If you've ever worked with Qualtrics, you've likely encountered a .qsf file, either when exporting a survey, importing one, or trying to troubleshoot an upload error. But for most researchers, this file format is a bit of a black box.
What exactly is a QSF file? Why does it exist? How do you create one, open one, and what do you do when things go wrong? This guide answers all of it, from the basics to advanced use cases like converting Word documents directly into QSF format, turning QSF files into Excel for editing, and using QSF as a starting point to migrate surveys to other platforms.
What is a QSF File?
A QSF file (Qualtrics Survey Format) is Qualtrics' native file format for storing complete survey data. When you export a survey from Qualtrics, it downloads as a .qsf file. When you import a survey into Qualtrics, you upload a .qsf file.
Think of it as the "save file" for an entire Qualtrics survey, it packages everything into one portable file that Qualtrics uses to reconstruct the survey exactly as you built it.
A QSF file contains
- All questions and their text
- Response options and answer choices
- Question types (multiple choice, matrix, open-ended, Likert, etc.)
- Display logic and skip logic rules
- Survey flow and block structure
- Recode values and scoring
- Survey-level settings (language, format, validation rules)
Under the hood, a QSF file is structured JSON, it's a plain text file with a .qsf extension. This means you can technically open it in any text editor, though the raw JSON isn't easy to read or edit by hand.
What Does a QSF File Look Like?
When you open a QSF file in a text editor, you'll see structured JSON like this (simplified example):
{
"SurveyEntry": {
"SurveyID": "SV_xxxxxxxxx",
"SurveyName": "Customer Satisfaction Survey",
"SurveyLanguage": "EN"
},
"SurveyElements": [
{
"SurveyID": "SV_xxxxxxxxx",
"Element": "SQ",
"PrimaryAttribute": "QID1",
"SecondaryAttribute": "How satisfied are you with our service?",
"Payload": {
"QuestionType": "MC",
"Selector": "SAVR",
"Choices": {
"1": { "Display": "Very Satisfied" },
"2": { "Display": "Satisfied" },
"3": { "Display": "Neutral" },
"4": { "Display": "Dissatisfied" }
}
}
}
]
}
It's verbose, deeply nested, and not designed to be human-edited directly. That's exactly why tools exist to create, convert, and edit QSF files without ever touching the raw JSON.
How to Open a QSF File
There are three ways to open a QSF file, depending on what you're trying to do.
Import Directly into Qualtrics
This is the intended use case. If someone has sent you a .qsf file or you've exported one from a previous Qualtrics account:
- Log into your Qualtrics account
- Go to My Projects and click Create a new project
- Select Survey → From a File
- Upload your .qsf file
- Qualtrics reconstructs the full survey in your account
This is the cleanest method and preserves all logic, settings, and structure perfectly.
Open in a Text Editor
Since a QSF file is just JSON, you can open it in any text editor (VS Code, Notepad++, Sublime Text) to inspect the raw structure. This is useful if you're debugging an import error or building a script that generates QSF files programmatically.
Search for SecondaryAttribute to find question text, and Choices for response options. It's dense but navigable once you understand the structure.
Convert to Excel with Pirai AI
If you want to read, review, or edit a QSF file without importing it into Qualtrics, the fastest way is to convert it to Excel using Pirai AI's free QSF to Excel tool.
This converts the entire QSF file into a clean, readable spreadsheet, one row per question, showing question text, question type, response options and recode values. It's the best way to audit a survey, share it with a colleague who doesn't have Qualtrics access, or edit content before reimporting.
How to Create a QSF File
There are two main paths to creating a QSF file.
Method 1: Build in Qualtrics, Then Export
The traditional approach: build your survey in Qualtrics manually, then go to Tools → Import/Export → Export Survey to download the .qsf file. This works, but it requires completing all manual data entry in Qualtrics first, which is exactly the problem most researchers are trying to avoid.
Method 2: Convert from Word or PDF (Recommended)
If you already have your survey written in a Word document or PDF, which most researchers do, you can convert it directly to a QSF file using Pirai AI. The process takes about 15 minutes.
I had three complicated surveys I was going to have to re-create for Qualtrics because my account had expired. Pirai AI converted these three surveys with 106 questions and 490 options in under 10 minutes, which is work that would have taken me an entire day if I were typing everything manually.
I had tried many prompts in ChatGPT to fix conversion errors, but nothing worked. Then I found Pirai AI — and that was a good find! The conversion to QSF went perfectly, and I was easily able to upload the file into Qualtrics.
Pirai AI supports these input formats for QSF conversion: Microsoft Word (.docx), PDF (digital or scanned), Excel (.xlsx), CSV, plain text (.txt), and images of paper surveys.
