How to do a Slido poll, step by step
A Slido poll is built in five moves: sign in, create a slido, name it, type the question, then start it. The free Basic plan handles a standard poll without payment, because it already includes creating and managing polls. Anyone working out how to do a Slido poll learns the full path in a few minutes, and the steps below follow the vendor's own instructions.
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From login to live, in five moves
Every Slido poll starts with an account. The vendor's own help pages say so plainly: to get a poll set up, a person creates an account or logs in first. After that comes the container, which Slido calls a slido. One slido holds the polls, quizzes and surveys for one event, so the container is not a detail to skip. Choose a name the audience will recognise on the join screen, and set the dates the event actually runs, because both travel with the link people use to take part. Working out how to do a Slido poll is mostly learning this order, since the interface will not let a builder skip ahead.
The whole path, in the order the interface asks for it, reads as five small moves: account, container, poll type, question, launch. None of them takes more than a minute, and none can be reordered, because each screen only appears once the one before it is done.
- Register or log in on Slido's site, since no poll can be built without an account.
- Select Create a slido to open the pop-up that makes the container event.
- Pick the dates, give the slido a name, then click Create slido in that pop-up.
- Under Add new interaction, choose a poll type and enter the poll question.
- Open My interactions later and start the poll when the room is ready.
Pick the poll type, then write the question
Slido asks for a poll type before it asks for anything else about the question, and that order is deliberate. The type decides what the audience sees and what a response looks like, so picking it first means the question gets written for the format rather than squeezed into it afterwards. Once the type is chosen, the question field appears, the answer fields follow, and the poll saves itself as you go. There is no separate save button to hunt for; the vendor's instructions describe watching the poll save automatically. Anyone who has lost work in a form builder will notice the difference immediately.
Three decisions shape what participants meet when the poll opens, and each one is made at a different moment in the build. Get the type and the wording right before launch and the room needs no explanation.
- The poll type, chosen under Add new interaction, sets the shape of every answer.
- The question wording decides how quickly people can respond during a live session.
- The slido's name and dates decide what attendees read on the join screen.
My interactions and the start button
A finished poll does not go live by itself. It waits under My interactions, which is the vendor's name for the list of everything built inside that slido. From there the organiser starts and stops the poll as needed, which in practice means the question only appears to the room while it is running. That switch is the whole difference between a draft and a live vote, and it is the last piece of how to do a Slido poll end to end.
Stopping works the same way. The vendor's instructions describe starting and stopping as paired controls in the same spot, so closing a poll is a deliberate act by the organiser rather than something that happens on its own. A host who wants to hold the audience's attention between questions simply stops one interaction and starts the next when the moment arrives.
- My interactions lists everything built inside that slido, drafts included.
- Start makes the question visible to the room; stop closes it to new responses.
- Both controls sit in one place, so a host moves through several questions without hunting menus.
What the free Basic plan covers
Payment is not the gate here. Slido offers a Basic plan that is free of charge, and that plan includes the essential features for creating and managing polls and interactive Q&A sessions. Within one slido on Basic, the ceiling is three polls plus one quiz. For a single session with a handful of questions, that is enough room to work in; anyone who needs more polls per event is past what the free tier offers and would need a paid tier, which the help pages describe but this page does not price. For anyone asking how to do a Slido poll without paying, Basic is the starting answer.
The three-poll ceiling is per slido, not per account. A second event gets its own container and its own allowance, which is worth remembering when one session threatens to outgrow the limit.
- Basic covers creating and managing polls and Q&A sessions at no charge.
- One slido on Basic holds up to three polls.
- The same plan allows one quiz inside each slido.
What the instructions do not settle
The vendor pages behind this walkthrough cover setup, saving, starting and the shape of the free plan. They do not settle several things a careful organiser will ask about. Anonymity, editing after launch, exporting responses and behaviour at the Basic limit all sit outside what these instructions state, so this page does not guess at them. How to do a Slido poll is documented; the wider settings are a separate read.
One more boundary is worth naming. A Slido poll counts what genuine participants submit through the join flow, and the organiser sees the totals the platform records. No setting described here adds responses from outside that flow, and nothing on this page should be read as a route around the platform's own counting. If a contest depends on the number, the number is only as good as the participants who produced it.
- Anonymity settings are not part of the setup instructions this page follows.
- Editing a question after launch is not described in the vendor's steps quoted here.
- What happens when the Basic limit is reached is left to the vendor's broader documentation.
Running it in front of a room
On the day, the sequence is short. Open the slido, go to My interactions, start the poll, and the audience joins through the code or link the event carries. While it runs, responses arrive on the host's view, and stopping closes the window for new ones. Because starting and stopping share the same screen, a host can move through up to three polls on Basic in one session, pausing between them. This is the part of how to do a Slido poll that only practice teaches, and it takes one dry run to feel routine.
