Constant sum · Ranking

Constant sum question

Give people a fixed number of points, such as 100, and ask them to share it across a list. Because every point given to one item is a point taken from another, you see how much more one thing matters than the next. Set a total, and a running count tells respondents when they’ve hit it.

Available onFree & up· every plan
The constant sum question as respondents see it: five items with points adding up to the total on a laptop, and the over-target warning on a phone

Live demo

Share 100 points. Your answer joins the results.

This is the question your respondents get. Type points into the boxes, watch the total, and press Next. Once Next accepts your answer, the chart beside it counts it.

You have 100 points. Share them across these five things according to how much each matters when you choose a mobile phone plan. Type 0 for any that don’t matter.

Monthly price
Network coverage
Data allowance
Contract length
Customer service

Total0 / 100

In action

The constant sum in action

Constant sum in action · A respondent shares 100 points, goes over, corrects one box, and the total turns complete.
  1. 0:00One empty box per item, with the total underneath.
  2. 0:03As points go in, the total counts up.
  3. 0:06One box gets too many points, and the total reads “Total (over target)”.
  4. 0:09On a phone, that box is corrected and the last one filled in: the total reads “Total (complete)”, with a tick.
  5. 0:12The answer joins Results: a bar per item, with each item’s share.

Every feature

Everything the constant sum can do

Your total and your items, a running count for respondents, a server check on required answers, and one clean column per item.

Build it your waySet-up in the builder.

LiveFree

Any total

Type the total the points add up to: 100 points, 10 chips, 24 hours.

LiveFree

Your items

List the items to share points across. Each gets its own column in your export, named after the question with a number for each item.

LiveFree

Shuffle or rotate the items

Randomise the order for each respondent, and fix the items that must stay in place.

LiveFree

Show an item only when it applies

Give an item its own display logic, so it appears only for the people it fits.

LiveFree

Required, soft required or optional

Required waits for the total exactly. Optional accepts a blank or any total. Soft required asks once first, then accepts the same.

LiveFree

Translated with your survey

Your items translate with the rest of the survey; the total and its messages come in six languages.

Server messages and the Results note are in English.

Live

A ready-made template

Product Feature Prioritization pairs MaxDiff and ranking with a 100-point constant sum.

The template needs Research Team for its MaxDiff.

On the respondent’s screenWhat people answering see and use.

LiveFree

A running total as they type

The total under the boxes counts up, says “Total (complete)” at the target and “Total (over target)” past it.

LiveFree

Decimals, to the cent

Up to two decimal places, compared to the cent, so 33.33 + 33.33 + 33.34 reaches 100.

Negative numbers become 0.

LiveFree

Says what’s missing

Press Next with the points short or over, and the message names the target and the current total.

On a required question.

LiveFree

Checked twice

On a required question, Next waits until the points match the total, and the server checks again before saving.

LiveFree

Number boxes on phones

Each item’s box is a number field, so phones bring up a number keyboard.

LiveFree

Your theme, light or dark

Boxes and the total follow the survey’s theme and dark mode.

In your resultsResults and the client portal.

LiveFree

A bar per item

Results shows where the points went as a share per item, as a bar, a pie or a table.

A box left blank counts as 0.

LiveFree

In the client portal

Your client sees the same chart on the portal’s Results page.

In your dataWhat lands in your exports.

LiveFree

A column per item

One column per item, such as Q1_1, labelled with the question and the item.

A box left blank is empty; there’s no total column.

LiveProfessional+

Scale variables in SPSS

Every item is a numeric scale variable, labelled, ready for means and models.

Not part of the constant sum yet: a minimum or maximum per item, a % or $ beside the box, a slider or bar format, a points-remaining counter, a Don’t know option, dashboards and report decks, crosstabs and tab books, filtering, branching or piping on the points, and the respondent’s total as its own column.

Choosing

Constant sum, ranking or MaxDiff?

All three make people trade items off against each other. They differ in what you get back.

  • Constant sum · Free

    Pick constant sum when

    • You need how much more one item matters, not only which comes first.
    • Two items can matter equally.
    • The list is short, around five to eight items.
  • Ranking · Free

    Pick ranking when

    • Order is all you need: first, second, third.
    • You want it quick: dragging is faster than doing sums.
  • MaxDiff · Research Team

    Pick MaxDiff when

    • The list is long, about 8 to 30 items.
    • You’d rather people choose than do arithmetic, and let the scores be estimated.

Need each item rated on its own scale instead? Use a rating scale (Free), knowing that everything can then be “very important”.

Build it

Add a constant sum question

  1. 1

    Add the question

    In the builder, choose Constant Sum from the Ranking group, and write the question. Say what the points are and how many there are.

  2. 2

    Set your total

    Target Sum starts at 100. Change it if your total is different, such as 10 chips or 24 hours. That is the number a required answer must add up to.

  3. 3

    Add your items

    Replace the two starter categories under Categories with your own, one per line. Five to eight items work best.

  4. 4

    Choose the order

    In Randomization, shuffle or rotate the items for each respondent, and fix any that should stay put, such as “Something else”.

  5. 5

    Choose required or optional

    Required waits for the total exactly. Optional lets people skip, or move on with any total.

  6. 6

    Preview it

    Preview on a phone, type some points, and watch the total count up until it reads “Total (complete)” at your number.

The Constant Sum editor with the question text, 100 in Target Sum, the five items under Categories and the line “Respondents distribute 100 points across categories.”
EditorThe total and the items in one place.
The builder’s phone preview of the question: a number box beside each of the five items, with points typed in, and the total reading “Total (complete)” and 100 / 100
Phone previewNumber boxes and the running total.

The data you get

A column per item, holding its points

Each item lands in a column of its own, named after the question with a number for each item, ready to average, sum or model.

respondent_idQ1_1Q1_2Q1_3Q1_4Q1_5
47762a85-0001-4000-8000-00000000000103530530
47762a85-0002-4000-8000-0000000000022020251025
47762a85-0003-4000-8000-0000000000032020252015
47762a85-0004-4000-8000-000000000004102055015
47762a85-0005-4000-8000-000000000005552501010
47762a85-0006-4000-8000-0000000000063010202020
47762a85-0007-4000-8000-0000000000071025301520
47762a85-0008-4000-8000-0000000000082025251515

Trimmed to the question’s columns. A box someone left blank is empty in the file, not 0, and the file has no column for each respondent’s total: add the item columns if you need it. Every export also carries the respondent columns (status, language, timing and more).

One column per item

Named after the question, with a number for each item, such as Q1_1 to Q1_5. Rewording an item never renames its column.

The points they gave

The points each person gave, up to two decimal places.

Blank is blank

An item someone left empty stays empty in the file, so you can tell it from a typed 0. Recode blanks to 0 when every answer reached the total.

Scale variables in SPSS

Every item column is a numeric scale variable, labelled with the question, then the item. SPSS export is on Professional+.

Charts & analysis

See where the points went

Every constant sum is charted in Results as you collect: a bar per item, with each item’s share. Switch it to a pie or a table in Results; in the portal, your client sees the chart as bars or a pie.

Choosing a mobile plan: where the points wentResults · constant sum card · 200 responses

The Surveti Results constant sum card: the line “200 responses · average points allocated per option”, then a bar per item in the order asked, each with its percentage: Monthly price 29%, Network coverage 27%, Data allowance 19%, Contract length 9% and Customer service 16%
Monthly price takes the biggest share of the points, 29%. Each bar’s percentage is the average points per respondent, with a box left blank counted as 0, as a share of all the items’ averages.

Where it charts

  • ResultsBar, pie or table
  • Client portalThe same chart
  • ExportsA column per item
  • DashboardNot yet
  • Report deckNot yet
  • CrosstabsNot yet
  • Tab booksNot yet

Analysis that applies

  • Shares at a glance

    Free

    Results shows each item’s share, its average as a share of all the items’ averages; switch the value to # to see the average points instead. Each average counts a box left blank as 0.

  • Bar, pie or table

    Free

    The points add up to one whole, so a pie reads naturally here. Pick the view per question in Results.

  • A caution on small bases

    Free

    In the client portal, under the survey’s minimum base, the chart still shows, with a note to read it with care.

  • Your own analysis

    Professional+

    Export the item columns to SPSS as scale variables, or to CSV and Excel on every plan, for means by group, tests or modelling.

