Run it by vs Typeform, Tally, Fillout and Google Forms for AI agents

The short version

Form builders are made for a person who designs a form in an editor and shares it many times. Run it by is made for an agent that decides what to ask at runtime, needs an answer from specific people, and wants it back as typed JSON. Several builders now have APIs, and Typeform and Tally have MCP servers, so the gap is less about access and more about the model: what a “form” is, who answers, and what comes back.

Facts about other products were checked against their own pages in October 2026. Pricing and features change; follow the links for current details.

Side by side

Sources: Typeform MCP, Typeform Create API, Typeform pricing, Tally API, Tally pricing, Fillout REST API, Fillout pricing, Google Forms push notifications.

The schema is the biggest difference

An agent already speaks JSON Schema: it’s how tools describe their inputs. With Run it by, the schema the agent writes is the form, and the answer is validated against that same schema on the server before it reaches you. There is nothing to translate and nothing to keep in sync.

With a builder, the agent has to produce the builder’s own format (Typeform’s definition, Tally’s blocks, Google’s items), and you map each answer back into the shape your code expects. That’s fine for a form you design once; it’s friction when every request asks something different.

Who answers, and who decided

Builders share one link per form. When three people answer, you tell them apart with hidden fields or by making them sign in. Run it by gives each named person their own link, so every answer and every decision is attributed to them, and the agent can see who hasn’t answered yet and send a reminder.

Approvals are a mode of their own: a reason, a policy such as “any” or “majority”, optional email codes so a forwarded link can’t decide, and a verdict of approved, declined or expired. Read more in approvals by link.

A note on Google Forms

The Forms API can create forms, but answers don’t arrive as webhooks. A “watch” sends a notification to a Google Cloud Pub/Sub topic, the notification carries IDs rather than the response, and the watch expires after seven days unless you renew it. Creating forms needs Google OAuth, and since mid-2026 forms created through the API start unpublished. It works, but it’s a lot of plumbing for “ask Sam for a date”.

When a form builder is the better choice

• A marketing form or survey that a person designs and shares widely.
• Logic branching, multi-page flows, payments or large file uploads. Run it by doesn’t do these.
• Response analytics, dashboards and team collaboration on the form itself.

Run it by is the better fit when the agent writes the question, needs specific people to answer, and wants typed data or a decision back without a person building anything.