How to Make a Pie Chart

Creating a chart that perfectly illustrates your data can feel like a big win. If you need to show how individual parts make up a whole, the pie chart is one of the most familiar and effective tools for the job. This article will walk you through exactly how to make a pie chart using common tools like Excel and Google Sheets, and we'll also cover best practices to ensure your chart is clear, accurate, and easy to understand.

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What Exactly is a Pie Chart?

A pie chart is a circular statistical graphic divided into slices, or sectors, to illustrate numerical proportion. In a pie chart, the arc length of each slice — and consequently its central angle and area — is proportional to the quantity it represents. It's a simple way to visualize how different categories contribute to a total amount, always adding up to 100%.

For example, if you're analyzing quarterly website traffic, a pie chart can instantly show you that "Organic Search" brought in 50% of your visitors, "Paid Ads" accounted for 30%, "Social Media" for 15%, and "Referrals" made up the final 5%. You see the entire "pie" of your traffic and the size of each channel's "slice."

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When to Use a Pie Chart (And When to Choose Something Else)

Pie charts are popular, but they aren't always the right choice. Knowing when to use one is just as important as knowing how to create one. They are powerful when used correctly, but can be misleading when misapplied.

The Best Times to Use a Pie Chart:

• Showing Composition: Their primary strength is visualizing a part-to-whole relationship. If your goal is to show the components of a single total, like the different sources of revenue for a single month, a pie chart is perfect.
• For a Small Number of Categories: Pie charts work best with just a few slices — ideally between two and five. Too many slices make the chart cluttered and difficult to read, defeating its purpose.
• When Proportions Are Meaningfully Different: They are great for highlighting a significant contrast between categories, such as one component being much larger or smaller than the others. A slice representing 75% of the total will stand out dramatically from one representing 5%.
• Your Data Must Sum to 100%: This is a non-negotiable rule. The data must represent exclusive categories that, when combined, make up the complete picture.

When You Should Avoid a Pie Chart:

• Comparing Multiple Datasets: If you want to compare the traffic sources for this month versus last month, don't use two side-by-side pie charts. A grouped bar chart is far more effective for this kind of comparison.
• Showing Changes Over Time: To visualize trends, such as website traffic over a year, a line chart is the correct tool. A pie chart can't effectively display how proportions shift over multiple time periods.
• If You Have Too Many Categories: When you have more than five or six categories, the pie becomes a jumble of thin, hard-to-read slivers. A bar chart can handle many categories much more cleanly.
• When Category Values are Similar: The human eye struggles to accurately compare the sizes of angles. If your categories are 22%, 25%, and 28%, it will be hard for anyone to tell the difference in a pie chart. A bar chart makes these subtle differences immediately obvious.

How to Make a Pie Chart in Microsoft Excel

Excel is one of the most common places to build a chart. The process is straightforward once your data is set up correctly.

Step 1: Prepare Your Data

First, organize your data in two simple columns.

• Column A: List your categories (e.g., "Facebook Ads," "Google Ads," "Organic Search").
• Column B: List the corresponding values for each category (e.g., number of conversions, dollars spent, sessions).

Make sure your data is clean, with clear headers at the top of each column.

Step 2: Select Your Data

Click and drag your cursor to highlight all the cells containing your data, including the headers. Don't include the "Total" row if you have one, as this will distort your pie chart.

Step 3: Insert the Chart

With your data selected, navigate to the Insert tab on the top ribbon. In the Charts section, click on the icon that looks like a small pie chart. A dropdown menu will appear with a few options:

• 2-D Pie: This is the standard, most easily readable option.
• 3-D Pie: This can look stylish but often distorts the proportions of the slices, making the chart harder to interpret accurately. It's usually best to avoid it.
• Doughnut: Functionally similar to a pie chart, but with a hole in the middle. This style is good if you want to place a key metric or icon in the center.

Select the 2-D Pie Chart. Excel will instantly generate a basic chart and place it on your worksheet.

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Step 4: Customize Your Pie Chart

A default chart is a great start, but customization makes it truly yours. When your chart is selected, two new tabs will appear on the ribbon: Chart Design and Format.

