How to Make a Circle Chart in Power BI
Creating a circle chart in Power BI is a quick way to show how individual parts make up a whole. Whether you choose a classic pie chart or its modern sibling, the donut chart, these visuals can effectively communicate proportions at a glance. This article will walk you through creating both, step-by-step, and provide essential tips for making them clear and impactful.
What is a Circle Chart in Power BI?
In Power BI, "circle charts" primarily refer to two built-in visuals: the pie chart and the donut chart. Both are designed for the same fundamental purpose: displaying the proportional relationship between different categories. Imagine a report showing total sales for the quarter, a circle chart could instantly show you that "North America" contributed 50% of those sales, "Europe" 30%, and "Asia" 20%.
The Pie Chart is the traditional solid circle, divided into slices like a pie. Each slice's size represents its percentage of the total.
The Donut Chart is essentially a pie chart with a hole in the middle. This small change makes it slightly easier for the human eye to compare the arc lengths of different slices, and the empty center provides valuable space for adding a title or a key performance indicator (KPI) like the total value.
While circle charts are popular, they are often a topic of debate among data visualization experts. Their main limitation is that people aren't very good at accurately comparing the sizes of angles. When two slices are similarly sized, it's hard to tell which is bigger without adding specific data labels. That's why they work best with a small number of categories.
When to Use (and When to Avoid) Circle Charts
The key to effective data visualization is choosing the right chart for the job. Circle charts are excellent in specific scenarios but can be misleading in others.
Use a Circle Chart When:
You are showing parts of a single whole. The total of all slices must equal 100%. If you're showing website traffic sources, for example, a pie chart is a great fit because all sources (Organic, social, paid, etc.) add up to the total traffic.
You have very few categories. The sweet spot is typically between 2 and 5 categories. Any more than 7, and the chart becomes cluttered and difficult to read, defeating its purpose.
You want to highlight a large, significant proportion. A pie or donut chart excels at showing a single category that makes up a huge portion of the whole, like a product that accounts for 80% of your revenue.
Avoid a Circle Chart When:
You need to compare values between categories precisely. If it's important to know whether Category A is 2% larger than Category B, a bar or column chart is a much better choice. Our eyes are better at comparing lengths than angles.
You have many categories. With 10 or 15 slices, a pie chart becomes an unreadable "rainbow wheel." A horizontal bar chart would declutter this information and present it clearly.
You are showing changes over time. A line chart is the standard and most effective way to visualize data trends across days, months, or years. Trying to compare multiple pie charts side-by-side is confusing.
Creating a Pie Chart in Power BI (Step-by-Step)
Let's build a simple pie chart showing total sales broken down by product category. For this example, we'll assume you have a simple data table with columns like "Product Category" and "Sales Amount."
Step 1: Open Power BI and Load Your Data
First, ensure your data is loaded into Power BI Desktop. You can use Power Query to get data from Excel, a database, or hundreds of other sources. Once it's loaded, you'll see your tables and fields in the Data pane on the right side of the screen.
Step 2: Select the Pie Chart Visual
In the Visualizations pane (next to the Data pane), find and click on the pie chart icon. It looks like a standard circle divided into three slices. This will add a blank pie chart template to your report canvas.
Step 3: Add Your Data to the Fields
With the new visual selected, the Visualizations pane will now show the fields you need to populate: Legend, Values, and Details.
Drag your categorical field (e.g., "Product Category") from the Data pane into the Legend well. This determines what each slice of the pie will represent.
Drag your numerical field (e.g., "Sales Amount") into the Values well. This determines the size of each slice based on its value.
Instantly, Power BI will generate a pie chart, assigning a different color to each product category and sizing the slices according to their respective sales amounts. It's that simple to get started.
Creating a Donut Chart in Power BI (Step-by-Step)
The process for creating a donut chart is nearly identical to making a pie chart. Suppose you've decided a donut chart would better suit your dashboard's style.
Step 1: Select the Donut Chart Visual
In the Visualizations pane, find the Donut chart icon–it's usually right next to the pie chart icon. Click it to add the visual to your report canvas.
Step 2: Drag and Drop Your Fields
Just like with the pie chart, you'll see the Legend, Values, and Details wells.
Drag "Product Category" into the Legend well.
Drag "Sales Amount" into the Values well.
You'll see a donut chart appear on your canvas. It presents the exact same information as the pie chart but with an open center, offering a cleaner, more modern look.
Customizing Your Circle Charts for Clarity
A default chart is good, but a well-formatted chart is great. Power BI offers extensive customization options to improve readability. Select your chart, then click the "Format your visual" icon (the paintbrush) in the Visualizations pane.
Formatting Legend and Slices
Legend: Under the Legend section, you can change its position (e.g., Top right, Bottom center), turn the title off or on, and adjust the font settings. For a cleaner look, you can even turn the legend off entirely if your data labels are sufficient.
Slices: This section allows you to change the color of each individual slice. Using your brand's colors or shades of a single color can make visualizations more professional and easier to understand.
Working with Data Labels
This is arguably the most important formatting option. Data labels put the exact values directly on the chart, so users don't have to guess or check the legend constantly.
Position: You can choose where the labels appear: "Outside," "Inside," "Prefer outside," or "Prefer inside." Outside is usually the most readable, especially for smaller slices.
Label contents: Under "Options," you can customize what the label shows. Instead of just displaying the raw value, you can show the Category name and the Percentage of total. This combination ("Electronics, 34.5%") is often the most informative.
Using the 'Detail' Field
The Detail field well adds another layer of segmentation to your chart. For example, if your slices represent product categories, you could drag a field like "Region" into the Detail well. Now, the "Electronics" slice will be further subdivided to show the portion of electronics sales that came from each region. Use this with caution, as it can quickly make a chart too busy to read. It's often better to create a separate chart with a filter instead.
Advanced Tip: Creating a KPI Donut Chart
One of the best advantages of a donut chart is using the empty space in the center. Here's how to place a total value card inside it to create a powerful KPI visual.
Create your donut chart as described above.
Under the "Format your visual" settings for the donut chart, turn the Legend off to save space. Make sure your "Detail Labels" are configured to show categories and percentages so the chart is still easy to read.
From the Visualizations pane, select the Card visual. A blank card will be added to your canvas.
With the card selected, drag your numerical field (e.g., "Sales Amount") into the Fields well. It will now show the grand total.
Resize the card so it's small enough to fit inside your donut chart's hole. Drag it and place it in the center.
Format the card visual:
Under Callout value, decrease the font size until it looks right.
Turn the Category label off.
Under General → Effects, turn the Background off to make it transparent.
You now have a clean, easy-to-read visual that shows both the breakdown by category and the overall total in one compact space.
Final Thoughts
Creating a pie or donut chart in Power BI is a straightforward process, but using it effectively requires thoughtful design. By keeping your categories limited, labeling clearly, and customizing the format for your audience, you can create circle charts that communicate proportional data with clarity and impact.
Even with powerful tools like Power BI, the process of connecting data sources, building reports, and perfecting visualizations can take up valuable time, especially with the steep learning curve. At Graphed, we’ve made this process incredibly simple. You can connect all your marketing and sales data sources in seconds, then create dashboards by describing what you need in plain English - like "show me sales by category as a donut chart for Q3." We generate live, interactive dashboards for you, so you can spend less time struggling with settings and more time acting on insights.