Charts in Google Sheets are visual representations of data that help you analyze the data better. Charts help you quickly check out trends, compare different data sets, and identify patterns in information. There are many different types of charts in Google Sheets that allow you to represent numeric data and analyze them clearly and concisely visually. These charts transform the numerical data into graphs, thereby displaying patterns and making comparison easier.
To insert a chart in Google Sheets, select the numerical data and go to Insert -> Chart. In the pane that appears on the right side, choose the type of Chart you need and customize the chart’s appearance and settings to best suit your needs.
Key Takeaways
- The different types of charts in Google Sheets help you understand the trends, patterns, and complex dependencies in your data. This is useful in several scenarios such as
- making a business presentation, writing a report, or studying key performance indicators.
- To create a particular type of chart, go to the “Insert” menu in Google Sheets and select “Chart” to open the Chart editor pane to your right. In the Chart editor pane, go to “Chart type” and click on your required chart type.
- There are various types of charts which include line charts, column charts, bar charts, pie charts, scatter plots, and so on. You can choose your chart type based on your requirements.
- You can save the chart by clicking on the three vertical dots on the top-right corner of your chart and choosing “Download.”
List of Top 10 Google Sheets Charts
As seen above, you can easily create a chart in Google Sheets. Google Sheets has a variety of chart types to help your data be presented visually. You should choose your chart based on the data and the type of analysis you will be making. Some common types of charts in Google sheets include:
- Bar Chart
- Stacked bar chart
- Line Chart
- Pie Chart
- Column Chart
- Scatter Plot
- Area Chart
- Scatter chart
- Gauge cart
- Doughnut chart
#1 – Bar Chart
Bar charts are used when you want to compare individual items. Google Sheets as bar charts can turn complex numerical data into colorful bars that help identify patterns at a glance.
For example, you can compare the sales of every month or quarter, the pattern of students’ grades, and so on. In this example, let us draw a bar chart to check the ticket sales for a rock star’s concert in different cities.
Step 1: Select the data range.
Step 2: Click the “Insert” menu at the top of your Google Sheets and select “Chart” to open the Chart editor pane.
Step 3: In the Chart editor pane, go to “Chart type” and click on “Bar chart.” It will generate a bar chart.
To customize this chart, double-click the chart you want to change.
Step 4: Click on Customize in the pane.
The different options include:
- Chart style
- Chart & axis titles
- Series
- Gridlines
- Horizontal axis
- Vertical axis
There it is! You get your required bar chart.
#2 – Stacked bar chart
A stacked bar chart showcases the composition of different categories based on specific criteria. For example, here, we have a stacked bar chart to find the number of students who passed and failed in each grade of a school.
Step 1: Select the data for the stacked bar chart. Google Sheets offers various chart types to display different kinds of data.
Step 2: Click the “Insert” menu at the top of your Google Sheets and select “Chart” to open the chart editor pane.
Step 3: Go to “Chart type” in the chart editor pane. Scroll through to find bar charts. As Google Sheets have different types of stacked bar charts, choose the type of chart suited for you. Here, we choose the “Stacked Bar chart” type.
Step 4: You will get a stacked bar chart. To customize this Chart, double-click it. In the pane, click on Customize. Go to series and change the bar colors.
We changed both colors, changing the second bar to green. Now, you can see the stacked bar chart colors have changed according to customization.
#3 – Line Chart
A line chart connects data and shows a smooth representation of its progression. All the data points are joined by straight lines. It is used to monitor sales performance, analyze rainfall and other temperature variations, and check trends over time.
Let us draw a line chart for the rainfall received each month of the year by a city.
Step 1: Select the data for the line chart.
Step 2: Go to the “Insert” menu at the top of your Google Sheets and then select “Chart” to open the chart editor pane. Go to “Chart type” in the chart editor pane. Choose the “Line chart” type.
Step 3: You will get a line chart. To customize this Chart, double-click the part you want to change. Let’s change the font title here.
You get the “Chart and axis titles.” Click on title font and select the font you need.
Check how the chart is changed.
#4 – Pie Chart
Pie charts are circular visualizations commonly used to represent categorical data. Here, each category can be represented as a slice of that pie, and the size visually provides you with an idea of the proportion it represents in relation to the whole.
Look at the table below. Let’s use a pie types of charts in Google Sheets to represent the number of employees in each department of a company.
