How to Make a Sunburst Chart in Looker with AI

A sunburst chart is one of the best ways to visualize hierarchical data, but getting one built in Looker Studio isn't exactly a one-click process. This guide will walk you through exactly how to do it, covering both the traditional manual setup and a much faster method using AI. You'll learn what sunburst charts are, when to use them, and how to create them to better understand the relationships within your data.

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What is a Sunburst Chart?

Think of a sunburst chart as a pie chart with layers. Also known as a radial treemap or a multi-level pie chart, it shows how a whole is divided among different categories, and then how those categories are further broken down into sub-categories. The chart consists of a central circle representing the top-level category, surrounded by concentric rings, where each ring moving outwards represents a deeper level in the hierarchy.

The size of each "slice" in a ring is proportional to its value in relation to the whole. For example, the inner ring might show website traffic broken down by channel (Organic, Paid, Direct). The next ring out would then break each channel down further. The "Organic" slice might be subdivided into Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, while the "Paid" slice might be broken down into Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

This structure makes it incredibly intuitive to see part-to-whole relationships across multiple levels at a single glance. You can immediately spot which product sub-category contributes most to a larger product line or which specific ad campaign is driving the most traffic within a broader marketing channel.

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Why Use a Sunburst Chart in a Looker Studio Dashboard?

While standard charts like bar graphs and pie charts are great, they only tell part of the story. A pie chart can show you your sales by product category, but it can't show you the performance of individual products within those categories. You'd need a separate chart for that. A sunburst chart solves this by visualizing both levels of the hierarchy in one compact and compelling graphic.

Key Benefits:

• Deep Dive into Hierarchies: They expose the composition of your data and reveal relationships that might be hidden in flat tables or simpler charts. You can easily compare the performance of different branches of your data structure.
• Intuitive Communication: The visual nature of a sunburst chart makes complex hierarchical information easy for anyone to understand, even stakeholders who aren't data-savvy. The "parent-child" nested relationship is visually obvious.
• Space Efficiency: Instead of building multiple separate pie charts or treemaps to show different hierarchical levels, a single sunburst chart can represent it all, saving valuable space on your Looker Studio dashboard.

When to use a Sunburst Chart:

• Product Hierarchies: Visualizing sales performance from ‘Category’ > ‘Sub-Category’ > ‘Product’.
• Website Traffic Analysis: Breaking down sessions by ‘Channel’ > ‘Source / Medium’ > ‘Landing Page’.
• Geographic Data: Showing customer distribution by ‘Continent’ > ‘Country’ > ‘State’.
• Organizational Structures: Representing a company's departmental structure and employee distribution.

When to avoid it:

Sunburst charts are best with a limited number of hierarchical levels (ideally two or three) and a reasonable number of categories in each level. If you have too many levels or hundreds of sub-categories, the outer rings will become too fragmented and difficult to read, making a different chart type, like a treemap, a better choice.

The Traditional Method: Creating a Sunburst Chart in Looker Studio Manually

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) doesn't have a native, built-in sunburst chart option like it does for bar or line charts. To create one, you'll need to use a "Community Visualization." These are charts developed by third-party developers that you can add to your reports. The process requires a few extra steps but is perfectly manageable.

Step 1: Prepare Your Hierarchical Data

First and foremost, you need data structured in a hierarchy. This means you need at least two dimension fields that represent parent-child relationships and one metric field.

For example, let's use some simple eCommerce sales data for a clothing store. Your data in a Google Sheet might look like this:

Category, Sub-Category, Sales Apparel, T-Shirts, 1500 Apparel, Hoodies, 2200 Apparel, Jeans, 1800 Accessories, Hats, 800 Accessories, Belts, 500 Footwear, Sneakers, 3000 Footwear, Boots, 1200

Here, Category is the parent level, Sub-Category is the child level, and Sales is the metric that will determine the size of each slice.

