React Surveys installation

Install the package

Required

Install posthog-js and @posthog/react using your package manager:

npm install posthog-js @posthog/react
yarn add posthog-js @posthog/react
pnpm add posthog-js @posthog/react

Add environment variables

Required

Add your PostHog project token and host to your environment variables. For Vite-based React apps, use the VITE_PUBLIC_ prefix:

.env
VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_PROJECT_TOKEN=<ph_project_token>
VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST=https://us.i.posthog.com

Initialize PostHog

Required

Wrap your app with the PostHogProvider component at the root of your application (such as main.tsx if you're using Vite):

main.tsx
import { StrictMode } from 'react'
import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client'
import './index.css'
import App from './App.jsx'
import { PostHogProvider } from '@posthog/react'

const options = {
  api_host: import.meta.env.VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST,
  defaults: '2026-01-30',
} as const

createRoot(document.getElementById('root')).render(
  <StrictMode>
    <PostHogProvider apiKey={import.meta.env.VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_PROJECT_TOKEN} options={options}>
      <App />
    </PostHogProvider>
  </StrictMode>
)

defaults option

The defaults option automatically configures PostHog with recommended settings for new projects. See SDK defaults for details.

Accessing PostHog in your code

Recommended

Use the usePostHog hook to access the PostHog instance in any component wrapped by PostHogProvider:

MyComponent.tsx
import { usePostHog } from '@posthog/react'

function MyComponent() {
    const posthog = usePostHog()

    function handleClick() {
        posthog.capture('button_clicked', { button_name: 'signup' })
    }

    return <button onClick={handleClick}>Sign up</button>
}

You can also import posthog directly for non-React code or utility functions:

utils/analytics.ts
import posthog from 'posthog-js'

export function trackPurchase(amount: number) {
    posthog.capture('purchase_completed', { amount })
}

5
Send events
Recommended
Click around and view a couple pages to generate some events. PostHog automatically captures pageviews, clicks, and other interactions for you.
If you'd like, you can also manually capture custom events:
JavaScript
posthog.capture('my_custom_event', { property: 'value' })

Next steps

Recommended

After installing the PostHog SDK, you can create your first survey.

Resource	Description
Creating surveys	Learn how to build and customize your surveys
Targeting surveys	Show surveys to specific users based on properties, events, or feature flags
How to create custom surveys	Build advanced survey experiences with custom code
Framework guides	Setup guides for React, Next.js, Vue, and other frameworks
More tutorials	Other real-world examples and use cases

You should also identify users and capture events with PostHog to control who and when to show surveys to your users.

Not all survey features are available on every SDK. See the SDK feature support matrix for a full comparison.

React Surveys installation

Install the package

Add environment variables

Initialize PostHog

Accessing PostHog in your code

Send events

Next steps

Community questions

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