How to Add Labels to Chart in Google Sheets

A chart without labels is just a collection of shapes and colors. To make your Google Sheets data truly understood, you need to add clear labels that provide context and highlight key information. This guide will walk you through exactly how to add, customize, and masterfully use labels for every part of your charts.

First, a Quick Refresher: Creating a Chart in Google Sheets

Before you can add labels, you need a chart. If you already have one, feel free to skip to the next section. If not, here’s a quick and easy way to create one.

Start with a simple dataset. For this example, we’ll use monthly sales data:

Month   | Sales Amount
-------------------
January | $15,400
February| $12,800
March   | $18,900
April   | $17,500
May     | $21,100
June    | $24,300

Here’s how to turn this data into a visual chart:

1. Select Your Data: Click and drag your cursor to highlight the cells containing your data, including the headers ("Month" and "Sales Amount").
2. Insert Chart: Navigate to the menu bar at the top of your screen and click Insert > Chart.
3. Choose a Chart Type: Google Sheets will automatically select a chart type it thinks is best (often a line graph or vertical column chart). You can change this in the "Chart editor" panel that appears on the right. For this data, a column chart is a good fit.

And that's it! You now have a basic chart, ready for its most important additions: the labels.

How to Add and Customize the Chart Title & Axis Titles

The most fundamental labels are your titles. They tell your audience what your chart is about at a glance. Without them, your viewers are left guessing.

When you insert a chart, Google Sheets tries to generate a title for you, but it’s often generic. Let’s make it more descriptive.

1. Double-click anywhere on your chart to open the Chart editor sidebar on the right.
2. In the editor, click on the Customize tab.
3. Select the Chart & axis titles section to expand it.

Editing Your Titles

You’ll see a dropdown menu that lets you choose which title you want to edit:

• Chart Title: This is the main headline for your chart. Instead of a generic "Sales Amount vs. Month," change it to something more descriptive like "First Half Sales Performance (2024)."
• Chart Subtitle: This is optional but useful for adding extra context, like "Data sourced from Q1 & Q2 reports."
• Horizontal axis title: For our example, this describes the months. Let's title it "Month of the Year."
• Vertical axis title: This describes the values being measured. A good title would be "Sales Revenue ($)."

Simply choose from the dropdown, type your text into the "Title text" box, and the chart will update in real time. You can also customize the font, font size, bolding, italics, and color to make your titles stand out.

Adding Data Labels Directly to Chart Elements

Data labels display the exact value of each bar, slice, or point on your chart. These are incredibly useful for providing precise information without forcing your audience to squint at the axis lines.

Here’s how to turn them on:

1. With the Chart editor open, go to the Customize tab.
2. Click to expand the Series section.
3. Scroll down a bit until you find a checkbox labeled Data labels. Click it.

Immediately, you'll see the exact sales amounts appear on or near each column of your chart. Now you can get more specific with formatting.

Customizing Data Labels

Several options appear once you enable data labels, giving you fine-tuned control:

• Type: By default, this is set to "Value," but if you're working with a pie chart, you might choose "Percentage" instead.
• Position: This changes where the label appears. For column charts, you can choose Center, Inside end (at the top but inside the bar), Inside base (at the bottom inside the bar), or Outside end (floating above the bar). The "Outside end" option is often the cleanest and easiest to read.
• Number format: You can format the numbers as currency, percentages, or plain numbers, and specify decimal places.
• Text formatting: Just like with titles, you can adjust the font, size, and styling of your data labels to ensure they are legible but not overpowering.

Pro Tip: If your labels feel too crammed, try slightly decreasing the font size or changing the position. If a chart is too dense, it may be better to omit data labels and rely on clear axis titles instead.

Managing the Legend for Charts with Multiple Data Sets

What if your chart compares two different data sets? For example, let's say we're tracking sales for two different products: "Product A" and "Product B."

Our data would look like this:

Month    | Product A Sales | Product B Sales
------------------------------------------------
January  | $15,400         | $11,200
February | $12,800         | $10,500
March    | $18,900         | $16,700

When you create a chart from this data, Google Sheets will automatically add a legend - a key that tells you which color corresponds to which product. You can customize this legend for maximum clarity.

1. In the Chart editor's Customize tab, select the Legend section.
2. Position: Here you can decide where you want the legend to appear. Common choices include Top, Bottom, or Right. The default "Auto" setting usually works well, but sometimes manually placing it on the right or bottom helps balance the chart. Choosing "None" will hide the legend entirely, which you should only do if a chart is self-explanatory.
3. Formatting: You can also change the font styles and colors to make sure the legend matches the rest of your chart's design.

The Advanced Trick: Adding Custom Callouts & Annotations

Sometimes you want to add a unique label to a single data point to highlight something special, like "Record Sales Month!" or "New Campaign Launch." Google Sheets doesn't have a direct "add annotation" button, but you can achieve this effect with a clever workaround.

Let's go back to our single-product sales data. We want to highlight that June's $24,300 was a record high.

Step 1: Create an "Annotation" Column

In your spreadsheet, add a new column next to your sales data. Let's call it "Annotation." For every row where you don't want a special label, leave this column blank. For the row you want to highlight (June), add your custom label text in this column. Add the sales value in this column as well to anchor the label to the correct height.

Month   | Sales Amount | Annotation
------------------------------------
January | $15,400      |
February| $12,800      |
March   | $18,900      |
April   | $17,500      |
May     | $21,100      |
June    | $24,300      | Record Month!

Step 2: Add the New Data to Your Chart

1. Double-click your chart, and in the "Setup" tab of the chart editor, click on the data range field.
2. Adjust the range to include your new "Annotation" column. For example, if your data was originally in A1:B7, you would change it to A1:C7.
3. Sheets will add this new data as a second series on your chart, possibly as another set of columns or a line. Don't worry, we'll fix that.

Step 3: Isolate and Customize the Annotation Label

1. Go to the Customize > Series section of the editor.
2. Use the series dropdown menu to select your new "Annotation" series.
3. Change its color to something subtle like light gray, and set its bar opacity to 0% to make it invisible.
4. Now, put a checkmark next to Data labels for only this series.
5. The text "Record Month!" will appear right where you want it, pointing out the key insight without cluttering the entire chart with extra labels.

This method gives you complete control to draw attention to the most important parts of your data story.

Final Thoughts

Properly labeling your charts in Google Sheets is what separates a confusing graphic from an insightful, professional-looking report. By getting comfortable with axis and chart titles, data point labels, legends, and even smart annotation workarounds, you can ensure your audience understands the key message instantly.

Building charts manually and perfecting every label in spreadsheets can be a slow process, especially when you need to combine data from different sources or update reports regularly. At Graphed, we built a tool to eliminate this friction entirely. We let you connect data sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, or your CRM and build real-time dashboards just by asking questions in plain English - like "create a bar chart comparing sales vs ad spend for the last quarter." It’s designed to give you back the time you spend wrangling reports and let you focus on what the data actually means for your business.