How to delete a Google Form

Last updated September 2026 · ~7 minute read

Short answer: open the form, use the three-dot More menu and choose Move to trash — Google's screen-reader guide lists that menu's contents as “options like” Make a copy, Move to trash, Pre-fill form, Embed HTML, Print and Unpublish form. But read the next section first. Most people asking this question do not want the form gone; they want it to stop collecting, and there are three gentler actions sitting in the same two menus.

“Delete” means four different things in Google Forms, and only one of them removes the form. Picking the wrong one is how people lose responses they meant to keep — or keep collecting responses they meant to stop.

Before you delete: you may want one of these three instead

Each of these leaves the form and its responses in your Drive. None of them is the trash.

1. Stop accepting responses

The right choice when the form has done its job but you still want the data, the summary charts and the form itself. Google documents the control as: “In a published form, at the top right, click Published. Turn off Accepting responses.”

You can also have Google close it for you rather than remembering to. The same help page documents “Set close date or response limit”, with two ways to trigger it: “Under ‘On a date,’ click Choose date and time”, or “Select After a number of responses. Enter the maximum number…”. Neither applies unless you set it, so an open form stays open until you say otherwise. There is more on both in scheduling a form to open or close and limiting responses.

2. Unpublish the form

The right choice when you want the link to go dead — for a form you might bring back, or one you would rather nobody stumbled into. Unpublish form sits in the very same More menu as Move to trash, one row away.

Google is brief about what it does, so here is the whole of it, from two pages: “If the form is unpublished, responders with the link can't access it.” and “You can't accept responses in unpublished forms.” The form itself, its questions and every response already collected stay in your Drive untouched. Google does not document any further consequence of unpublishing, and neither will we.

3. Delete only the responses

The right choice when the form is fine and the data is the problem — a test run, a duplicate batch, a privacy request. Google's click-path is Responses → Summary → More → Delete all responses → OK, or Responses → Individual → Delete for one at a time.

This one is genuinely irreversible. Google's warning is unambiguous: “If you delete any responses in a form, it can't be undone.” There is no bin for responses, no 30-day window, no admin restore. Export first — Link to Sheets or Download responses (.csv) — and confirm the export opened before you clear anything.

How to delete the form

If none of the three fits and you really do want the form gone:

1. Check you are the owner. Google's guidance on shared Drive files is that deleting one you own means “it will be completely removed from Drive for all collaborators, and they will no longer have access to the document” — and that “if you're not the owner, others can see the file even if you empty your trash.” Owner deletes for everyone; anyone else only clears their own view.
2. Save the responses you still want. Use Link to Sheets or Download responses (.csv) from the Responses tab first. See responses to PDF if you want a readable copy rather than a spreadsheet.
3. Open the form's More menu — the three dots in the form editor.
4. Choose Move to trash. The form goes to your Drive bin, not into thin air.
5. Or trash it from Drive instead, where the form sits as a file alongside your documents. Google's page on deleting Drive editor files gives the action the same name there: Move to trash.

Deleting a Google Form from your phone

Both routes above assume the desktop web editor. Forms+ does it from the forms list on iPhone and iPad, on your own Google account and your real forms:

1. Long-press the form's card in the forms list (or swipe it).
2. Choose Delete — the sheet describes it as Move to trash.
3. Confirm. The alert names the form it is about to trash, so you can check you have the right one.

To unpublish instead, open the form and use Share & Distribute → Unpublish form, which takes the form link offline and leaves everything else alone.

What deleting the form does not delete

This is where most articles on this query go wrong.

• The linked spreadsheet. Google says it outright: “You can delete the spreadsheet and not delete the form, or you can delete the form and not delete the spreadsheet.” The response sheet is its own Drive file. Trash the form and the sheet is still sitting there with every response in it — which is either a relief or a data-protection problem, depending on why you were deleting. If you need both gone, trash both.
• Files people uploaded. File-upload answers live as their own items in Drive, not inside the form. Google's help pages do not state what happens to them when the form is trashed, so do not assume either way — go and look in your Drive.
• Anything you already exported. A downloaded CSV, a copy in Sheets, a PDF you saved, an email that went out on submission: all separate, all untouched, none of them cleaned up by trashing the form.
• The responses themselves, in the short term. They go to the bin with the form rather than being erased, which is why trashing a form is not a way to satisfy a deletion request. Deleting the responses is the action that does that, and it is the one that cannot be undone.

If you trashed it by mistake

Move to trash is reversible. The form goes to your Drive bin and can be restored from there for a limited window — the click-path, the time limit and the admin route are all covered in how to recover a deleted Google Form. The action on this page that you cannot walk back is deleting responses.

The four actions, side by side

Frequently asked questions

Does deleting a Google Form delete the responses spreadsheet?

No. Google states it plainly: “You can delete the spreadsheet and not delete the form, or you can delete the form and not delete the spreadsheet.” The linked sheet is a separate Drive file and survives trashing the form. If you want it gone too, you have to trash it separately.

How do I stop a Google Form from accepting responses without deleting it?

Google documents the control as: “In a published form, at the top right, click Published. Turn off Accepting responses.” The form and every response stay exactly where they are, and you can turn it back on at any time.

What is the difference between unpublishing and deleting a Google Form?

Unpublishing takes the link offline while leaving the form in your Drive: “If the form is unpublished, responders with the link can't access it,” and “You can't accept responses in unpublished forms.” Deleting moves the whole file to your Drive bin. Unpublish form and Move to trash sit next to each other in the same More menu.

Can I delete a Google Form I do not own?

Not for everyone else. Google's guidance on shared files is that “if you're not the owner, others can see the file even if you empty your trash.” Removing it only clears it from your own Drive. To retire a form you did not create, ask the owner to trash or unpublish it, or have ownership transferred to you first.

Is deleting a Google Form permanent?

Move to trash is not permanent — the form goes to your Drive bin and can be restored for a limited window. Deleting responses is different: Google warns that “if you delete any responses in a form, it can't be undone.” That is the one action on this page with no way back.