How to Add Images and Videos to a Google Form

Updated July 2026 · 8 min read

A plain wall of text can make even a simple form feel harder to fill out than it needs to be. Google Forms lets you drop in photos, diagrams, YouTube videos, and even picture-based answer choices, plus a branded header image that sets the tone before anyone reads a single question. This guide covers every way to add visual media to a form, including doing it from a phone.

Adding an image to a question

You can attach an image either directly under a specific question or as its own standalone item in the form.

1. Click the question (or click anywhere on the form to add a new item) so the floating toolbar on the right becomes active.
2. Click the image icon — it looks like a small picture — in that toolbar.
3. Choose a source from the dialog that opens: Upload from your device, Take a photo with your webcam or phone camera, Camera (a live capture), Google Image search to pull in a web image, or Google Drive to pick a file you already have saved.
4. Select the image and it inserts into the question or as a new item, depending on where your cursor was focused.

Once inserted, click the image to reveal alignment options (left, center, right) and a size slider so you can resize it to fit the layout — useful when a photo is much larger than the form's column width.

Adding a YouTube video

Videos work the same way as images but use their own icon:

1. Click the video icon (a small play-button-in-a-rectangle) in the floating toolbar.
2. Search YouTube directly from the dialog, or paste a video's URL if you already know which one you want.
3. Select the video and it embeds as its own item in the form, playable inline without leaving the page.

This is useful for instructional forms — a training quiz that asks respondents to watch a short clip before answering, or a product feedback form that shows a demo video first.

Adding images as answer choices

For multiple choice, checkboxes, or dropdown questions, each individual option can carry its own image — handy for anything visual, like "Which logo do you prefer?" or "Pick your table setting." To do it:

1. Open a multiple choice or checkboxes question and look at the small image icon that sits to the right of each answer option's text field.
2. Click that icon next to the specific option you want to illustrate.
3. Upload or select an image the same way as inserting one under a question.
4. Repeat for each option — Google Forms displays the images in a clean grid layout so respondents can compare choices side by side.

This turns an otherwise text-only decision ("Option A, Option B, Option C") into something respondents can actually evaluate visually, which is especially useful for design reviews, product variant selection, or "pick your favorite" style questions.

Header images for form branding

Beyond individual questions, you can set a large header image that runs across the top of the entire form, above the title. Click the paint palette icon in the top toolbar to open theme customization, then click the small image icon in the header preview area. From there you can upload your own banner or logo image, search Google Images, browse Drive, or pick from Google's library of built-in header themes organized by category (work, events, education, and so on). The header image also sets the accent color automatically pulled from the image's dominant tones, though you can override the color manually afterward.

Practical notes on file size and format

Google Forms accepts standard image formats — JPEG, PNG, GIF, and similar — uploaded directly from your device or Drive. There's no need to pre-compress images to an unusually small size for the form to accept them, but large, high-resolution photos will take longer to upload and may load slowly for respondents on a weak connection, so it's still good practice to use reasonably sized images rather than unedited multi-megabyte camera originals, especially for a form you expect a lot of people to open on mobile data.

Doing this from a phone

Adding a single image or video from your phone works fine for straightforward cases — tap the image icon, choose your camera roll, and the photo uploads directly. Where mobile gets more limited is precise layout work: resizing an image exactly, fine-tuning alignment across several answer-choice images, or adjusting a header image's crop can be fiddly on a small touchscreen using the standard mobile browser editor. If you're doing heavy media work — a form with several image-based answer options or a carefully cropped header — it's genuinely easier on a desktop screen where you can see the whole layout at once. For lighter, one-off media additions on the go, a purpose-built app like FormMaker's native editor handles the upload flow more comfortably than the desktop-oriented browser version squeezed onto a phone screen.

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