How to Create a 3D Pie Chart in Google Analytics

Trying to build a 3D pie chart directly in Google Analytics can be a surprisingly roundabout quest. You know the data is there, but finding the right combination of clicks to get that specific visualization feels hidden. This article will cut through the confusion and show you exactly how to do it. We'll walk through the practical step-by-step methods for creating a 3D pie chart with your GA4 data, and we’ll also touch on a few data visualization best practices along the way.

Can You Actually Make a 3D Pie Chart in Google Analytics?

The short answer is no, you cannot create a 3D pie chart within the native Google Analytics 4 interface. The reporting sections in GA4, like the "Explore" canvas, are powerful for data analysis and discovery but offer a limited set of standard visualizations: tables, bar charts, line graphs, scatter plots, and geo maps. Their goal is to help you find insights, not to be a full-featured dashboard design tool.

But that doesn't mean you're out of luck. It just means you need to use a slightly different workflow. The standard process involves exporting your clean GA4 data into a tool designed for more flexible data visualization, such as Google Sheets or Google's Looker Studio.

A Quick Word of Caution: The Problem with 3D Pie Charts

Before we dive into the "how," it's helpful to understand why 3D visualizations, especially pie charts, are often avoided in professional data reporting. While they might look visually interesting, they can sometimes make data harder to interpret accurately for a few key reasons:

Perspective Distortion: The 3D effect skews the perceived size of the slices. A slice in the foreground will look significantly larger than an identical slice in the background, which can mislead your audience.
Difficulty in Comparison: It's much harder for the human eye to accurately compare the angles of different slices in a 3D pie chart than it is to compare the lengths of bars in a bar chart.
Occlusion: Smaller slices can get hidden behind larger ones, making the chart cluttered and difficult to read completely.

For these reasons, a standard 2D pie chart, a doughnut chart, or a simple bar chart is often a clearer and more honest way to represent proportional data. However, if a 3D pie chart is what your presentation requires, let's get it done!

Method 1: Creating a 3D Pie Chart with Google Sheets

This is the fastest and most direct method for creating a one-off 3D pie chart. It involves pulling a quick report from GA4 and exporting it to Google Sheets, where the powerful charting tools will do the rest.

Step 1: Get Your Data Out of Google Analytics

First, you need to find the data you want to visualize. A common use case for a pie chart is to show the makeup of your website traffic by channel.

Log in to your Google Analytics 4 property.
From the left-hand menu, navigate to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition. This report automatically breaks down your users and sessions by channel group.
Adjust the date range in the top-right corner to reflect the period you want to analyze.
In the top right of the reporting area, just above the date range, you'll see a "Share & Export" icon (it looks like a box with an arrow pointing up). Click it.
From the dropdown menu, select Download File > Export to Google Sheets.

A new tab will open, importing your GA4 report directly into a fresh Google Sheet. In a few moments, you'll have all the raw data ready to go.

Step 2: Prepare Your Data in Google Sheets

Your exported data will be very comprehensive, likely containing more columns than you need for a simple pie chart. You only need two columns: the one with your categories (the labels for your slices) and the one with the numbers (the values for your slices).

For our traffic acquisition example, the two columns you need are:

Column A: Session default channel group (Direct, Organic Search, etc.)
Column D: Sessions

Simply select the data you want to include in the chart. For example, to chart the top 7 traffic sources, hold down your mouse and select the cells from A1 down to B8 (including the header row).

Step 3: Create and Customize Your 3D Pie Chart

Now for the easy part. With your data selected, you can insert the chart.

With your data still highlighted, go to the top menu and click Insert > Chart.
Google Sheets will often suggest a chart type, which is often a pie chart for this kind of data. If not, don't worry. A "Chart editor" pane will appear on the right side of your screen.
Under the "Setup" tab in the Chart editor, click the dropdown under "Chart type". Scroll down to the "Pie" section and select "3D pie chart".
Instantly, your data will be transformed into a 3D pie chart on your sheet.

From here, you can use the "Customize" tab in the Chart editor to change colors, add chart titles, adjust the legend, and modify the slice labels to make your visualization clear and presentation-ready.

Method 2: Building Your Chart in Looker Studio (for Dashboards)

If you need to create a report you'll look at regularly, building it in Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is the better long-term solution. It provides a direct, live connection to your GA4 data, so your charts will update automatically without you needing to export files ever again.

Step 1: Connect GA4 as a Data Source in Looker Studio

Navigate to https://lookerstudio.google.com/ and sign in.
Click the Create button in the top left and select Report.
You'll be asked to add data to the report. In the list of Google Connectors, find and select Google Analytics.
Authorize the connection if prompted. Then, choose the Analytics Account and Property you want to pull data from. Click Add.

You now have a blank report canvas that is dynamically linked to your Google Analytics 4 data.

Step 2: Configure a Pie Chart

Like Sheets, adding the chart widget is straightforward.

In the top menu, click Insert or Add a chart.
Find the Pie section and select a standard Pie Chart or a Doughnut Chart.
Click anywhere on your report canvas to place the chart.

Step 3: Set Your Dimensions and Metrics

When you add the chart, Looker Studio will populate it with default data. You need to tell it which data to display. A "Chart properties" panel will be open on the right, similar to the one in Google Sheets.

Dimension: Drag and drop "Session default channel group" from your "Available Fields" list into the Dimension box.
Metric: Drag and drop "Sessions" into the Metric box.

Your pie chart will immediately update to show your sessions broken down by traffic channel, pulling live data from GA4.

A Note on "3D" in Looker Studio

Following modern data visualization best practices, Looker Studio does not have a one-click option to create a skewed "3D" pie chart. Its focus is on clarity and accuracy. However, you can add visual depth using the styling options: in the chart properties panel, switch from the "Setup" tab to the "Style" tab. Here you can add subtle design features like border shadows and control the radius of a doughnut hole, which gives the chart a more modern, layered look without distorting the data.

Final Thoughts

While you can't build a 3D pie chart directly in the Google Analytics 4 interface, you're only one step away. By exporting your data to Google Sheets or connecting GA4 to Looker Studio, you can easily create the precise chart you need for any report or presentation.

This process of exporting data and manually tinkering in chart editors is exactly the kind of friction we wanted to eliminate when we built Graphed. Instead of navigating menus, exporting CSVs, and customizing charts by hand, we wanted a tool where you could simply ask for what you need. You can securely connect your Google Analytics account in a few clicks, then just describe the chart you want in plain English, like "Show me a pie chart of website sessions by country for last month." We instantly build the live, interactive visualization for you, so you can spend less time wrangling data and more time acting on it.