If you're getting more responses than expected, or you often see the same person respond twice, it usually comes down to how your survey type identifies respondents and whether your settings allow retakes.

Find your survey type below to see the likely cause and how to fix it. If your issue is related to the Response limit setting, go directly to the last section of the article.

1. Your survey frequency allows retakes. Go to Target ➡️ Frequency and check the settings there. If the Let the user take the survey multiple times on a recurring basis is on (with either Schedule recurrence or Every time a respondent matches required criteria setting), respondents who have already answered can see and answer the survey again.

2. A visitor switched devices or browsers. If your survey uses the Anonymous visitors audience (an audience with the Visitors tag), we track history in the browser's LocalStorage, which is unique to each device and browser, so a new browser or device is treated as a new visitor. In such a case, if the same person opens your website from another device, browser, or an incognito tab, they'll be able to see the survey again, even if the frequency setting only allows a person to see it once.

To prevent this, use Logged-in users or Manual audience (CSV upload) instead of Anonymous visitors. These audiences store respondent data on our servers using a user_id you provide, rather than in the browser. The same person is recognized no matter which device or browser they use. Learn how to do this in Set up an Audience for your Website or in-product survey.

3. You switched your survey's audience type. Anonymous visitors audiences (the ones with the Visitors tag) and Logged-in users/Manual audiences (the ones with the Users tag) store respondent data separately. Switching between them within a single survey means respondents who already answered under the old format won't be recognized in the new one, and they might be shown the survey again.

4. A developer called destroyVisitor() on a live site. This JavaScript SDK method clears a visitor's local storage, including survey history, for testing purposes. It doesn't delete responses already collected, but if it runs outside of testing, respondents can retake the survey unexpectedly. See the documentation here, then verify it with the person who implemented the Survicate SDK in your application.

1. Survey retaking is enabled. In the Configure tab, check whether Allow this survey to be taken multiple times from the same browser is turned on. Disable it if you want each respondent to answer only once:

2. Survey multiple respondents on a single device is enabled. With this setting on, every submission from the same device is treated as a new respondent by design. That's useful for shared devices like tablets at an event, but worth checking if it was turned on unintentionally:

3. Email answer confirmation is disabled. With this setting disabled, link-scanning security software might be clicking the survey links in respondents' inboxes. Some email security tools open (scan) a link automatically before the recipient does, which can register extra, irrelevant responses. Enable Email answer confirmation to ask respondents to confirm their answer to the first question before it's recorded:

4. The respondent switched browsers or devices, or cleared their cache. We track participation using the respondent's browser LocalStorage, which is unique to each device and browser, so a new browser or device is treated as a new visitor. In such a case, if the same person opens your website from another device, browser, or an incognito tab, they'll be able to see the survey again, even if the frequency setting only allows a person to see it once.

1. Survey frequency allows recurring resubmission. In the Target tab, check whether the survey is set to show again immediately or on a recurring schedule after completion. If the Let the user take the survey multiple times on a recurring basis is on (with either Schedule recurrence or Every time a respondent matches required criteria setting), respondents who have already answered can see and answer the survey again:

2. A user switched devices or reinstalled the app. If your survey uses the Anonymous visitors audience (one with the Visitor tag), it means that the participation history is stored on the device, so a device switch or data reset makes the respondent look new.

To prevent this, use Logged-in users or Manual audience (CSV upload) instead of Anonymous visitors. These audiences store respondent data on our servers using a user_id you provide, rather than on the device. The same person is recognized regardless of which device they use or whether they reinstall the app. Learn how to do this in Set up an Audience for your Mobile app survey.

3. You switched your survey's audience type. Anonymous visitors audiences (the ones with the Visitors tag) and Logged-in users/Manual audiences (the ones with the Users tag) don't share respondent data, so switching between them within a single survey means respondents who already answered under the old format won't be recognized in the new one, and they might be shown the survey again.

4. The reset() function was called on a live device. Developers use it to clear stored view and trait data for testing, making the survey eligible to be shown again. It doesn't delete responses already collected, but if it runs outside of testing, respondents can retake the survey unexpectedly. See the documentation for iOS here and for Android here, then verify it with the person who implemented the Survicate SDK in your application.

1. Intercom Messenger surveys are sent based on your Outbound rules or conversation settings in Intercom. If a customer receives the survey more than once, check the audience rules or automation, such as a post-chat survey trigger, in your Intercom workspace.

2. Braze In-App Message surveys are sent based on your campaign's targeting in Braze. We recommend keeping targeting in Braze only and not adding targeting on Survicate's side to avoid conflicting rules that could cause a survey to resend.

There are two main reasons a survey collects more responses than the limit you set:

1. Multiple responses were submitted at the same time. If your survey is shown or sent to many respondents at once, and they answer simultaneously (or within seconds of each other), our backend counter may not disable the survey in time. When that happens, a few extra responses can come in before the survey closes. This can affect any survey type.

2. High traffic on your website or app. If your website or app gets very high traffic, the survey may be displayed to more people than your response limit allows. Once the limit is reached, we can't force-close a survey that's already open on someone's screen. So you may see new responses arrive even a couple of days after the survey was disabled. For example, if someone opened the survey while it was still active and left it open in a browser tab, they can still submit their answer later.

The best way to reduce this is to lower your survey's sampling in Target ➡️ Audience:

A lower sampling rate shows the survey to fewer people at a time, which helps with both causes.