How to Make a Donut Chart in Google Sheets

A donut chart is one of the best ways to show how different parts make up a whole, like how various marketing channels contribute to your total budget. This step-by-step tutorial will walk you through how to create, customize, and improve a donut chart directly within Google Sheets, so you can transform your raw numbers into a clean, compelling visual.

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What is a Donut Chart and When Should You Use One?

Think of a donut chart as a pie chart with the center cut out. More than just a stylistic choice, that empty space can be used to display a key metric or title, making the chart more information-dense. Each "slice" of the donut represents a category, and the size of that slice shows its proportion relative to the total.

Donut charts are excellent for visualizing:

• Budget Allocations: Show how a department's budget is split across different initiatives (e.g., social media ads, content marketing, SEO tools).
• Sales Breakdowns: Illustrate which products or regions contribute the most to total revenue.
• Survey Responses: Display the distribution of answers to a multiple-choice question.
• Website Traffic Sources: Break down where your visitors are coming from (e.g., Organic Search, Direct, Social Media, Referral).

However, they aren't perfect for every situation. Avoid using a donut chart when you have too many categories (more than 5-7 slices can become difficult to read) or when you need to show trends over time (a line chart is better for that).

Preparing Your Data for a Donut Chart

Before you build your chart, your data needs to be structured correctly. A clean and simple data layout is the foundation for an accurate chart. Your Google Sheet should have two columns side-by-side:

1. Column 1: Categories. This column contains the labels for each slice (e.g., "Facebook Ads," "Google Ads").
2. Column 2: Values. This column contains the numerical data corresponding to each category (e.g., "$5,000," "$10,000").

Make sure to include a clear header for each column. Google Sheets uses these headers to help label your chart automatically.

Let's use a simple marketing budget example. Your data in Google Sheets would look like this:

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Step-by-Step: How to Create a Donut Chart in Google Sheets

With your data prepped and ready, creating the basic chart takes just a few clicks. Follow these simple steps.

Step 1: Select Your Data

Click and drag your cursor to highlight the entire data range you want to visualize, including both column headers. In our example, you would select cells A1 through B6.

Step 2: Insert the Chart

With your data highlighted, navigate to the menu bar at the top of the screen and click Insert > Chart. Google Sheets will automatically create a chart and open the Chart editor pane on the right side of your screen. It often defaults to a pie chart or bar chart, but we will change that in the next step.

Step 3: Choose the Donut Chart Type

In the Chart editor pane, under the Setup tab, find the "Chart type" dropdown menu. Click it, scroll down to the "Pie" section, and select Donut chart.

Your chart will immediately transform into a donut chart. You now have a basic visualization of your data, ready for customization.

Customizing Your Google Sheets Donut Chart

A default chart gets the job done, but a well-customized one tells a much clearer story. The Chart editor has two main tabs: Setup (for data configuration) and Customize (for aesthetics). We'll spend most of our time in the Customize tab.

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Changing Colors and Styles

Default colors are rarely perfect. To create a chart that’s easier to read or matches your company branding, you can change the color of each slice.

1. In the Chart editor, go to the Customize tab.
2. Click on the Pie slice section to expand it.
3. You'll see a dropdown menu that says "Apply to all slices." Click it and select a specific slice you want to change (e.g., "Google Ads").
4. Use the color swatch below to pick a new color for that slice. Repeat this process for each slice.

Adjusting the Donut Hole

The hallmark of a donut chart is its central hole. You can adjust its size to fit your aesthetic preference or to make room for a KPI.

1. Under the Customize tab, open the Chart style section.
2. You will see a slider labeled Donut hole. You can set a value between 25% and 75%.
3. Slide it to the right for a larger hole (thinner donut) or to the left for a smaller one. A value around 50% is usually a good starting point.

Adding and Formatting Data Labels

Charts without labels are just colored shapes. Add context by displaying the value or percentage for each slice.

1. Stay in the Customize tab and expand the Pie chart section.
2. Look for the Slice label dropdown. You have several options:
3. Once you've selected a label type, you can also adjust the font, size, and text color using the options in the same section.

Modifying the Legend

The legend tells the viewer what each color represents. You can adjust its position for better readability.

1. In the Customize tab, open the Legend section.
2. Under Position, you can choose from options like Top, Bottom, Left, Right, or None. For donut charts, a legend on the right or bottom often works best.

Writing a Clear Chart Title

Finally, give your chart a descriptive title so anyone can understand its purpose at a glance.

1. Go to the Customize tab and open Chart & axis titles.
2. In the first dropdown, make sure Chart title is selected.
3. In the Title text box, write a clear title, like "Monthly Marketing Spend Distribution."
4. You can also customize the font, size, and color of your title text here.

Advanced Tips for Effective Donut Charts

Want to take your donut charts to the next level? Here are a few pro tips.

Highlight a Key Segment by "Exploding" a Slice

If you want to draw special attention to a single category (like your largest budget item), you can make its slice "explode" or pop out from the center. Under the Customize tab > Pie slice, select the specific slice you want to highlight from the dropdown. Then, use the slider labeled Distance from center to pull that slice away from the rest of the chart. A 10%-25% distance is usually enough to make it stand out.

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Place a Key Metric in the Center

The empty space in a donut chart is prime real estate. You can use it to display the total value or another important KPI. Unfortunately, Google Sheets doesn't have a direct feature for this, but there's an easy workaround:

1. Finalize your donut chart's design.
2. Go to the Google Sheets menu and select Insert > Drawing.
3. Inside the Drawing tool, create a text box. Type in your key metric (e.g., "Total Spend: $29,000").
4. Style the text, then click "Save and Close."
5. The drawing will appear on your sheet. Drag and drop it directly over the hole in your donut chart.

Keep it Simple: Consolidate Small Slices

The biggest mistake people make with pie and donut charts is including too many categories. If you have several small slices that make up less than 5% of the total, the chart becomes cluttered and hard to read. A great solution is to group these smaller items into a single category called "Other." This keeps your chart focused on the most significant data points.

Final Thoughts

Creating a polished donut chart in Google Sheets is a straightforward process when you prepare your data correctly and take a few minutes to customize the chart's appearance. By following these steps, you can quickly build visualizations that effectively communicate proportional data and make your reports easier to understand.

While making one-off charts in Google Sheets is useful, we know that manually updating reports week after week is a tedious process that marketing and sales teams just don't have time for. We built Graphed to automate all that busy work. Instead of wrestling with spreadsheet chart editors, you can create real-time, interactive dashboards just by connecting your data sources and asking for what you want in plain English, getting insights in seconds instead of hours.