Step 1: Let’s select the data and go to the “Insert” menu at the top of your Google Sheets. Select “Chart” to open the chart editor pane. In the chart editor pane, go to “Chart type.” Choose the “Pie chart” type.
Step 2: You will receive a visual representation of your organization’s employees. You can customize your Chart in the “Chart Editor” pane.
#5 – Column Chart
A column chart in Google Sheets helps visualize and compare data across different categories. Let’s draw a column chart showing the average temperature in each month of the year by city.
Step 1: Select the data for the line chart.
Go to the “Insert” menu at the top of your Google Sheets and then select “Chart” to open the chart editor pane. Go to “Chart type” in the chart editor pane. Choose the “Column chart” type.
Step 2: You get a column chart. To customize this chart, double-click the part you want to change.
#6 – Scatter Plot
A scatter plot in Google Sheets visualizes the relationship between two variables. The Chart shows individual data points as dots on a Cartesian coordinate grid. Let’s look at a simple example.
Look at the data for the hours of study and the subsequent score of a student below.
Step 1: Click and select the data range you want to include in the scatter plot. Go to the menu and click on Insert. Select Chart from the dropdown menu.
Step 2: In the Chart Editor on the right, under the Setup tab, click on the Chart type dropdown arrow and select Scatter chart.
Step 3: In the Customize tab, we can adjust various aspects of the scatter plot.
- For example,
- Gridlines: Let us add more gridlines for better visualization, as shown below.
Thus, you can see how the scatter plot looks.
#7 – Area Chart
Area charts show the cumulative and relative data changes over time. Here, data points are plotted and connected with filled-in areas. It helps you visualize the trend much better than individual data points. Let us take the previous example of study hours vs. Scores.
Step 1: To plot an area chart, select the data and go to “Insert”- “Chart.” In the Chart editor pane, choose Area Chart.
Step 2: You can observe the trend and how the data chart is plotted.
#8 – Radar chart
Radar charts, also called spider or web charts, can display multiple variables by plotting data points on multiple axes. They are useful for visualizing and comparing patterns, trends, and strengths across different dimensions of data.
Look at the example below. We have the sales details of some items sold at a bakery at the end of June and December.
Step 1: Select the data and choose the Gauge chart from the Chart Editor pane. You can observe the Radar chart below.
#9 – Gauge chart
Going onto Gauge charts, they are used to monitor progress toward a goal or present key indicators. In the example below, we have data indicating the leads form three different countries for a business. Let us check how they are performing using gauge charts.
Step 1: Select the data and choose the Gauge chart from the Chart Editor pane. You can observe the Radar chart below.
#10 – Doughnut chart
Last but not least, a doughnut chart is useful for displaying the proportions of different categories within a whole, like pie charts but with a hole in the center. You can easily create and customize a doughnut chart in Google Sheets to visually represent your data effectively. Below is a table containing a campaign name and marketing cost.
Apply the doughnut chart from the chart editor pane.
Important Things to Note
- Column and Bar Charts are ideal for comparison of data across categories.
- Pie charts are chosen to show parts of a whole. each slice of the pie represents a category’s proportion to a total value.
- Make sure the chart you choose is not cluttered. Avoid complex and several data sets within a single chart.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
To modify the chart type in Google Sheets, perform the following steps.
1. First, click on the chart you wish to modify.
2. The Chart Editor pane opens up on the right. Here, go to the Setup tab.
3. Click on the ‘Chart type’ dropdown menu and choose the required chart type.
Customizing different types of charts in Google Sheets helps you fine-tune your visualizations to ensure better display of data for analysis.
To customize a chart, double-click the chart you want to change and click on Customize in the pane.
The different options available include:
• Chart style: change the chart look
• Chart & axis titles: Edit and format title.
• Series: Helps decide bar colors, and add error bars, data labels, or trendlines.
• Gridlines: Add and edit gridlines.
• Horizontal axis: Format axis text.
• Vertical axis: Format axis text.
To download any chart in Google Sheets, click on the required types of charts in Google Sheets to select it. You will observe three vertical dots on the top-right corner of the chart. Click on it and select the option “Download.” You can download the chart now as a pdf, png or svg file.
Download Template
This article must be helpful to understand the Types of Charts in Google Sheets, with its formula and examples. You can download the template here to use it instantly.
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