Mentimeter results: counts, ranking and saving
Mentimeter results are whatever each question slide computes from the responses it receives: bars and percentages for multiple choice, raw counts for open ended, an ordered list for ranking slides. Responses are saved automatically and can be exported to Excel for analysis, and the presenter chooses between instant display and a hidden reveal.
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Mentimeter results on the screen
Every presentation is built from question slides, and each type renders its outcome differently. A multiple choice slide grows bars while people answer; an open ended slide collects words; a ranking slide keeps a tidy ordered list. The raw material is identical, the packaging is not.
The presenter holds one switch that shapes all of it: whether responses display on the slide immediately or wait in the background. Mentimeter's help centre calls the first setting instant responses, and it changes the rhythm of the room more than the numbers themselves. The count runs either way. Two people can watch the same tally and see different things: the room reads the shape of the bars, and the presenter reads the totals behind them.
- The audience sees the same slide as the presenter, but with less detail on a small screen.
- Open ended entries show as text, and participants can vote on each other's answers when the presenter allows it.
- The display toggle controls what people see, never what gets recorded behind it.
Count participants with the counter
Mentimeter counts participants with a dedicated figure, the active participants counter, which shows how many total people have joined the presentation. It behaves like a turnstile at a venue door: it resets after 8 hours of inactivity, and a person who leaves and rejoins within that window is not counted again. Run an all-day workshop and the morning crowd stays in the number; come back the next day and the counter starts fresh. That reset is the mechanic doing the work, not any judgement about who is present.
Shared devices are the interesting case. With multiple submissions per device enabled, every participant counts separately, so one tablet at a registration desk can legitimately stand for several respondents. Without that setting, one device means one person. Know which mode you are in before you read the number, because the same figure can mean different things. The counter is the audit surface: it records who joined and when, and it is where any review of the numbers starts. An organiser comparing the counter with the response count on a slide can spot an inflated figure at a glance, and Mentimeter's terms let it investigate suspected violations and remove content or a user. A violation can cost an account its access, and the acceptable use policy states that no refund follows. That is the boundary in the record: the count is bounded by who joined, and anything beyond that shows up when the two numbers are put side by side.
- The counter tracks joins, while each question type computes its own tally from the answers received.
- A count cannot exceed the number of people who joined, which makes the counter the natural cross-check.
- Participants joining through a code see the presentation without logging in.
How the ranking count works
Ranking looks like a simple drag exercise, and the arithmetic behind it is the part people miss. Mentimeter's help centre describes it plainly: participants pick items in the menus, then rearrange them with up and down arrows until the order reads the way they want it. The help centre calls the arithmetic Borda count, a points system with a long history. The item ranked first gets as many points as the total number of items in the question, and each position below that earns one fewer. Nothing is hidden in the formula. Every response simply adds its points to the running total per item.
That one rule explains most of what a ranking slide shows. Five items mean first place earns five points, second earns four, and so on down to the item that earned nothing, which sits at the bottom of the output. Change the number of items and you change the weight of every position, so two ranking questions are rarely comparable as raw sums. And because people may rank only some of the options, an item can collect points from partial ballots without ever taking the top spot. Order of appearance matters for the participants, order of points matters for the slide.
Open ended slides run a second layer of counting on top of the answers themselves: participants can vote on each other's responses, and the presenter sets how many votes each user may submit and whether those votes must land on different options. The same mechanics, pointed at text instead of at prepared options.
- Participants can rank all the items provided or just a few of them, so partial ballots are normal.
- Items that nobody selected are displayed at the bottom of the outcome.
- Points descend by one for each position, so a strong second place everywhere can beat a scattered first.
Does Mentimeter save results?
Yes, and not as a feature you have to remember to press. Mentimeter states that responses are saved automatically and can be exported to Excel for analysis. The account is the archive: survey data is stored there for access at any point in the future, quiz results can be saved and reopened after a session, and a presentation's outcome stays attached to that presentation rather than ending when the room empties.
Reusing a Menti Live presentation raises one last question, and the help centre answers it directly. Clearing the screen for a fresh run does not delete what came before. The earlier results remain in the account, so wiping a slide for the next audience is a display decision, not a loss of data. Export first if you want a copy outside the platform.
- Survey data is stored in the account for access at any point in the future.
- Quiz results can be saved and reopened after a session in the account.
- Results stay attached to the presentation they belong to, not floating loose in a folder.
How to show results in the room
Menti Live gives you the switch that matters: instant responses puts answers on the slide immediately, while the hidden option keeps them off until you choose to reveal them. Quiz hosts use the reveal as a drumroll. Survey mode works differently, since there is no live slide to watch; people submit in their own time, and you read the accumulated tally from the presentation afterwards.
Stopping the collection has its own path, and it is worth knowing before the room fills up. Mentimeter's help centre spells out the sequence: open the Share button next to Start presentation, open the Participants tab, and toggle off Enable participation. After that, nobody new can submit, and the outcome on file becomes final as far as new entries go.
- In Survey mode, share a link and let people answer in their own time instead of on a live slide.
- Turn off Enable participation when collection should stop, and nobody new can submit after that.
What each slide type shows
The table gathers the display rules in one place, because the four slide types behave differently enough to trip people up in a live session. Read it before you present, not during. What follows from it is simple: the audience never sees more detail than the presenter, and every figure shown is a figure the account already holds.
