How to Remove Gridlines in Excel Graph

Excel’s default gridlines can quickly clutter your chart, drawing attention away from the story your data is trying to tell. If you’re looking to create a cleaner, more professional-looking graph, removing those background lines is one of the easiest and most impactful changes you can make. This guide will walk you through several simple methods to remove gridlines in any Excel graph.

Why Bother Removing Gridlines?

Gridlines in a chart serve as guides, helping the viewer trace a data point back to its corresponding value on an axis. While helpful in some analytical contexts, they often add unnecessary visual noise. Here are a few reasons why a chart without gridlines is often a better chart:

• Reduced Clutter: The most obvious benefit. A clean background makes the entire visualization feel less busy and more modern.
• Improved Focus: Without a grid of lines competing for attention, the viewer’s eye is drawn directly to the most important parts of the chart - the bars, lines, pies, or data points themselves. It emphasizes the data's shape and trend over precise values.
• Enhanced Readability: For presentations or reports, your goal is often to communicate a key message or trend, not to have the audience scrutinize exact numbers. Removing gridlines helps reinforce the big picture.
• Professional Aesthetics: Minimalist design is a hallmark of professional reports and dashboards. A simple, grid-free chart often looks more polished and intentionally designed than one with default formatting.

Ultimately, removing gridlines is about taking control of your visualization to ensure it communicates your message as clearly as possible. Now, let's get into the how-to.

Method 1: The Quickest Way Using the 'Chart Elements' Button

If you're using a modern version of Excel (Excel 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, or Microsoft 365), this is by far the fastest and most intuitive method to manage gridlines.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. First, single-click anywhere on your chart to select it. When selected, you'll see a border around the chart and several icons appear in the top-right corner.
2. Look for the green plus symbol (+). This is the Chart Elements button. Click on it.
3. A dropdown menu will appear with a list of all the different components of your chart, such as Axes, Chart Title, Data Labels, and Gridlines.
4. Locate Gridlines from the list. If your chart has them, the box next to it will be checked.
5. Simply uncheck the box. The gridlines will immediately disappear from your chart.

That's it! In just a few clicks, you have a much cleaner chart.

Customizing with the Chart Elements Menu

You don’t have to remove all gridlines. Sometimes, you might want to keep the horizontal lines but remove the vertical ones. The Chart Elements menu gives you that control.

• Instead of unchecking the Gridlines box, hover your cursor over it and click the small black arrow that appears to the right.
• A sub-menu will open, showing you different gridline options like Primary Major Horizontal, Primary Major Vertical, Primary Minor Horizontal, and Primary Minor Vertical.
• Uncheck the types you want to remove. For instance, to get rid of just the vertical lines, uncheck Primary Major Vertical while leaving Primary Major Horizontal checked.

This little feature offers the perfect balance of speed and control, right where you need it.

Method 2: Using the 'Add Chart Element' Feature in the Ribbon

If you prefer using the more traditional Excel ribbon at the top of the window or are working in a workflow that consistently involves chart styling, this method works just as well.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Click on your chart to select it. This will make two contextual tabs appear in the main Excel ribbon: Chart Design and Format.
2. Click on the Chart Design tab.
3. On the far left side of the ribbon, find and click the Add Chart Element button. This will open a dropdown menu very similar to the Chart Elements a-la-carte menu.
4. Hover your cursor over the Gridlines option in the dropdown.
5. From the fly-out menu, you can click on the checked options (like Primary Major Horizontal or Primary Major Vertical) to deselect and remove them from the chart. If you want no gridlines at all, make sure none of these are selected.

This method accomplishes the same thing as the Chart Elements (+) button but can be more convenient if you’re already working from the Chart Design ribbon to change colors or chart styles.

Method 3: The Direct Selection and Format Method

This is the most direct way to get rid of gridlines and is especially useful if you want to apply more advanced formatting changes, not just removal. It focuses on treating the gridlines as specific objects you can edit directly.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

A) Selection and Deletion (The Fastest)

1. Carefully click directly on one of the horizontal gridlines in your chart. The small dots at the end of the lines will indicate that all horizontal gridlines are selected.
2. With them selected, simply press the Delete key on your keyboard.
3. The selected gridlines will vanish. Repeat for the vertical gridlines if you have them.

This two-step process — click and delete — is arguably the fastest way to remove a specific set of gridlines.

B) Using the Format Pane for More Control

1. Click on any gridline to select its group (e.g., all major horizontal gridlines).
2. Right-click on one of the selected lines. In the context menu that pops up, choose Format Gridlines....
3. This action will open the Format Gridlines pane on the right-hand side of your Excel window.
4. Under the "Line" options (usually symbolized by a paint bucket icon), select the No line radio button.

The Format Gridlines pane is also where you could go to make your gridlines less prominent instead of removing them altogether. For example, instead of choosing "No line," you could select "Solid line" but change the color to a very light gray and add transparency. This can be a great compromise, providing a subtle guide for the eye without creating a lot of visual noise.

Beyond Gridlines: Tips for Better Chart Design

Removing gridlines is a fantastic start, but it's just one piece of creating a truly clear and effective visualization. Here are a few other steps you can take to level up your charts:

• Use Data Labels: If your goal is to show precise values, sometimes it's best to add data labels directly to the bars, lines, or slices of your chart. This eliminates the need for anyone to trace a line back to an axis, potentially allowing you to remove the axis and its gridlines for a super clean look.
• Simplify Your Axes: Are the decimal points on your Y-axis necessary? Can you format large numbers like "1,000,000" to "1M" to save space? Cleaning up the text on your axes reduces cognitive load for your audience.
• Limit Colors: Use color purposefully. Don't rely on Excel's default multicolor palette. Use shades of one color for similar categories or use brand colors consistently. Use a single, high-contrast accent color to highlight the most important data point.
• Be Ruthless with Chart Junk: Take a hard look at every element. Does that chart border really need to be there? Is the legend redundant information? Every element on a chart should serve a purpose. If it doesn't, remove it.

Crafting great visualizations is a skill, and it all comes back to a single goal: communication. Always ask yourself what message you want to send, and remove anything that gets in the way of it.

Final Thoughts

Removing gridlines is a simple step that instantly makes your Excel charts feel more professional and easier to read. Whether you use the quick Chart Elements menu, the main ribbon, or the direct format pane, you can declutter your visuals in seconds and guide your audience's focus to the data that matters most.

Manually customizing every single graph in a report can be repetitive and time-consuming, especially when you have ongoing reporting needs. We built Graphed because we believe your time is better spent on strategy, not on formatting buttons. Graphed connects to your data sources and allows you to create entire dashboards filled with clean, presentation-ready charts using just plain English, turning hours of chart tweaks into seconds of work.