Export any quiz to Kahoot

What the Kahoot export gives you

Kahoot can build a kahoot from a spreadsheet, but only from its own template. Its help page says you must use the official file, and the importer looks for questions in fixed places: the first eight rows hold Kahoot's instructions and the column headings, and the questions start on row 9, one per row, from column B. Our export writes that same layout. You download an .xlsx file with the instruction rows, the headings and your questions already in place, so there is nothing to copy across by hand.

Each row carries the question, up to four answers, a time limit and the correct answer numbers. The numbers count from 1, the way Kahoot reads them: the third answer is 3, not C and not 2. When a multiple-choice question has more than one right answer, all of them go in the same cell separated by commas, which is how Kahoot's template marks several correct answers.

Which questions travel, and Kahoot's length limits

Kahoot's spreadsheet import only creates standard quiz questions. Its own True or false question type, puzzles, polls and type-answer questions cannot be imported this way. So the export turns your true/false questions into quiz questions with two answers, True and False, and keeps every multiple-choice question. Short-answer, fill-in-the-blank, matching, ordering and FAQ questions have no place in the template, so they are left out, and a message after the download says how many. If you want all of them in the game, change their type in the editor first, or generate the quiz as multiple choice from the start.

Kahoot allows 120 characters for a question and 75 for each answer. We do not cut your text to fit, because a shortened question can change its meaning. Longer questions go into the file in full, the export warns you how many are over the limit, and Kahoot flags them when you upload so you can shorten them there or skip them. The template has four answer columns. If a question has five or six options, the export keeps every correct answer and drops wrong answers from the end until four remain, and tells you it did. Choosing four options when you generate the quiz avoids this.

Importing the file into Kahoot, step by step

These steps follow Kahoot's help page as it read on 19 October 2026. Sign in to Kahoot and click Create in the top right corner to open the kahoot creator. Click the Add button in the left panel and select Import from the menu. At the bottom of the prompt, choose Import spreadsheet. Drag the .xlsx file you downloaded into the prompt or click Select File, then click Upload.

Kahoot checks the file before adding anything. If it finds a problem, such as a question over the character limit, it lists it, and you can go back and fix the spreadsheet or continue and drop the questions it flagged. Once the import succeeds, the questions appear in the creator, where you can reorder them, add images, change time limits and set the kahoot's title, description and cover image before saving.

You can import more than one spreadsheet into the same kahoot. That is useful when you export two short quizzes, for example one per lesson, and want a single game for revision: import the first file, then repeat Add → Import → Import spreadsheet with the second.

Before you host it

Read every question in the Kahoot creator before the class sees it. Kahoot's help says images and special characters cannot be imported from a spreadsheet. Our maths questions use plain Unicode symbols such as x², √ and ≤ rather than LaTeX, so they usually survive, but check them, and paste or retype any symbol that did not come through. Images are never part of the file; add them in Kahoot if a question needs one.

The explanation written for each question stays here. Kahoot has no column for it, so if you want to talk through the answers after the game, download the full PDF with the answer key and explanations from the same Download / Export menu and keep it next to you.

Kahoot is good for a fast, loud round in the room. For homework or a quiz students take on their own, sharing the quiz link from here instead lets them answer at their own pace and read the explanations when they finish, and gives you results question by question. The two work together: the shared link for practice during the week, and the Kahoot export for a live round on Friday.

What doesn't carry over

• Explanations and source quotes: Kahoot's template has no column for them.
• Short-answer, fill-in-the-blank, matching, ordering and FAQ questions.
• A fifth or sixth answer option, when the question has more than four (wrong answers are dropped first).
• Points settings: the file has no points column, so set double or no points in the Kahoot creator if you want them.
• The quiz title and description, which you set in Kahoot.
• Images, which you add in the Kahoot creator.
• Later edits and results. The kahoot is a separate copy: edits here do not follow it, and Kahoot results do not come back.