How Surveti compares

Constant sum across the common survey tools

Constant sum capabilities in Surveti, SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, Typeform and Alchemer, as of 7 November 2026
CapabilitySurvetiSurveyMonkeyQualtricsTypeformAlchemer
A constant sum question typeyesA question typeno1Fixed-sum textboxes insteadyes8Text boxes, bars, slidersno14yes17, 18Continuous Sum
On the free or entry planyesFreepaid3Multiple Textboxes is paidpaid10Not on the free accountno14yes18Every licence; no free plan
Must add up to the totalyesClient and server, on required answerspartial2, 3Checked on Next onlyyes8no14yes17“Must equal max”
Running total shown as they typeyesComplete / over target, in wordsno2No running totalpartial8Text boxes, vertical onlynopartial17, 19Implied by the accessibility guide
Running total announced to screen readersyesA live statusunclearunclear9nono19“Some browsers do not update the Total”
Decimal entriesyesTwo places, matched to the centno2, 3Whole numbers onlypartial8Bars and slidersnounclear17
Minimum / maximum per itemnounclear2, 3yes8Range requirementnoyes17“Allow values between”
Unit symbol or format (%, $, hrs)nono2% not acceptedyes8Up to 4 charactersnopartial17Percent / Currency formats
Slider or bar formatnono1yes8nounclear17
Per-item averages in resultsyesAverage points per itempartial3Average per textboxyes8, 11Statistics tablenoyes17Average, min, max, SD, sum
One export column per itemyesunclear2, 3yes8noyes17
Respondent’s total in the exportnounclearpartial8Embedded-data workaroundnono17Not in reports or exports
In crosstabsnoNot yetno4Not a crosstab typeunclear12nounclear21
SPSS exportpaidScale variables · Professional+partial6Paid; type not namedunclear10no16CSV or XLSX onlyunclear20Full Access; type not named
As of 7 Nov 2026, from each vendor’s public help, product and pricing pages.yespartialpaidunclearno

Partial means partly built in or possible only with a documented workaround; paid means built in on paid plans or licences; unclear means the vendor’s public docs don’t settle it. SurveyMonkey has no constant sum type; its cells describe Multiple Textboxes with “Require a Fixed Sum”. QuestionPro (Essentials and up) and SurveySparrow also offer constant sum, with slider variations. Google Forms has none.

Sources (17)
  1. [1] SurveyMonkey: Question types. https://help.surveymonkey.com/en/surveymonkey/create/question-types/ · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  2. [2] SurveyMonkey: Requiring a fixed sum (running total). https://help.surveymonkey.com/en/surveymonkey/create/running-total/ · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  3. [3] SurveyMonkey: Multiple Textboxes. https://help.surveymonkey.com/en/surveymonkey/create/multiple-textboxes/ · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  4. [4] SurveyMonkey: Crosstabs. https://help.surveymonkey.com/en/surveymonkey/analyze/crosstabs/ · accessed 30 Oct 2026
  5. [6] SurveyMonkey: SPSS exports. https://help.surveymonkey.com/en/analyze/spss-exports · accessed 30 Oct 2026
  6. [8] Qualtrics: Constant Sum question. https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/editing-questions/question-types-guide/specialty-questions/constant-sum/ · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  7. [9] Qualtrics: Check survey accessibility. https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/survey-tools/check-survey-accessibility/ · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  8. [10] Qualtrics: Free accounts. https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/managing-your-account/trial-accounts/ · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  9. [11] Qualtrics: Statistics table. https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/reports-module/reports-section/reports-visualizations/table-visualizations/statistics-table-visualization/ · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  10. [12] Qualtrics: Cross tabulation overview. https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/data-and-analysis-module/cross-tabulation/cross-tabulation-overview/ · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  11. [14] Typeform: Create API reference. https://www.typeform.com/developers/create/reference/create-form/ · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  12. [16] Typeform: Download your data. https://help.typeform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029253572 · accessed 30 Oct 2026
  13. [17] Alchemer: Continuous Sum. https://help.alchemer.com/help/continuous-sum · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  14. [18] Alchemer: Compare licenses. https://www.alchemer.com/plans-pricing/compare-licenses/ · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  15. [19] Alchemer: Accessible surveys. https://help.alchemer.com/help/accessibile-surveys · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  16. [20] Alchemer: SPSS export. https://help.alchemer.com/help/spss · accessed 7 Nov 2026
  17. [21] Alchemer: Cross tab report. https://help.alchemer.com/help/cross-tab-report · accessed 30 Oct 2026

What’s different here

A total they can see

The running total sits under the boxes as people type, and says “Total (complete)” or “Total (over target)” in words, not just colour.

