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Serve a searchable FAQ from a Google Sheet

An FAQ is one row per question: the question, the answer, maybe a category. Keep it in Google Sheets and PasteSheet serves it as a live JSON API your help page reads — with full-text search so visitors can type a question and get the matching answers instead of scrolling a wall of accordions.

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Key facts

  • Full-text search= — the ranked search box a help page needs — is a Pro ($19/mo) feature. Free and Starter serve exact-match and contains filters over the same rows.
  • The Google Sheets API allows 300 read requests per minute per project and 60 per minute per user. Past that it returns 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED. source
  • A cached endpoint reads the sheet once per TTL, not once per request — so 10,000 visitors become one upstream read, and Google's quota stops being your problem.
  • The FAQ holds up to 500 entries on Free and 5,000 on Starter ($9/mo); Pro removes the row cap.

Support content that support can edit

FAQ and help content changes constantly: a new question comes up, an answer needs a tweak, a policy shifts. The people who know the answers are on the support team, not the front-end team — so hard-coding questions into a template means every update is a developer ticket.

Put each question and answer in a Google Sheet row and PasteSheet publishes it as an API. Support edits cells; the help page re-reads them after the cache refreshes. Add a category column to group answers, and let PasteSheet full-text search the questions so a visitor typing "refund" lands on the right entry.

What a help page needs

A simple three- or four-column tab covers most FAQ and help centers:

  • question and answer — one row per entry.
  • category to group entries into sections.
  • order to control ranking within a section.
  • A search= query so visitors find answers by keyword, not by scrolling.

Search questions from the front end

Wire a search box to the endpoint and pass the visitor's text to search=. PasteSheet ranks matching rows across your questions and answers:

terminal 
curl "https://pastesheet.com/your-endpoint/FAQ?search=refund&per_page=5"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "question": "How do I request a refund?",
      "answer": "Email support within 30 days and we'll process it.",
      "category": "Billing",
      "order": 2
    }
  ]
}

Read-only, so it is safe to publish

Because the endpoint is read-only by design, it is safe to expose publicly or hand to a teammate: consumers can read and query the data but can never change the sheet. And there is no Google Cloud project, OAuth screen, or service account to set up — you paste a share URL and get a live API.

What it costs

Starter

For indie makers shipping a real app.

$9 /mo
Endpoints
10
Requests / mo
50,000
Row cap
5,000
  • Full-text FAQ search
  • Type-mapped columns
  • Custom cache TTL
Choose Starter

Full-text search is a Pro feature. Free and Starter serve exact-match and contains filters over your FAQ; upgrade to Pro ($19/mo) for search= ranking across every question and answer.

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Frequently asked questions

Can visitors search the FAQ?

Yes. Pass a visitor's query to the search parameter and PasteSheet ranks matching rows across your questions and answers. Full-text search is available on the Pro plan; Free and Starter support exact and contains filters.

How do I group answers into sections?

Add a category column and filter the endpoint by it, or read every row and group client-side. An order column lets you control ranking within each section.

Who keeps the answers up to date?

Anyone you share the Google Sheet with. Support or ops staff edit answers in a familiar tool, and the help page reflects their changes after the cache refreshes — no deploy needed.

Can I reuse this for an AI support agent?

Yes. The same sheet can back a <a href="/use-cases/google-sheets-support-agent">support agent</a> over MCP, so an AI assistant queries the same answers your help page shows.

Sources

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