How to Create a Speedometer Chart in Excel

Need to show progress towards a single, important goal in a clean, visual way? A speedometer chart is a fantastic tool for your Excel dashboards, giving viewers an instant read on performance. This tutorial will walk you through, step-by-step, how to build your own dynamic speedometer chart - no expert-level Excel skills required.

What is a Speedometer Chart?

A speedometer (or gauge) chart is a data visualization that represents a single Key Performance Indicator (KPI) moving along a set scale. Just like the speedometer in a car, it shows you the current "speed" of your metric against a predefined range - often color-coded from poor (red) to excellent (green). This makes it incredibly easy for anyone to understand performance at a quick glance.

Here are a few common scenarios where a speedometer chart is a perfect fit:

• Sales Performance: Tracking monthly sales revenue against a target.
• Project Management: Displaying the percentage of a project that's complete.
• Customer Satisfaction: Showing a Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score.
• Website Analytics: Visualizing website sessions this month compared to the monthly goal.

This type of chart cuts through the clutter of complex tables and lets stakeholders immediately see if a KPI is in the green, yellow, or red.

Step 1: Get Your Data Ready

Before we start building, we need to structure our data correctly. Creating a speedometer chart in Excel involves some clever layering of different chart types, so setting up the source data properly is the most important step.

We need data for two components of our chart:

1. The colored ranges (e.g., Poor, Average, Good).
2. The needle that points to the current value.

Data for the Gauge Ranges

First, decide on the sections for your gauge. A common setup is to use three tiers. For this example, let's say our scale is 0 to 100.

Create a small table with the following values:

• Poor: 40 (This section will cover values 0-40)
• Average: 30 (This section will cover values 41-70)
• Good: 30 (This section will cover values 71-100)

Finally, add a fourth value called "Total" that sums up the ranges. This is for the bottom, invisible half of our chart. In this case, the total is 100 (40 + 30 + 30). Your table should look like this:

Range Data Table

Poor      40
Average   30
Good      30
Total     100

Data for the Needle

Next, we'll set up the data for the needle itself. This part is a little less intuitive but is what makes the chart work. We need three components:

1. The actual KPI value you want to display.
2. A very small value for the needle's thickness.
3. The remaining portion of the chart.

Here's how to structure it. Assume your core KPI value (for example, Sales % to Target) is located in cell B9 below the table.

• Value: Simply link to your KPI value cell. The formula would be =B9.
• Needle Size: Enter a small number, like 2. This will represent the width of the needle pointer. Adjusting this number makes the needle thicker or thinner.
• End: This is the remaining area. A full pie chart circle is 360 degrees, but ours will only be a half-circle (180 degrees). Because the doughnut "total" was 100, we'll treat the pie chart total as 2 * 100, which is 200. The formula here is =200 - B9 - B10 where B9 is your value and B10 is the needle size.

Let’s say your sales team has hit 75% of their goal. Your needle data table should look like this:

Needle Data Table

Value (KPI)   75
Needle Size   2
End           123  (Calculated with =200 - 75 - 2)

Once your data is laid out, we're ready to start building!

Step 2: Create the Doughnut Chart

We'll start by making the colored background arches for the speedometer.

1. Select your range data (the labels and values for "Poor," "Average," "Good," and "Total").
2. Go to the Insert tab on the Ribbon.
3. In the Charts section, click on the Pie chart icon, and choose Doughnut.

You’ll see a nice, colorful doughnut chart pop onto your sheet. It doesn't look like a speedometer yet, but we're getting there.

Step 3: Rotate and Format the Doughnut Chart

Next, we need to turn our doughnut on its side and make the bottom half disappear.

1. Right-click on the doughnut chart itself and choose Format Data Series. A formatting pane will appear on the right side of your screen.
2. Under Series Options, change the Angle of first slice to 270°. This rotates the chart so the "Total" section is flat along the bottom.
3. Now, left-click just on the large bottom slice of the doughnut (the "Total" series). Make sure only that part is selected.
4. In the formatting pane, go to the Fill & Line (paint bucket icon) tab. Under Fill, select No fill.

The bottom half of your doughnut chart is now invisible! Lastly, you can customize the colors of the remaining sections to your liking. A typical convention is red for the "Poor" section, yellow for "Average," and green for "Good." Simply click on each section individually and change its fill color.

Step 4: Add the Speedometer Needle Using a Pie Chart

This is where the magic happens. We're going to overlay a pie chart that will serve as our needle.

1. With your chart still selected, go to the Chart Design tab on the Ribbon and click Select Data.
2. In the Select Data Source pop-up window, click the Add button under Legend Entries (Series).
3. An Edit Series box will appear. You can leave the "Series name" blank, which is usually best.
4. For the Series values, delete the default ={1} and select your needle data values (in our example, a range containing 75, 2, and 123). Then click OK once, then OK again.

You’ll now see a second doughnut ring surrounding your first one. We need to change this new ring into a pie chart.

1. Again, with the chart selected, go back to the Chart Design tab and click Change Chart Type.
2. This opens the combo chart view. At the bottom, you'll see your two data series. By default, both will be Doughnut charts.
3. Find the series you just added (it will likely be named "Series2"). Change its chart type from Doughnut to Pie.
4. Crucially, check the Secondary Axis box next to this new Pie chart series.
5. Click OK.

And voilà! A pie chart is now sitting directly on top of your original doughnut chart.

Step 5: Format the Pie Chart into a Needle

The final formatting steps involve making our pie chart look like a traditional needle.

1. Right-click the new pie chart and select Format Data Series.
2. Just like you did with the doughnut, change the Angle of first slice to 270° to align it properly.
3. Now, we make the large parts invisible. Left-click just the large blue slice (the 'Value' portion) and in the formatting pane, change its fill to No fill.
4. Repeat this for the gray slice (the 'End' portion), changing its fill to No fill as well.

Only the tiny slice for your "Needle Size" should still be visible. Click on that small visible slice and change its fill color to something that stands out, like black or dark gray.

Step 6: Add Labels and Clean Up Your Chart

Your speedometer chart is functionally complete, but a few finishing touches will make it much more professional.

Remove Clutter

• Click on the chart title and the legend (the labels below the chart) and press the Delete key. This gives our chart more space and a cleaner look.

Display the KPI Value

You'll want to show the exact value the needle is pointing to. We can do this with a linked text box.

1. Go to the Insert tab.
2. Select Text Box and draw a small box somewhere near the middle of your speedometer.
3. Without typing anything inside the box, click on the Formula Bar at the top of Excel.
4. Type an equals sign (=) and then click on the cell that contains your KPI value (Cell B9 in our example). Press Enter.

Now, the value in the text box is dynamically linked to your data. Drag the text box into the center of your chart, and format the text (make it bold, change the font size) to your liking. Your speedometer chart is now complete and will automatically update whenever the source KPI value changes.

Final Thoughts

Building a speedometer chart in Excel is a great exercise in creative data visualization, turning standard pie and doughnut charts into a far more effective KPI dashboard component. Once you follow these steps, you'll have a dynamic and professional-looking gauge that automatically updates as your data changes, which is a big win for any report.

If you find that setting this up feels too manual or you're tired of piecing together reports from across a dozen platforms, we get it. We believe getting key insights shouldn't require complex workarounds in spreadsheets. With Graphed, we connect all your data sources - like Shopify, Google Analytics, or Salesforce - into one place. You can simply ask questions in plain English, like "create a gauge showing this month's revenue against our target," and get a live, automated dashboard in seconds, freeing you up to focus on strategy instead of formulas.