro feature.