How to Make a Double Bar Graph in Google Sheets with ChatGPT

Comparing two sets of data shouldn't require a complicated chart. A double bar graph is one of the clearest ways to show a side-by-side comparison, and you can create one in just a few minutes using Google Sheets. This guide will walk you through setting up your data and building the chart step-by-step, plus show you how ChatGPT can help you get it done even faster.

What Exactly is a Double Bar Graph?

A double bar graph (also known as a grouped bar chart or multi-series bar chart) places two bars side-by-side for each category you're measuring. This makes it incredibly easy to compare two data points within the same category. You aren't just looking at the total sales for January, you're visually comparing Product A's sales right next to Product B's sales for that month.

It's the perfect chart for answering questions like:

• How did our actual monthly revenue compare to our forecast?

• Which marketing channel - email or social media - drove more leads each quarter?

• Are new customers spending more than returning customers month-over-month?

• How do two different versions of an ad (Ad A vs. Ad B) compare in terms of click-through rate?

The goal is always to create a quick, visual comparison between two related data series across a set of categories or a period of time.

Step 1: Get Your Data Ready in Google Sheets

The single most important step in creating a double bar graph is structuring your data correctly. If your data isn't organized properly, Google Sheets will get confused and produce the wrong type of chart. Fortunately, the structure is simple.

You need at least three columns:

• Column 1: Your labels (X-axis). These are the categories you're comparing, like months, quarters, product names, or campaign names.

• Column 2: Your first data series. These are the numeric values corresponding to the first bar in each group.

• Column 3: Your second data series. These are the numeric values for the second bar in each group.

Let's use an example. Imagine you want to compare your planned monthly sales goals against your actual sales for the first quarter. Your data in Google Sheets should look like this:

This layout tells Google Sheets that "January" has two values associated with it: one for Planned Sales and one for Actual Sales. The same goes for February and March. This structure is the key to creating a perfectly grouped chart.

Step 2: Create the Double Bar Graph Manually

Once your data is neatly arranged, creating the chart takes less than a minute. Follow these steps:

1. Select Your Data

Click and drag your cursor to highlight all the cells containing your data, including the headers. In our example, you'd select the range A1 through C4.

2. Insert the Chart

With your data highlighted, go to the Google Sheets menu at the top of the screen and click Insert > Chart.

Google Sheets will immediately generate a chart and open the Chart editor sidebar on the right. It does a pretty good job of guessing which chart type you want, and for this data structure, it will likely create the correct double bar graph (a Column chart) automatically.

If it chooses a different chart type, like a line chart or a stacked bar chart, don't worry. In the Setup tab of the Chart editor, simply click the dropdown under Chart type and select Column chart.

3. Customize Your Chart for Clarity

A default chart gets the job done, but a well-customized chart tells a clearer story. Switch to the Customize tab in the Chart editor to make some improvements.

Here are a few essential tweaks:

• Chart & axis titles: Click on this section to give your chart a descriptive title, like "Q1 2024: Planned vs. Actual Sales." You can also add titles for the horizontal and vertical axes to provide context (e.g., "Month" and "Sales Revenue USD").

• Series: This is where you can change the color of your bars. You might make "Planned Sales" a light blue and "Actual Sales" a dark blue for a nice visual contrast. You can apply the changes to all series or select a specific one from the dropdown to format it individually.

• Legend: The legend tells viewers what each color represents. You can change its position (e.g., top, bottom, right) to best fit your report or dashboard.

• Gridlines and Ticks: Under this section, you can add more horizontal gridlines (or remove them) to make the values easier to read. For instance, changing the Major spacing type to have more steps can help pinpoint values more precisely.

How ChatGPT Can Speed Up the Process

While creating the chart manually is easy, ChatGPT can act as a helpful assistant to prepare data, write formulas, or give you ideas—saving you valuable time.

Generating Sample Data for Mockups

Sometimes you need to visualize a concept before you have the real data. Instead of typing out dummy numbers, you can ask ChatGPT to do it for you. This is perfect for building a dashboard template or mocking up a report for a presentation.

Example Prompt: "Act as a marketing analyst. I need to create a double bar graph in Google Sheets comparing website visits from Organic Search vs. Paid Search for the last quarter. Can you generate sample data for me in a table that I can easily copy into a sheet?"

ChatGPT will generate a clean, formatted table that you can paste directly into Google Sheets, ready for charting.

Writing Formulas for Data Preparation

What if your data isn't in the nice, neat summary table we used earlier? Most of the time, your data lives in a large, raw log of transactions or events. You'd normally need to build a pivot table or use SUMIFS formulas to organize it. ChatGPT can write those formulas for you.

Example Prompt: "I have raw data in Google Sheets in three columns: 'Date' (Column A), 'Marketing Channel' (Column B), and 'Leads' (Column C). I need to create a summary table that shows the total leads for 'Email' and 'Social Media' for January, February, and March. Can you provide the SUMIFS formulas?"

ChatGPT would then give you the exact formulas to calculate the totals for each channel and month, which you can paste into your sheet to quickly build the summary table required for your double bar graph.

Getting Charting Best Practices

Not sure how to make your chart look professional? Ask ChatGPT for advice.

Example Prompt: "I've created a double bar graph comparing new vs. returning customer revenue. What are some best practices for color choice, titles, and labels to make it as clear as possible for a business presentation?"

It can suggest things like using brand colors, writing action-oriented titles (e.g., "Returning Customers Drive Higher Revenue in Feb" instead of "Customer Revenue"), and whether or not to add data labels on top of the bars to make specific values easy to read.

Common Problems and How to Fix Them

If your chart isn't looking right, it's usually because of one of these common issues:

• Issue 1: The bars are stacked on top of each other. This means Google Sheets selected a "Stacked column chart." In the Chart editor, go to Setup, click the Chart type dropdown, and choose the standard Column chart instead.

• Issue 2: The X-axis has the wrong labels. This almost always points to an issue with your data structure. Ensure your first column contains your categories (like months or names) and that the next two columns contain only numbers. You can also check the Setup tab to make sure Use row 1 as headers and Use column A as labels are checked.

• Issue 3: Data is missing from the chart. Check the Data range in the Setup tab of the Chart editor. Make sure the range correctly covers all the cells you want to include. If you added a new row of data and it's not showing up, you may need to manually update this range.

Final Thoughts

Creating a double bar graph in Google Sheets is a simple process once you get your data structured correctly. It's a fantastic tool for comparing performance, tracking goals, and telling a clear story with your numbers. And with an AI assistant like ChatGPT, you can prepare your data and refine your presentation with less manual effort.

While this approach is great for one-off charts, the process of exporting data, cleaning it up in sheets, and manually building visuals can still consume hours every week. We built Graphed to automate this entirely. You can connect sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, or your CRM in a few clicks, and then ask for what you need in plain English—like "Compare revenue from Facebook Ads and Google Ads for this quarter as a bar chart." Graphed instantly builds and updates the dashboard for you, so you're always looking at live data without ever having to touch a spreadsheet again.