Image poll tools: pictures as answers, upload rules and size limits
An image poll lets people vote among options that are pictures. Common Ninja, which makes an Image Poll widget, calls it an interactive tool where each option is represented by an image, and its free plan covers one poll with no time limit and no credit card. SurveyMonkey, StrawPoll, PollUnit, Google Forms and YouTube each have their own way to put pictures in a poll.
Written by BuyPollVotes editorial desk | Last checked
Polls with pictures online: which tools take them
An image poll is a poll whose answers are pictures, and Common Ninja says it allows users to express their preferences by voting among visual options. Its Image Poll widget is a free, no-code embed that lets visitors vote between images, and Common Ninja names contests as a use: participants vote for their favourite entries shown as images, such as photography contests, design competitions or pet beauty contests.
Other tools name the same idea differently, and the list gives the name each tool's own pages use.
Twitter is left out of the list on purpose: a Twitter poll with an image is a separate question with its own answer.
- Common Ninja: a free, no-code embed widget in which each option is an image.
- StrawPoll: an Image poll type on its create page.
- SurveyMonkey: the Image Choice question type.
- PollUnit: a picture poll started from an Image / File option.
- Google Forms: an image on a question or on a multiple-choice or checkbox answer.
- YouTube: image polls with up to four images as answers.
- Quikipoll: a poll headline that can be a photo.
Image poll size on YouTube: the limits its help page lists
YouTube's help page for image posts and polls lists limits for file size, shape and count. For image posts it suggests a 1:1 aspect ratio, because that is how images are shown in the feed, and it limits each post image to up to 16 MB. A creator can upload up to 10 images with one post.
Image polls have a tighter limit. The same help page says to add captions within 36 characters in the option fields and to click Add option to add up to four images, so a YouTube image poll offers at most four pictures as answers.
File type is the other half of the picture. SurveyMonkey says you can upload JPG, PNG or GIF files directly from your computer, and StrawPoll says a free user account is required to upload images.
Photo poll options: a photo as the headline or as the answer
A photo poll can put the photo in two places. Quikipoll says the headline of a poll can be a question, a statement, a photo, or both, so the photo itself can be what voters answer. Common Ninja's Image Poll goes the other way and puts a picture in every option.
PollUnit covers the rating side. Its survey format is a questionnaire in several steps, and a step of the type Submit rating allows users to upload images for rating.
Where a photo poll meets a contest, the organiser's rules take over: the widget or form collects the picks, and the organiser decides what counts as an entry and who wins.
Create an image poll: what each tool asks you to pick first
StrawPoll, SurveyMonkey and PollUnit all ask for the poll or question type before any picture. StrawPoll's create page lists the poll types Multiple choice, Meeting poll, Image poll and Ranking poll. SurveyMonkey tells you to select the Image Choice question type when designing the poll, and PollUnit tells you to click Create PollUnit and select Image / File, then enter your poll data as usual.
Common Ninja handles the publishing end: its widget can be embedded on any website with just a single line of code.
Create a survey with pictures in Google Forms and SurveyMonkey
Google Forms adds a picture to a survey question in five steps. Open a form, click a question or answer, click Add image to the right, upload or choose an image, and click Select. Google's help page says this works for a question, or for an answer in a multiple-choice or checkbox question.
A picture can also stand on its own in Google Forms: the help page says you can add an image or a YouTube video to your form, separate from any question.
SurveyMonkey builds the same thing as a question type. Its help page says yes, you can create a poll with pictures: select the Image Choice question type when designing the poll, then upload JPG, PNG or GIF files directly from your computer.
Single pick or several, and when voters see the results
Common Ninja's Image Poll lets the creator choose single-select or multi-select voting. Single-select suits a clean pick-one question where one answer wins, and multi-select suits questions where visitors can pick several favourites, such as which of these colours they would wear.
Results timing is a separate switch: the creator can configure whether visitors see live results before voting, after voting or never. That switch decides whether a voter sees a running count before choosing, which is the difference between a poll answered blind and one answered with the scoreboard in view.
Multiple choice in the ordinary sense is separate from a picture poll: StrawPoll lists Multiple choice and Image poll as two poll types on its create page, and Google Forms adds pictures to multiple-choice answers.
Picture rights, accounts and fake votes: what the tools state
Uploading a picture brings its own conditions. PollUnit requires you to confirm that you have the rights to use the pictures you upload, and StrawPoll requires a free user account before it accepts image uploads. Those are conditions on the creator, set by each tool, and they sit apart from any rule an organiser writes for a contest.
