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How to Filter Spam Form Entries with Akismet

By Gravity Forms Updated August, 26, 2025

Spam is a constant battle for website owners, eating up valuable time, resources, and patience. By integrating your forms with Akismet, you can filter out unwanted submissions before they ever reach your inbox – freeing you up to focus on what really matters: running your business.

For long-time WordPress users, Akismet is a familiar and trusted name in spam protection. Now, with the official Gravity Forms Akismet Add-On, you can connect directly to the Akismet API. With no separate Akismet Spam Protection plugin required, it’s faster, simpler, and more effective than ever to reduce spam form entries.

In this post, we’ll walk you through how the Akismet Add-On works, highlight its key features, and guide you step-by-step on setting it up. Let’s get started…

Gravity Forms Akismet Add-On: An intro

Akismet Akismet is one of the most popular WordPress anti-spam tools, and with the Gravity Forms Akismet Add-On, you can send more accurate data to Akismet for smarter spam detection.

Submissions are checked against Akismet’s global database, helping to filter out malicious entries automatically so you can focus on growing your business.

Akismet Add-On features

The Gravity Forms Akismet Add-On gives you powerful, behind-the-scenes protection. Features include:

• Block spam automatically – Entries are checked against Akismet’s global spam database before processing.
• Accurate detection – Map form fields to send the most relevant data for better spam identification.
• Easy review process – View and reclassify flagged entries as spam or not spam from your dashboard.
• Flexible settings – Enable site-wide or only for specific forms.
• Works with other protections – Combine with Google reCAPTCHA, Honeypot, or conditional logic for extra defense.

Who should use the Gravity Forms Akismet Add-On?

In short, pretty much everyone! Spam affects websites of all sizes and industries, and the Akismet Add-On is a smart upgrade for any Gravity Forms user who wants to cut down on unwanted submissions. Here are just a few examples:

• Businesses that handle a high volume of inquiries, orders, or customer feedback.
• Media, news, and entertainment sites that accept guest post pitches, press requests, or event submissions.
• Educational institutions with application, enrollment, or scholarship forms.
• Nonprofits running donation forms or volunteer sign-up pages.
• Community forums and membership sites where public-facing forms can attract spammers.
• Ecommerce stores with product inquiry or warranty claim forms.

Whether it’s a simple contact form or a complex application process, Akismet helps ensure the submissions you receive are genuine.

How to set up the Gravity Forms Akismet Add-On

Let’s take a look at how you can set up the Akismet Add-On in Gravity Forms to filter out spam form entries. It’s important to note that the Akismet Add-On is available with ALL Gravity Forms license types.

1. Install the Gravity Forms Akismet Add-On

Within the WordPress Admin, navigate to Forms > Add-Ons and scroll down until you’ve located the Akismet Add-On. Click Install > Activate.

2. Connect with your Akismet Account

Next, you’ll need to connect Gravity Forms with Akismet. Simply head on over to your Akismet Account and copy your API Key.

If you don’t yet have an Akismet account, you can sign up for free.

Paste your Akismet API Key under Gravity Forms > Settings > Akismet and click Save Settings.

It’s important to note that the Akismet integration toggle, enabled by default on installation, enables or disables Gravity Forms Akismet integration across your entire website.

3. Akismet at form level

To set Akismet up at form level, within the editor navigate to Settings > Akismet. By default, Akismet will be toggled on, but if you don’t want to use it for a specific form, this is where you can disable it.

You should then map your form fields to Akismet fields so the Akismet service can analyze them and evaluate them against its database.

Keep in mind that if you don’t map the fields, the default mappings will be attempted:

• Entry creator merge tag will be used for the first and last name, the email, and the URL of the currently logged in user.
• If those properties aren’t saved or the user is not logged in, then the add-on will pull the values from the name, email, and website fields.
• Address, email hidden, list name, number, phone, post_content, post_excerpt, post_tags, post_title, text, textarea, and website fields will be sent as content.
• If any field has the visibility set to administrative, it will not be used.

You can then repeat this process for all other forms where you want the Akismet Add-On to be active.

4. Reviewing spam form entries

Once you’ve mapped the fields and you’ve enabled the add-on on all your forms, you can relax knowing that Akismet has your back. However, you’ll still need to check your form entries to make sure any legitimate entries didn’t mistakenly get flagged as spam.

You can review spam form entries by going to the Entries section of the particular form and checking the Spam section. If you see any entries that shouldn’t be marked as spam, you can manually mark them as not spam.

It’s worth mentioning that if you’re testing the form and submit it in preview mode, those entries will be processed by Akismet in test mode. Similarly, any form entry submitted by a logged in user will not be considered spam as long as the user role is set to administrator.

For more information on how to get started, check out the Gravity Forms Akismet documentation.

Ready to banish spam with the Gravity Forms Akismet Add-On?

As you can see, you can greatly reduce the number of spam form submissions with the Gravity Forms Akismet Add-On. These resources will help you learn more about additional spam-busting tools available with a Gravity Forms license:

• An Ultimate Guide: Gravity Forms Anti-Spam Protection for WordPress in 2025
• How to Enable Anti-Spam Honeypot for WordPress Forms
• How to Get Started With the Gravity Forms Cloudflare Turnstile Add-On
• How to Add Google reCAPTCHA v2 and v3 to Your Forms
• How to Get Started with the Gravity Forms Moderation Add-On

If you don’t have Gravity Forms yet, don’t worry. Give our plugin a test run with a free personalized demo and test out all the features that make Gravity Forms a favorite form plugin for WordPress.

Already sold on using Gravity Forms? Purchase our premium WordPress form plugin today!