• Add Chart Title: Double-click the default "Chart Title" placeholder to give it a clear, descriptive name.
• Add Data Labels: Click the "+" icon to the top right of the chart, and check the box for Data Labels. Click the small arrow next to it for more options, like showing percentages, values, or category names directly on each slice. This is often clearer than relying on a separate legend.
• Change Colors and Style: On the Chart Design tab, you can choose from various pre-made color palettes and chart styles to quickly brand your visualization.
• Adjust the Legend: If you prefer a legend, you can click the "+" icon and use the Legend option to move it to the right, top, left, or bottom of the chart.

How to Make a Pie Chart in Google Sheets

Google Sheets offers a very similar process to Excel, making it easy to create pie charts quickly and collaboratively online.

Step 1: Set Up Your Data

Just like in Excel, lay out your data in two columns: one for categories and one for the corresponding values. Add headers to describe what each column represents.

Step 2: Select the Data

Highlight the cells that contain your information by clicking and dragging your mouse over them, including the headers.

Step 3: Insert Your Chart

From the top menu, click on Insert and then select Chart from the dropdown menu. Google Sheets will automatically create a chart and open the Chart editor sidebar on the right. While it often guesses a good chart type, it might default to a bar chart or something else.

Step 4: Change the Chart Type

In the Chart editor, go to the Setup tab. Click on the dropdown menu under "Chart type" and scroll down to the "Pie" section. Select the standard pie chart or a doughnut chart.

Step 5: Customize and Refine

Switch to the Customize tab in the Chart editor. Here, you can fine-tune every aspect of your chart's appearance:

• Chart style: Change the background color and border of your chart. You can also make it a 3D chart here (but remember the pitfalls!).
• Pie chart: Customize the doughnut hole size (for doughnut charts) and change the color of individual slices and borders.
• Chart & axis titles: Write a descriptive title and subtitle.
• Series: Adjust settings for your data series.
• Legend: Change the position, font, and text color of your legend.

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Bonus: Designing a Quick Pie Chart in Canva

If you're creating a presentation, social media graphic, or report, Canva is a fantastic tool for making beautiful, on-brand pie charts.

1. On the Canva homepage, create a new design (e.g., a Presentation or Infographic).
2. In the editor, click on Elements from the left-hand sidebar.
3. Scroll down to the "Charts" section or simply search for "chart."
4. Select the pie or doughnut chart option. A placeholder chart will appear on your canvas.
5. On the left, a data entry table will pop up. Enter your categories in the first column and your values in the second. You can also easily connect and pull data directly from a Google Sheet.
6. Use the Settings and color options in the side panel to customize fonts, colors, and labels to perfectly match your brand's style guide.

Best Practices for Readable Pie Charts

Creating the chart is just one part of the process. Designing it effectively determines whether your audience will understand it at a glance.

• Limit Your Slices: Try to stick to five or fewer categories. If you have more, consider grouping smaller categories into an "Other" slice.
• Order Slices Intelligently: Arrange the slices in a logical order. A common method is to place the largest slice at the 12 o'clock position and arrange the rest in descending order, clockwise.
• Label Directly: Whenever possible, put the data label (especially percentages) directly on or next to the slice. This prevents the viewer's eyes from having to dart back and forth between the chart and a legend.
• Use Color for Clarity: Choose colors that are easily distinguishable. Using drastically different hues works better than gradients of the same color. Always consider your audience and ensure your colors are friendly to those with color vision deficiencies.
• Avoid 3D and "Exploding" Slices: 3D effects distort the visual size of the slices, leading to misinterpretation. Similarly, exploding slices (pulling one out for emphasis) can make it harder to compare the components. A simple, flat 2D design is almost always the clearest.

Final Thoughts

Pie charts are an excellent way to show how different parts contribute to a whole, as long as you stick to a few categories. Mastering how to make them in tools like Excel, Google Sheets, or Canva gives you a simple yet powerful way to communicate data in reports and presentations, letting you tell a clear story with your numbers.

Of course, building even simple charts means you first have to gather your data, often by downloading CSVs and wrestling with spreadsheets from platforms like Google Analytics, Shopify, or Facebook Ads. At Graphed you connect your data sources once, then ask for what you need in plain English — like "create a pie chart of our Shopify revenue by product category for this month" — and we instantly build a live, interactive dashboard for you, saving you hours of manual work.