Checks on votes are a separate matter from upload conditions. The settings listed on this page are a voting type, a results timing, an upload condition or a limit, and none of them is a fake-vote check. Disqualification belongs to the organiser's rules: the tool counts the picks, and the organiser decides what counts as a valid entry and what gets removed.
Free image poll plans and accounts: what each page states
Common Ninja's pricing page describes its Free plan as free forever with no credit card required, and StrawPoll says it is free for creating and participating in polls.
Free has a different shape in each tool. Common Ninja counts polls: the plan covers one. StrawPoll counts accounts: creating and participating in polls is free, but uploading images needs a free user account. That is the difference between a limit on how many and a condition on who.
| Tool | Where the picture goes | What the page states |
|---|---|---|
| Common Ninja | In every option of an embeddable widget | Single or multi-select voting; results before, after or never |
| StrawPoll | An Image poll type on the create page | A free user account is required to upload images |
| SurveyMonkey | The Image Choice question type | JPG, PNG or GIF files upload from your computer |
| PollUnit | An Image / File start option and a Submit rating step | You confirm you have rights to uploaded pictures |
| Google Forms | On a question, or a multiple-choice or checkbox answer | Click Add image, upload or choose, click Select |
| YouTube | Up to four answers in an image poll | Captions within 36 characters; image posts 1:1, up to 16 MB |
| Quikipoll | In the headline | The headline can be a question, a statement, a photo, or both |
How to do it
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Choose the tool by where the poll will live
Common Ninja's widget embeds on any website with a single line of code, SurveyMonkey and Google Forms build survey-style forms, and YouTube's help page covers image polls alongside image posts.
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Pick the picture question type
In SurveyMonkey select the Image Choice question type, in StrawPoll choose Image poll as the poll type, in PollUnit click Create PollUnit and select Image / File, and in Google Forms click Add image on a question or answer.
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Upload the pictures
SurveyMonkey takes JPG, PNG or GIF files from your computer, StrawPoll asks for a free user account first, and PollUnit asks you to confirm the rights to the pictures. For a YouTube image poll, add up to four images.
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Keep captions within 36 characters
YouTube's help page limits captions in the option fields of an image poll to 36 characters, so each caption works as a label rather than a sentence.
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Set single-select or multi-select voting
Common Ninja lets the creator choose single-select for a clean pick-one question, or multi-select when visitors can pick several favourites.
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Decide when results show
Common Ninja lets the creator configure whether visitors see live results before voting, after voting or never.
Common questions
How can I create polls with images?
An image poll is created in any tool with an image option, such as SurveyMonkey's Image Choice question type, StrawPoll's Image poll type or PollUnit's Image / File start option. Pick the type first, upload one picture per answer, then set how votes are cast and when results show.
How to create a survey with pictures?
A survey with pictures is built from an image question type or from an image added to a question. In Google Forms you click a question or answer, click Add image, upload or choose an image and click Select; in SurveyMonkey you select the Image Choice question type and upload JPG, PNG or GIF files.
Can I use a picture in a multiple choice question?
Yes. Google Forms lets you add an image to a question or to a multiple-choice or checkbox answer, and Common Ninja's widget goes a step further by making every option an image.
Can I add pictures and video to my polls?
Yes. Google Forms lets you add an image or a YouTube video to a form, separate from any question, and the other tools named here take pictures as answers or as a headline.
How can I allow users to rate pictures?
PollUnit's survey format has a Submit rating step type that allows uploading images for rating. Its picture poll starts from Create PollUnit and the Image / File option. Common Ninja's widget covers the voting side: visitors vote between images.
What size images does a YouTube poll take?
YouTube's help page allows up to four images as image poll answers, with captions within 36 characters in the option fields. For image posts it suggests a 1:1 aspect ratio, limits post images to up to 16 MB and allows up to 10 images per post.
What do picture poll tools require before an image goes up?
PollUnit requires you to confirm that you have the rights to use the pictures you upload, and StrawPoll requires a free user account to upload images. SurveyMonkey accepts JPG, PNG or GIF files uploaded from your computer.
Where these facts come from
- commoninja.com. commoninja.com/widgets/image-poll.
- commoninja.com. commoninja.com/widgets/image-poll.
- reCAPTCHA. support.google.com/youtube/answer/7124474.
- Strawpoll. strawpoll.com/create/.
- pollunit.com. pollunit.com/en/tutorials/vote_for_images.
An image poll tool counts the picks it receives, and no tool named here decides who wins a contest: that stays with the organiser and the published rules. Uploading a picture never replaces the rights or rules an organiser sets. This page covers picture types, upload conditions, size limits and results timing, and it cannot say what any of these tools would flag as a fake vote.
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.