Word to QSF
This is the most common use case. You have a survey in Word and need a QSF file for Qualtrics. Here is the full workflow:
For beginners and academics
Use Assign to Expert AI anytime to have the expert AI agent complete your survey for you.
Total time
From Word document to imported Qualtrics survey: typically 10 to 15 minutes. For full details on this workflow, see our complete guide: How to Convert Word to Qualtrics Survey.
JSON to QSF: For Developers
If you have survey data in JSON format, from an API response, a database export, or a custom data pipeline, you can convert it to QSF using Pirai AI. Upload your JSON file, select Qualtrics as the target platform, and Pirai AI maps your data structure to Qualtrics' QSF schema automatically.
This is particularly useful for teams that store survey specifications in structured databases, developers migrating data from custom survey tools, and research teams with programmatically generated question sets.
Using QSF Files for Platform Migration
One of the most powerful but underused capabilities of QSF files is as a migration bridge, using a Qualtrics survey as the starting point to deploy on another platform entirely.
Because Pirai AI can read QSF files as input, you can export your existing Qualtrics survey as a QSF file, upload it to Pirai AI, and convert it to any of 20+ other platforms including SurveyMonkey, REDCap, QuestionPro, Google Forms, Microsoft Forms and Forsta.
Migration also works in the other direction. If you have an existing LimeSurvey LSS file and need to move it into Qualtrics, Pirai AI converts LSS to QSF directly. Upload your LSS file, select Qualtrics as the target platform, and download a clean QSF file ready to import. No manual rebuilding required.
Your QSF file is not a Qualtrics-only asset. It becomes a universal source of truth you can deploy anywhere. For research teams managing multi-platform projects or migrating away from Qualtrics, this is a significant time-saver.
Common QSF File Errors and How to Fix Them
The file may have been renamed or its structure corrupted. Open it in a text editor and confirm it starts with { and is valid JSON. If you received it via email, some clients strip or alter attachments, ask the sender to re-export.
This typically happens when the QSF was generated by a third-party tool that didn't fully populate the Choices object in the JSON. Using a validated converter like Pirai AI avoids this, the output is tested against Qualtrics' import requirements before you download it.
Display logic and skip logic reference internal question IDs (QID1, QID2, etc.). If those IDs shifted during conversion, the logic breaks. Always validate logic in Qualtrics after import, particularly on surveys converted from other platforms.
Each QSF file contains a unique SurveyID. If you're importing a file that was previously imported, Qualtrics may flag a conflict. Export a fresh copy from the source survey to get a clean ID.
This happens with non-Latin scripts or accented characters when the QSF wasn't saved with proper UTF-8 encoding. Pirai AI uses enterprise-grade UTF-8 processing across all 50+ supported languages to prevent this.
QSF File FAQ
QSF files are designed to be imported into Qualtrics. They can also be opened in any text editor as JSON, or converted to a readable Excel format using Pirai AI's free QSF to Excel tool.
Technically yes, it is a JSON file. But editing it by hand is error-prone and not recommended. It's safer to convert to Excel using Pirai AI, make your edits there, then reconvert to QSF.
A QSF file uses JSON formatting but has a .qsf extension and follows Qualtrics' specific schema. You can't just rename a .json file to .qsf and expect Qualtrics to accept it, the internal structure needs to match Qualtrics' format exactly.
Not natively in Qualtrics. But you can use Pirai AI's QSF to Excel converter to get a clean, editable version of your survey that you can then copy into Word if needed.
Yes. Pirai AI supports this. Upload your QSF file, select your target platform, and the conversion handles all the field mapping automatically. See the full list of 20+ supported platforms.
Use Pirai AI. Upload your Word document, review the extracted Excel output, then convert to QSF, no Qualtrics access required until you're ready to import. See the full step-by-step guide here.
Qualtrics typically accepts QSF files up to a few MB. Very large surveys (150+ questions with complex logic) can result in larger files. If you run into size limits, contact Qualtrics support or consider splitting the survey into separate blocks.
Yes. Pirai AI converts LSS files to QSF directly. Upload your LimeSurvey LSS file, select Qualtrics as your target platform, and download a clean QSF file ready to import into Qualtrics. No manual rebuilding required.
Summary
| Task | Best Approach |
|---|---|
| Open a QSF file | Import into Qualtrics, or convert to Excel with Pirai AI |
| Create QSF from Word or PDF | Pirai AI, Word to QSF in ~15 min |
| Create QSF from JSON | Pirai AI, JSON to QSF |
| Edit a QSF file | Convert to Excel, edit, reconvert |
| Migrate QSF to another platform | Pirai AI → upload QSF, select target |
| Fix QSF import errors | Check JSON validity, re-export from source |
| Convert LSS to QSF | Pirai AI, upload LSS, select Qualtrics |
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