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Step 2: Add a Community Visualization

With your data source connected to your Looker Studio report, navigate to where you can add new components.

1. On the toolbar, click "Community visualizations and components." (It's an icon with a small branching diagram).
2. This will open a panel. Click “+ Explore more” at the bottom to open the Looker Studio Community Gallery.
3. In the gallery's search bar, type "sunburst" or "hierarchy." You'll see several options created by different developers. Look for one that's well-reviewed and suits your needs. A popular and effective option is often just called "Sunburst Chart."
4. Click on the visualization you want to use, and then click the blue "Allow" button to grant it permission to render in your report.

You can now click to place the empty chart component onto your report canvas.

Step 3: Configure Your Dimensions and Metric

With the new blank sunburst chart selected, the data properties panel will appear on the right side of the screen. This is where you tell the chart how to use your data. The key is to add your dimensions in the correct hierarchical order.

• Parent Dimension: Drag your top-level dimension (e.g., Category) into the first dimension field.
• Child Dimension: Drag your next-level dimension (e.g., Sub-Category) into the second dimension field directly below the first one. Support for multiple levels is common, so you can add more if your data allows.
• Metric: Drag your metric (e.g., Sales) into the Metric field. This determines the size of rings and slices.

As you add these fields, the sunburst chart will display the hierarchical data in nested rings.

Step 4: Customize Your Chart's Appearance

Now that your data is visualized, fine-tune the aesthetics:

• Adjust colors to differentiate categories clearly.
• Toggle labels, change font sizes.
• Customize the legend's position and appearance.
• Adjust the size of the center hole or show total metrics in the center.

The AI Method: A Faster Way to Create Sunburst Charts

The manual method works, but searching for community components and configuring multiple style options is time-consuming. Imagine describing the chart you want and having it appear instantly. That’s the promise of AI-powered data analysis.

From Clicks to Conversation

Instead of translating questions into many steps in the software, you simply ask in plain English. The AI interprets your request and generates the visual automatically.

Examples of prompts:

• "Create a sunburst chart of our sales, with the inner ring as the product category and the outer ring as the sub-category."
• "Show me a hierarchical breakdown of revenue by category and then by sub-category using a sunburst chart."
• "Give me a sunburst visualization of total revenue for each sub-category nested inside its main category."

The AI understands your intent, pulls the relevant data, and produces a fully configured, interactive sunburst chart in seconds.

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The Power of Speed and Iteration

This approach isn't just about saving time. It encourages exploration:

• Filter data with natural language: "Now filter this to only show the 'Apparel' category."
• Remove parts of data: "Remove 'Jeans' and 'Boots' from the chart."
• Change chart types: "Change it from a sunburst to a treemap."
• Ask for key insights: "What are the top three sub-categories by sales overall?"

This makes data analysis a dynamic dialogue, letting you quickly ask follow-up questions without fiddling with manual configurations.

Democratizing Data for Everyone on the Team

One of the biggest advantages of AI-driven analysis is accessibility. You don't need extensive training on Looker Studio or complex BI tools. If you can type a question, you can generate a report.

This empowers non-technical team members — marketers, sales reps, founders — to get answers independently. For example, a campaign manager can ask, "Show me a sunburst chart of Facebook Ads spend versus conversions by campaign," without waiting for technical support. This accelerates decision-making and promotes a data-driven culture across your organization.

Final Thoughts

Sunburst charts offer a powerful way to visualize hierarchical data directly in your Looker Studio reports. You can create them using Community Visualizations or skip manual setup altogether with an AI-powered approach that turns natural language into instant visualizations.

At Graphed, we built our platform around this very idea — that data analysis shouldn't require technical expertise or tedious manual work. You can simply ask questions after connecting data sources like Google Analytics or your e-commerce platform. For example: "Show me sessions by landing page broken down by traffic channel with a sunburst chart." Graphed creates a live, interactive dashboard in seconds, saving you from configuration hassle so you can focus on insights.