How to Get Email Notifications for New Google Forms Responses
Quick answer: Google Forms does not email you automatically when someone submits a response. To turn it on, open your form's Responses tab, click the three-dot menu, and choose "Get email notifications for new responses." For routing to a shared inbox, adding conditions, or posting to Slack, use Google Sheets' notification rules, Apps Script, or Zapier instead.
This trips up a lot of people the first time they build a Google Form: you publish it, share the link, and then... nothing. No email tells you someone responded. It feels like a missing feature, but it isn't — it's just off by default. Here's the native fix, plus the more advanced options for when you need notifications to go somewhere other than your own personal inbox.
Why Google Forms doesn't email you by default
Google Forms is built to be usable for everything from a five-question party RSVP to a 500-question research survey, and email notifications for every single response would be unwanted noise for a lot of that traffic. So Google leaves it off by default and gives you a per-form toggle to turn it on only where you actually want it.
Option A: the native "get email notifications" toggle
This is the simplest fix and covers most people's needs. It's a genuinely native Google Forms feature — not a workaround — and takes under a minute to set up.
- Open the Google Form you own.
- Click the Responses tab at the top.
- Click the three-dot menu (More) above the response summary.
- Select "Get email notifications for new responses."
From that point on, every new submission sends an email to the inbox of the Google account that owns the form. There's no way to customize the email's content or send it to a different address from this toggle alone — for that, you need one of the options below.
Option B: notification rules on the linked Google Sheet
If you want notifications to go to a shared team inbox, or only when certain conditions are met, the native toggle won't get you there — but Google Sheets' own notification settings can, since your form's responses already flow into a linked Sheet.
- Open the Google Sheet linked to your form's responses (click the green Sheets icon from the Responses tab if you haven't linked one yet).
- Go to Tools > Notification settings (or Notification rules, depending on your Sheets version).
- Choose to be notified when "a user submits a form" or when "any changes are made," and pick email frequency — immediately or a daily digest.
Because this is a Sheets-level setting, anyone with edit access to that Sheet can set up their own notification rule pointed at their own email — useful when a few different people on a team each want to be pinged.
Option C: Apps Script for fully custom logic
If you need something the built-in options don't cover — like emailing a different address depending on which option a respondent picked, formatting a custom email body, or triggering a notification only for specific answers — Google Apps Script gives you full control. You write a small script attached to the form that runs automatically on every submission. See our full guide on using Google Apps Script with Google Forms for how to set up a form-submit trigger and script from scratch.
Option D: Zapier for routing to Slack or other tools
If the destination isn't email at all — say you want new responses posted into a Slack channel, added to a CRM, or logged in a project management tool — Zapier is the more practical route than writing custom code. You connect your Google Form (or its linked Sheet) as the trigger and pick whatever app you want as the action. See our guide on connecting Google Forms to Zapier for the full setup.
Which option should you use?
- Just want to know when someone responds: Option A, the native toggle. Done in one click.
- Need it sent to a shared inbox or with conditions: Option B, Sheets notification rules.
- Need custom email content or logic based on the answers: Option C, Apps Script.
- Need it in Slack or another external tool: Option D, Zapier.
And if the real issue is just wanting to glance at new responses without waiting on any email at all, see our guide on viewing Google Forms responses on your phone for a quicker way to check in.
FAQ
Does Google Forms email you automatically when someone responds?
No, not by default. Google Forms does not send the form owner an email for new responses unless you turn on the built-in notification toggle in the Responses tab.
Where is the setting for Google Forms response email notifications?
Open your form, click the Responses tab, click the three-dot menu, and select "Get email notifications for new responses."
Can I send Google Forms response notifications to a shared inbox instead of my personal email?
The native toggle only emails the form owner's account. To route notifications to a shared inbox or add conditions, use Google Sheets' own notification rules on the linked response spreadsheet, or set up a custom Apps Script.
How do I send Google Forms responses to Slack?
Use a Zapier automation connecting your Google Form (or its linked Sheet) to Slack, so each new response posts a message to a channel automatically.