Share your poll
Prefill answers from the link
Answer questions ahead through URL parameters, and save extra values with hidden fields.
Every poll can be answered ahead through its link. Use it to fill in what you already know, for example a voting code, a name from your email tool or a choice someone made in another form. Respondents still see the prefilled answers and can change them before they submit.
Prefill a unique code
If your poll uses unique codes, add the code to the link with code, like https://strawpoll.com/r/abc123?code=K7MP2QXR. Voters skip the code screen and go straight to the questions, and the vote counts against that code. Codes aren’t case-sensitive.
Send each voter their own link, for example through a mail merge in your email tool. On the Unique codes tab, Copy link with this code copies the link for a single code. A code that’s wrong or already used shows the code screen with an error, so the voter can type a different one.
Build a prefill link
Each question has its own parameter, made from its title when you first publish: “Favorite food?” becomes favorite_food. It stays the same when you change the title later, so links you’ve sent keep working. To find it:
- Open the poll in the editor and select the question.
- In the question’s settings, the parameter is under Prefill label.
Add it to the poll link with the answer you want, like https://strawpoll.com/r/abc123?favorite_food=Pizza. To prefill several questions, join their parameters with &.
You can rename a parameter in Prefill label, using letters, numbers and underscores. Each one is used once per poll, so a name that’s already taken gets a number, like name_2. Links that use the question’s ID still work.
Values must be URL-encoded, so a space becomes %20 and a comma inside a label becomes %2C. Most email and marketing tools do this for you.
What can be prefilled
| Question type | Value |
|---|---|
| Unique code | The voter’s code, as ?code=K7MP2QXR. The parameter is always code. See Prefill a unique code. |
| Contact info | Name, email and other custom fields. Each field, including ones you add, has its own parameter named after its label, listed in the question’s settings. |
| Multiple choice, Picture choice | The option’s label (not case-sensitive). Separate several with commas. |
| Short text, Long text | The text. |
| Word cloud | The word or phrase. |
| Number | The number, like 42. |
| Date | The day as YYYY-MM-DD, like 2026-12-24. |
Other question types, like rankings, ratings, matrices and meetings, can’t be prefilled.
A few rules:
- Options that don’t exist are ignored. If a question allows only one answer, only the first matching option is picked.
- An option whose label contains a comma still matches when you pass the whole label.
- Empty parameters are ignored, and the respondent sees the question as usual.
Hidden fields
Want to save a value with each response without asking for it, such as where people came from? Add a Hidden fields block from Content & layout in the editor and list the URL parameters to keep, like utm_source, customer_id.
Respondents don’t see hidden fields. Their values appear as columns in the responses table and in your CSV export.