The edges of the record
Numbers describe a session, and they leave plenty out. A tally shows which option received the most weight; it does not say why, and it does not name the people behind the responses. A presenter who needs participant identities is asking a different question, and that territory is handled on its own page about anonymity.
What the count cannot do is settle a dispute about intent. If an audience seems to have produced an impossible figure, the comparison to run is against the active participants counter, which bounds how many people could have responded in the first place. Mentimeter's published terms give the platform room to investigate suspected violations and act on them, and that is the enforcement path the documentation describes. Nothing here promises that an organiser will overlook anything; the honest statement is that the records exist and can be read.
Some scope notes close the picture. The free tier carries limits of its own, and enterprise accounts verify participants differently, but those details belong to pages about plans and access. Here the mechanics are the subject: what each slide computes, where the data lands, and who controls the moment it becomes visible. One closing caution: a result is only as meaningful as the design of the question behind it, and no display setting changes that.
- Results show what was computed, never what a participant intended by an answer.
- The counter and the slide tally answer different questions, and only together do they describe a session.
- Reuse without loss is a feature: clearing the screen leaves earlier data in the account.
| Question type | What the screen shows | How the number is produced |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple choice | Bars and percentages while people respond | One response per device by default |
| Open ended | Written answers, with voting on responses when enabled | Presenter sets how many votes each user may submit |
| Ranking | An ordered list of items | Borda count: points descend from the total number of items |
| Quiz | Scores and correct answers per question | Results can be saved and reopened after the session |
How to do it
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Choose the display behaviour
In your presentation settings, pick instant responses to put answers on the slide immediately, or keep them hidden until you are ready to reveal them. The count accumulates either way, so nothing is lost while the screen stays quiet. Decide before the room fills, not during.
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Reveal when the room should see it
On a hidden slide, wait until responses have settled, then show the outcome in one move. A reveal works best when it lands on a question people have just answered, since the shape of the bars reads as an answer to the room.
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Close collection in Survey mode
Click the Share button next to Start presentation, open the Participants tab, and toggle off Enable participation. The help centre gives that exact sequence for stopping the collection of responses. From that point, no new submissions arrive, and what you have on file is what you analyse.
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Export and reopen later
Responses are saved automatically and can be exported to Excel for analysis, so take a copy when you want to work outside the platform. The originals stay attached to the presentation in your account, and clearing a slide for a new run does not delete them.
Common questions
How does Mentimeter count participants?
The participants counter shows the total number of people who have joined the presentation. Mentimeter resets it after 8 hours of inactivity, and a person who leaves and rejoins within that window is not counted again. On a shared device with multiple submissions per device enabled, every respondent counts separately.
How does Mentimeter ranking work?
Participants rank items by selecting them in the menus and rearranging them with the arrows. Behind the scenes, a points system called Borda count does the arithmetic: the item ranked first earns as many points as the total number of items, and every position below earns one point fewer. Unranked items sit at the bottom.
Does Mentimeter save results?
Yes. Responses are saved automatically and can be exported to Excel for analysis, and survey data is stored in your Mentimeter account to access at any point in the future. Quiz results stay available after a session too, so a closed presentation does not mean the numbers are gone.
Mentimeter how to show results?
In Menti Live, you choose between instant responses, which puts answers on the slide immediately, and a hidden view that waits until you reveal them. In Survey mode, people submit at their own pace and you read the accumulated answers from the presentation afterwards, on your own schedule.
Can you hide Mentimeter results until voting ends?
The presenter can keep responses off the slide until a reveal. The help centre frames this as instant responses versus hidden ones rather than as a timer tied to a closing moment. In Survey mode you stop collection by turning off Enable participation, then show everything at once.
What happens to Mentimeter results when the presentation ends?
Results stay attached to your presentation in your Mentimeter account. Survey data is stored there for access at any point in the future, and quiz results can be saved and reopened after a session. Ending a live session changes what the audience sees, never what the account keeps.
Can Mentimeter show who voted on the results screen?
No. The help centre states that voting is anonymous because Mentimeter sets no voting IDs on voters and does not require them to log in, so a Menti Live slide shows the tally rather than names. For a presentation where people sign in with their own accounts, different rules may apply.
Can you export Mentimeter results to Excel?
Yes. Mentimeter says responses can be exported to Excel for analysis. The export is a copy for your own work; the originals stay attached to the presentation in your account, which is also where clearing a slide leaves the earlier numbers untouched.
Where these facts come from
- help.mentimeter.com. help.mentimeter.com/en/articles/422266-hide-or-show-results.
- help.mentimeter.com. help.mentimeter.com/en/articles/2780579-how-to-use-ranking-slides.
- mentimeter.com. mentimeter.com/work/workshops.
- help.mentimeter.com. help.mentimeter.com/en/articles/15086803-making-the-most-of-your-menti-live-results.
- help.mentimeter.com. help.mentimeter.com/en/articles/4542951-how-many-responses-have-i-received.
This page covers what Mentimeter itself documents: how it counts participants, how a ranking slide is calculated, and how results are stored and shown. It does not give methods for inflating a count, and it never promises that an organiser will not examine the numbers. The help centre does not state how ranking ties are broken. Prices and refund rules live on other pages.
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.