Timing matters more than most builders expect. A question left open through an entire talk collects wandering attention; one opened for ninety focused seconds collects a cleaner answer. The controls exist for exactly that, so use them.
- Before the session: check the poll sits under My interactions and reads correctly.
- During: start the poll, watch responses arrive, stop it when the count is in.
- After: move to the next interaction, or end the slido once the event wraps.
| Move | Screen or menu | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Slido's sign-in page | Create an account or log in |
| Container | Create a slido | Pick dates, name it, confirm |
| Poll type | Add new interaction | Select the type that fits |
| Question | The poll editor | Enter it; saves automatically |
| Launch | My interactions | Start and stop as needed |
How to do it
-
Log in or register
Go to Slido's site and either create an account or log in. No poll can be set up before this, so it is genuinely step one.
-
Create the slido container
Select Create a slido. In the pop-up, pick the dates, give the slido a name, and click Create slido to confirm it.
-
Choose a poll type
Under Add new interaction, select the poll type that fits the question. The type decides what the audience sees when they answer.
-
Enter the question
Type the poll question and set the answers. The poll saves automatically as you work, so there is nothing extra to remember here.
-
Start it from My interactions
When the room is ready, open My interactions and start the poll. Stop it there too, once the responses are in.
Common questions
How do you do a Slido poll?
Five steps do it: log in or register, create a slido, choose a poll type under Add new interaction, type the question, and start the poll from My interactions. The poll saves automatically while you build it, and the free Basic plan covers a standard poll with up to three polls and one quiz per slido.
How do you create a Slido poll?
Creating one starts with an account. Select Create a slido, pick dates, name the slido and confirm in the pop-up, then choose a poll type under Add new interaction and enter the question. Slido saves the poll automatically at that point, so there is no separate save step to remember.
How do you make a Slido poll for free?
Making one costs nothing on the Basic plan. Register an account, create a slido, choose a poll type, write the question and let the poll save itself. Basic allows up to three polls and one quiz within each slido, which covers a single session with a handful of questions.
How do you use Slido polls during an event?
You use them through My interactions. Start the poll when the room is ready, let responses arrive on the host's view, and stop it once the count is complete. Starting and stopping sit together in the same place, so nothing goes live by accident and nothing stays open without your say-so.
How do you launch a Slido poll?
Launching means starting it from My interactions. A built poll waits there until the organiser starts it, so a half-written question never reaches the audience by mistake. Once started, the poll accepts responses until you stop it, and you can start and stop again as the session moves along.
How many polls does the free Basic plan allow?
The Basic plan allows up to three polls and one quiz within each slido. It is free of charge and includes the essential features for creating and managing polls and interactive Q&A sessions, so a paid tier is not required for a standard poll. More polls per event means moving up a tier.
Where these facts come from
- community.slido.com. community.slido.com/poll-creation-editing-211/create-a-poll-quiz-or-survey-414.
- community.slido.com. community.slido.com/creating-testing-your-slido-208/create-your-slido-403.
- community.slido.com. community.slido.com/poll-creation-editing-211/create-a-poll-quiz-or-survey-414.
- community.slido.com. community.slido.com/poll-creation-editing-211/create-a-poll-quiz-or-survey-414.
- community.slido.com. community.slido.com/community-q-a-7/how-many-polls-can-i-use-in-the-free-plan-6781.
This page covers setup only. It does not price Slido's paid tiers, does not cover anonymity settings, and never describes adding responses outside the normal join flow. Results handling beyond start and stop, editing after launch, and behaviour once the Basic plan's three-poll limit is reached are not settled here either; the vendor's own documentation owns those answers.
X prohibits coordinating with or compensating others to inflate engagement metrics, and it names Polls among the features covered. The Pet Industry Business Awards name the consequence in their own contest: a business may be investigated, lose votes or be disqualified on reasonable evidence of purchased votes. No seller can stop an organiser from doing that.
Slido says it is alerted when an event gets an unusually high number of votes in a very short time, and Crowdsignal says its built-in measures detect patterns of potentially abusive voting. Ordinary participation arrives spread across the voting window, from different people at different moments. Nothing on this site is a method for getting a vote past a check, and a vote that a tool blocks does not count.
Organiser rules differ: the RSPCA Pet of the Year Awards allow extra votes through donations on their official mechanism, while OpenTable Australia treats a vote cast in exchange for money or a reward as null and void. Both are contest rules, not statutes, and whether payment is lawful where you live is a question for a lawyer. Orders are refused for any contest whose rules ban paid votes, and for political ballots.
Votes ordered for a poll that never appear on its count are refunded after the poll closes. A refund never covers an organiser's decision: Localsearch may void all votes for a disqualified nominee, and Mentimeter says a user whose access it cancels under its Acceptable Use Policy is owed no refund or compensation. No result is promised.