Google Forms Python API Docs | dltHub

Google Forms API is a RESTful API to create, read, update and manage Google Forms and retrieve form responses and watches. The REST API base URL is https://forms.googleapis.com and all requests require a Bearer (OAuth 2.0) access token with Forms API scopes..

dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading Google Forms data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Google Forms?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Google Forms:

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How do I authenticate with the Google Forms API?

Uses Google OAuth 2.0. Requests must present an OAuth access token (Bearer) with the appropriate Forms scopes (for example https://www.googleapis.com/auth/forms.responses.readonly and/or https://www.googleapis.com/auth/forms.body). Include header: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN.

1. Get your credentials

1. Open Google Cloud Console (https://console.cloud.google.com/apis). 2. Create or select a GCP project. 3. Enable the Google Forms API (forms.googleapis.com) for the project. 4. Under Credentials, create OAuth 2.0 Client ID (for user-based flows) or create a Service Account (for server-to-server) and grant required scopes; for service accounts, configure domain-wide delegation if impersonating users. 5. For OAuth clients, configure redirect URI and obtain client_id and client_secret; run the OAuth flow to obtain an access_token with scopes such as https://www.googleapis.com/auth/forms.responses.readonly or https://www.googleapis.com/auth/forms.body. 6. Use the access token in Authorization: Bearer for API calls.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.google_forms_source]
access_token = "ya29.your_oauth_access_token_here"

dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex

This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →

2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:

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dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install

This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →

3. Start LLM-assisted coding:

Use /find-source to load data from the Google Forms API into DuckDB.

The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.

4. Run the pipeline:

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python google_forms_pipeline.py

If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:

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Pipeline google_forms_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset google_forms_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/google_forms.duckdb location to store data
Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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dlt pipeline google_forms_pipeline show

This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads forms and forms_responses from the Google Forms API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def google_forms_source(oauth_access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://forms.googleapis.com",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "token": oauth_access_token,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "forms", "endpoint": {"path": "v1/forms/{formId}"}},
            {"name": "forms_responses", "endpoint": {"path": "v1/forms/{formId}/responses", "data_selector": "responses"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="google_forms_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="google_forms_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(google_forms_source())
    print(load_info)

To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.

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How do I query the loaded data?

Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.

Python (pandas DataFrame):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("google_forms_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.forms.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM google_forms_data.forms LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("google_forms_pipeline").dataset()
data.forms.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load Google Forms data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Troubleshooting

Authorization failures

If you receive 401 Unauthorized or 403 Forbidden, ensure the request includes Authorization: Bearer <access_token> and that the token was issued with Forms API scopes (e.g. https://www.googleapis.com/auth/forms.responses.readonly or https://www.googleapis.com/auth/forms.body). For service accounts, enable domain-wide delegation and impersonate a user if required.

Missing form / 404

A 404 indicates the formId is invalid or the authenticated principal lacks access. Verify the formId (from the Forms URL) and that the service account / user has at least viewer access in Drive to that form.

Rate limits and quota (429)

The API enforces quota limits. On 429, implement exponential backoff and retry, and monitor the project quotas in GCP console.

Pagination quirks

List responses supports pageSize and pageToken; inspect the response for nextPageToken and request subsequent pages until none remains.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.

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Next steps

Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:

• data-exploration — Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.
• dlthub-runtime — Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack