Code open-ended survey data you can defend in your methods section
Thesis, grant project or journal article: coding open-ended items by hand takes weeks. SurveyCat drafts a codebook from your data, you refine it, and every response is coded into your SPSS, Stata, Excel or CSV file with labels intact, plus a log of every change you made.
No credit card · No subscription required · monthly plans from $100 · CSV, Excel, SPSS & Stata
The open-ended part is always the slow part
Weeks of manual coding
Hundreds of responses per item, several items per survey, and it all has to be finished before the analysis can start.
No second coder
Working alone makes it hard to check your coding or report how consistent it is.
Labels lost on the way out
Moving data between tools strips variable and value labels, and you end up rebuilding them in syntax.
Upload, approve the categories, download
Pick the open-ended columns, let the AI suggest categories, edit them until they're right, then every response is coded. You get percentages, the option to check and recode, and your file back with a 0/1 column per category.
- "Please describe any barriers you faced in accessing services."
- "What, if anything, would you change about the program?"
- "Why did you choose this field of study?"
- "Describe a time you felt supported, or not, by your institution."
The features that matter to you
SPSS and Stata, labels kept
Upload .sav, .zsav, .por or .dta. Variable labels, value labels and missing codes come back intact, with a 0/1 variable per category added.
You define the codebook
AI proposes categories from your responses. You rename, merge, split or write your own, and add context about the study, before any coding runs.
An audit trail for your methods
Check the coding with low-confidence flags, recode where you disagree, then download a review log of the AI's codes vs. your final codes. Use it to report how often you kept the first pass.
The same codebook across waves
Save a versioned codebook and apply it to the next wave or a replication, so categories don't drift.
Included with Research ProFits a research budget
No subscription needed. Credit packs never expire, so one purchase can cover a whole thesis.
Built with data protection in mind
Uploads are deleted within 30 minutes and results within an hour. Responses are never stored in our database or used to train AI.
Try it on sample data
A fictional survey with open-ended items. Download it, upload it to SurveyCat, and compare with the coded version.
- Sample SPSS file (uncoded) library_survey_2026.sav
- Sample Stata file (uncoded) library_survey_2026.dta
- The same file, coded (SPSS) library_survey_2026_coded.sav
What most people like you choose
Most academic projects are one-off, so a credit pack (which never expires) is usually the best fit. Coding several studies a month? A monthly plan lowers the per-response cost.
Credit packs
From $25
850 credits for $25, up to 30,000 in the biggest pack. Credits never expire. No subscription.
Research Starter
$100/month
4,000 monthly credits (2.5¢ per coded response), with AI category suggestions included.
Everyone starts with 80 free credits. 1 credit = one classified response to one question. See all pricing →
Common questions
How do I describe this in my methods section?
Describe it as AI-assisted coding with human review: the AI proposed categories, you finalized the codebook, the AI applied it, and you reviewed flagged and sampled responses. The review log gives you the share of codes you kept. Check your institution's and target journal's policies on AI tools too.
Will my ethics board / IRB allow it?
We can't speak for your board, but here are the facts they'll ask for: uploads are deleted within 30 minutes and results within an hour, responses are never stored in our database, and response text is sent to OpenAI's API (no training; up to 30 days' retention for abuse monitoring). For a data processing agreement, email support@surveycat.ai.
How accurate is it?
We see typically 85–95% agreement with human coders, depending on how clear your categories are. You review the categories before coding and can check and recode any response afterwards.
Can I try it on sample data first?
Yes. Download the sample SPSS or Stata file below and run it with your 80 free credits.
More in the full FAQ.
Further reading
Try it on your own survey
Upload a file, approve the categories, and see your results in minutes. Your first 80 credits are free.
Start coding for free →