How to duplicate a section in Google Forms

Last updated September 2026 · ~8 minute read

Short answer: click a section header, click More, click Duplicate section. Those three clicks are the whole of what Google's help page publishes about it. What it does not publish is where the copy's navigation points — and on a form with branching, that silence is the reason a duplicated section is the edit most likely to break a form without showing you a single error.

Duplicating is a ten-second job with a five-minute aftermath. This page separates what Google documents from what it leaves to you to discover, and ends with the check that catches the break.

The command, in Google's words

Google files this under “Duplicate a question, image, or section”, and the section route is three steps:

1. Click a section header.
2. Click More.
3. Click Duplicate section.

Two things follow from where that command lives. It is on the section header's menu, so if you have clicked a question inside the section you will see Duplicate for that one question instead — a different command with a different scope. And there is no dialog: unlike copying a whole form, which opens a box asking for a name and a Drive folder, duplicating a section asks you nothing and gives you nothing to confirm. It happens, and you are looking at two sections that read identically.

Google does not say where the copy lands in the editor. Its developer documentation describes a different operation — the Apps Script duplicate() method on a page break, which “Creates a copy of this item and appends it to the end of the form.” That is the scripted API, not the editor button, and you should not assume the button behaves the same way. Scroll and look.

If you are still deciding whether you want a section at all, rather than a heading inside one page, what a section header actually is is the page for that.

What the copy inherits — and where Google stops talking

Google publishes the three clicks and nothing about the contents. So this table labels every row with where the claim comes from: documented means Google states it in its own pages; inferred means it follows from something Google does state, and the row says from what.

Note the shape of that table. Google's silence is not evenly spread: it is silent on precisely the two rows that decide whether respondents end up on the right page. That is why this is not a three-click page.

The one hard rule Google does publish about section navigation

There is exactly one documented statement about which navigation wins, and it is in the Apps Script reference for PageBreakItem — the object a section is, under the hood. On setGoToPage():

“If the previous page contained a MultipleChoiceItem or ListItem with a navigation option, that navigation overrules this navigation.”

ListItem is the dropdown. So: a per-answer branch on the page before beats the section's own destination. Apply that to a duplicate and you get the failure mode this page exists for.

You duplicate a section to reuse a block of questions. You then set the copy's end-of-section destination carefully — continue, jump somewhere, or submit. And on the page above it there is a multiple choice question that has carried a “Go to section based on answer” setting since last year. Every respondent who answers that question is routed by it. The destination you set on the copy is never consulted. Nothing is red, nothing warns you, and the form is simply wrong for everyone who takes the branch. If your duplicated section seems to be ignoring its own destination, the previous page is where to look — not the copy.

The mirror-image case is just as quiet: the copy may carry per-answer targets of its own, inherited from the questions it was cloned from, that now overrule the destination you just set on it. Read conditional logic in Google Forms if you need the full picture of how the two layers interact.

Two ceilings a duplicate eats into

Google states both on the same help page: “After you've created a form, you can add and edit up to 300 pieces of content, like questions, descriptions, images, and videos. To organize your form by topic, you can add up to 75 sections.”

A duplicate spends from both. One more section against the 75, and every copied question, description and image against the 300. Duplicating a ten-question section is not one edit; it is eleven items. Forms built by duplication — a section per week, per class, per site visit — hit the content ceiling far sooner than their authors expect, and the thing that stops working is adding anything at all.

What it does to your linked spreadsheet

Label this one honestly: inferred, not documented. Google's pages on viewing responses and choosing a response destination say nothing about what happens to the columns when you duplicate questions.

The reasoning is short. A duplicated question is a new question — it is not a second view of the original — and a linked spreadsheet is built with one column per question. So expect the copy to bring its own set of columns, sitting alongside the originals and carrying the same header text. Two columns titled “Date of visit”, most of each empty, is what a duplicated section looks like from the Sheets side.

Since it is inferred, verify it the cheap way: submit one test response and look at the sheet before you publish. And if you have formulas, filters, or a dashboard reading that sheet by column position, check them too — new columns land somewhere.

After you duplicate: the five-item check

1. The copy's own destination. Read the control at the foot of the copied section. Google does not document what it was set to.
2. Every branch inside the copy. Open each multiple choice and dropdown question in the copy and read its per-answer targets. One of them pointing back at the original section is a loop.
3. The section immediately before the copy. Per the rule above, a branch there overrules the copy's destination entirely.
4. Anything that pointed at the original. Two identically-named sections in a destination dropdown is how the wrong one gets picked.
5. Retitle the copy first, not last. It is the cheapest of the five and it makes the other four readable.

Then walk the form as a respondent, taking the branch you care about. A branching form is only correct along the paths you have actually walked.

Duplicating a section from an iPhone

Google has no Forms app for iPhone or iPad, so every click-path above assumes a desktop browser. Forms+ is a native client for your real Google Forms, and it keeps the operation where Google keeps it: tap the ⋯ button on a section header and Duplicate section sits beside Move section, Merge with above and Delete section.

One thing worth knowing wherever you do this: duplicating is not on the insert toolbar, and people hunt for it there.

Frequently asked questions

How do I duplicate a section in Google Forms?

Google's steps are: click a section header, click More, click Duplicate section. There is no dialog and no options, and the command sits on the section header's own menu, not on the insert toolbar.

Does a duplicated section keep its branching?

Google does not publish an answer. Its help page documents the three clicks and stops; it never states what the copy's end-of-section destination becomes, or where the copied questions' “Go to section based on answer” targets point. Open the copy and read every target before you publish.

Does duplicating a section count against the 75-section limit?

Yes. Google documents that “you can add up to 75 sections” and “up to 300 pieces of content, like questions, descriptions, images, and videos”. A duplicate is another section and another set of questions, so it spends from both budgets.

Does duplicating a section add columns to my spreadsheet?

Inferred, not documented. Google does not state this on its help pages. The copied questions are new questions rather than aliases of the originals, and a linked spreadsheet carries one column per question, so expect a second set of columns with identical headers. Check the sheet after the first test submission.

Can I duplicate a section on an iPhone?

Google has no Forms app for iPhone or iPad, so the click-path assumes the desktop editor. Forms+ puts Duplicate section on the section header's menu, beside Move section, Merge with above and Delete section, on your real Google Form.