What is CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing)?
CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing) is an interviewer-led survey method where questions and answers are shown and recorded on a computer, tablet or smartphone in real time. It replaces paper questionnaires with software that enforces question order, validation and skip logic, and can work offline or online.
CAPI means a trained interviewer uses a digital device (tablet, phone or laptop) and an application to run a survey in person or by video/phone. The software presents questions, enforces routing and answer checks, captures responses directly, and can record extras like audio, GPS or photos. Compared with paper interviews, CAPI removes later data entry, reduces errors and speeds up processing. It differs from self-complete online surveys because a person guides the interview, which helps with low-literacy respondents, complex consent or when respondents prefer to speak rather than type.
Usage example
A local council sends community outreach workers with tablets to conduct a housing needs survey. The worker selects the respondent’s preferred language on the tablet, conducts the interview using the CAPI app, and the responses sync to the central system later for analysis and translation review.
Practical application
CAPI matters because it improves data quality, speeds up turnaround and increases participation among people who struggle with self-completion or have limited internet access. For multilingual fieldwork, CAPI lets interviewers present questions in a respondent’s language, capture answers immediately, and avoid re-keying or managing multiple paper versions. In practice this reduces translation overhead, lowers errors from manual transcription and helps organisations reach and understand more of their community quickly.
FAQ
How is CAPI different from an online survey I send by email?
CAPI is interviewer-led: a person uses a device to guide the respondent through questions. That makes it better for respondents who need help, have low literacy, or lack reliable internet. Online surveys are usually self-complete and rely on the respondent to read and enter answers themselves.
Do participants need an account to take a CAPI interview?
No. Interviews are run by the interviewer on the device; participants don’t need to create accounts or log in to the survey software.
What happens if there’s no internet where the interview takes place?
Most CAPI apps support offline mode: answers are stored securely on the device and synced to the server when connectivity returns. It’s important to choose software that encrypts local data and handles sync conflicts safely.
Can CAPI handle multiple languages and translations?
Yes. Modern CAPI tools can present questions in different languages, let the interviewer or participant choose language, and capture responses that are later translated for analysis. That makes CAPI especially useful for multilingual fieldwork and for systems that offer a single survey across many languages.