Read out as it changes

The total is announced to screen readers as it updates, so nobody has to add up in their head.

Decimals that add up

Entries take up to two decimal places, and totals are compared to the cent, so 33.33 + 33.33 + 33.34 reaches 100.

Checked twice

On a required question, Next waits until the points match the total, and the server checks again before saving.

On the Free plan

Constant sum, its running total, the Results chart and CSV and Excel exports are on every plan, Free included.

In their language

The total and its messages come in six languages, and your items translate with the rest of the survey.

When to use it

Use it when the trade-off is the point

When to use it

  • Weighing what drives a choice: price, quality, service, brand.
  • Splitting a budget, a week or a share of spend across options.
  • Prioritising a short list of features, where some can matter equally.
  • Asking people to estimate shares, such as how they split their streaming time.

When to reach for something else

  • The list is long. Over eight or so items the sums get tiring; use MaxDiff.
  • Order is enough. Use ranking.
  • Some people won’t be able to answer. There’s no Don’t know option, so make the question optional; it then accepts a partial total.
  • You need each item scored on its own. Use a rating scale or a matrix.

Sample wording

“You have 100 points. Share them across these five things according to how much each matters when you choose a mobile phone plan. Type 0 for any that don’t matter.” Monthly price · Network coverage · Data allowance · Contract length · Customer service

Best practices

  • Say the total and the unit in the question: “100 points”, “24 hours”, “your monthly budget in dollars”.
  • Use 100 when the answers are shares; it’s the easiest total to split.
  • Ask people to type 0 for items that get nothing: Results counts a blank box as 0, but your export keeps it blank.
  • Keep the list to five to eight items, and shuffle them so the first one isn’t favoured.
  • Preview the question before you launch, and check the total counts up to your number.

Accessibility

Plain boxes and a total that speaks

Standard number boxes

Each item’s box is a native number field named by its item, reachable with Tab and usable with any keyboard.

A total that’s read out

The running total is a live status, so screen readers hear it change as points go in.

Words, not just colour

“Total (complete)” and “Total (over target)” are written out, each with its own icon.

Light or dark

Boxes and the total follow the survey’s theme and dark mode.

Use it in

Where constant sum fits

Template

Product Feature Prioritization

MaxDiff and ranking on your features, then 100 points across performance, design, features and support. Needs Research Team for its MaxDiff.

Solution

Product research

Find out how much each feature matters, not just which comes first.

Solution

Market research

Weigh the drivers of choice in a category: price, quality, brand, service.

Example

Choosing a mobile plan

100 points across monthly price, network coverage, data allowance, contract length and customer service.

Frequently asked questions

What is a constant sum question?

A question that gives respondents a fixed number of points, often 100, to share across a list of items. Because the points are limited, people have to decide what matters more, and by how much. In Surveti each item gets a number box and a running total shows how many points are given so far.

What happens if the points don’t add up?

On a required question, Next waits until the points match the total, and the server checks again before saving. Press Next with the points short or over, and the message names that total and the current one. The running total also reads “Total (over target)” as soon as they go past it.

How are the results worked out?

Results averages the points each person gave each item, counting a box left blank as 0, and shows each average as a share of all the items’ averages, or the averages themselves with the # switch. The example on this page uses 200 answers.

Can people use decimals?

Yes, up to two decimal places. Totals are compared to the cent, so 33.33, 33.33 and 33.34 add up to 100 exactly. Negative numbers are turned into 0.

Can the question be optional?

Yes. An optional constant sum can be skipped, and it accepts points that don’t add up to the total, short or over. A soft-required one asks once first: the first Next on a blank answer, or on points that don’t add up to the total, shows a reminder, and the second Next goes on. Use required when every answer must add up.

What does the export look like?

One column per item, named after the question with a number for each item, in CSV and Excel, and in SPSS on Professional+. A box left blank is empty. There’s no separate column for each respondent’s total.

Which plan do I need?

Constant sum is Free on every plan, with the running total, the Results chart and CSV and Excel exports. SPSS export is on Professional+.

Related question types

  • Ranking

    Put items in order, when order is all you need. Free.

  • MaxDiff

    Best and worst from sets, for long lists. Research Team.

  • Rating scale

    Each item rated on its own. Free.

  • Slider List A slider per item, with no shared total. Professional+

Add a constant sum question in minutes.

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