What Is a Pie Chart in Excel?

Making a pie chart in Excel is one of the fastest ways to tell a visual story about how different parts make up a whole. It's a simple chart type that nearly everyone understands at a glance, turning rows of numbers into a clear, compelling graphic. This article will show you not only how to create a pie chart in Excel step-by-step, but also when to use one and, just as importantly, when a different chart type would serve you better.

What Is a Pie Chart?

A pie chart is a circular statistical graphic that is divided into slices 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 called a "pie chart" because it looks like a pie that's been sliced up.

The entire "pie" represents 100% of a whole, and the individual slices represent the parts or percentages of that whole. Think of it like a budget. Your total monthly income is the whole pie. The slices could be how you spend it: one slice for rent, one for groceries, one for transportation, and another for entertainment. It gives you a quick snapshot of where the biggest chunks of your money are going.

You’ll commonly see pie charts used to show:

• Market share for different competitors

• Breakdowns of survey responses (e.g., "Which social media platform do you use most?")

• Sources of website traffic (organic, direct, social, etc.)

• Sales distribution across different product categories

But Wait: When Should You NOT Use a Pie Chart?

Pie charts are great for their intended purpose, but they're often misused. Using a pie chart in the wrong situation can make your data confusing or even misleading. Here are a few times to reconsider and choose a different chart:

• When you have too many categories. The moment you have more than five or six slices, a pie chart becomes a cluttered mess. Our brains struggle to compare the sizes of multiple small, similarly sized wedges. If you find yourself in this situation, a bar chart or column chart is a much better choice because it’s easier to compare the lengths of bars than the angles of slices.

• When the slices don't add up to a logical 100%. A pie chart must represent a complete whole. For instance, if you’re showing the number of sales made by three of your ten salespeople, a pie chart is not appropriate because it doesn’t include the whole team. A bar chart would be perfect for this kind of comparison.

• When you need to show changes over time. Pie charts are a snapshot of a single moment. If you want to show how a market share breakdown has changed over five years, lining up five different pie charts is a terrible way to do it. It’s nearly impossible for a viewer to compare the changing slice sizes across multiple charts. In this case, a line chart or a stacked column chart would be much more effective at showing trends.

How to Create a Pie Chart in Excel: A Step-by-Step Guide

Now, let's get into the practical steps. We'll use a common business scenario: analyzing sales performance by product category for a quarter.

Imagine this is our sales data:

Step 1: Get Your Data Ready

Before you do anything else, make sure your data is set up cleanly in two columns. The first column should contain your categories (the names of the slices), and the second column should contain the corresponding numerical values. Be sure to include headers for each column, like "Product Category" and "Q1 Sales." This helps Excel understand what to label.

Step 2: Highlight Your Data Range

Click on the top-left cell of your data (in our example, "Product Category") and drag your mouse down to the bottom-right cell (the value for "Books"). Your entire data set, including the headers, should now be selected.

Step 3: Insert the Chart

With your data selected, navigate to the Insert tab on Excel's top ribbon. In the Charts section, you'll see a small icon that looks like a pie chart. Click it.

A dropdown will appear offering several options:

• 2-D Pie: The classic, flat pie chart. This is usually the best choice for clarity and readability.

• 3-D Pie: A pie chart with a three-dimensional effect. While it can look stylish, the 3D perspective can distort the perceived size of the slices, so use it with caution. The slices in the front often appear larger than they are.

• Doughnut: Looks like a pie chart with the middle cut out. We’ll cover this in more detail later.

Select the first 2-D Pie option. Just like that, Excel will instantly generate a pie chart and place it on your worksheet.

Step 4: Customize Your Pie Chart to Make It Clear and Professional

The default chart is a great start, but a little customization can make it much more effective. When you click on your chart, two new tabs will appear on the ribbon: Chart Design and Format.

Adding a Great Title

Your chart will likely insert with a generic "Chart Title." Click on it and type something more descriptive. A good title tells the viewer exactly what they are looking at. Instead of just "Q1 Sales," use "Q1 Sales Distribution by Product Category." It’s clear and provides context.

Adding Data Labels

Without labels, a pie chart is just a colorful circle. You need to show what the values are. Click on your chart to select it. On the right side, you’ll see a small plus (+) icon. This is the Chart Elements button.

Click the "+" and check the box for Data Labels. You'll instantly see the sales values appear on the slices. To get more options, click the small arrow next to Data Labels. Here, you can choose where to place the labels (e.g., Center, Inside End, Outside End). For the cleanest look, select Outside End.

For even more control, choose More Options.... This opens a side panel where you can choose exactly what to display. A best practice is to show percentages instead of raw dollar amounts, since pies are all about proportions. In the panel under "Label Options," you can check "Percentage" and uncheck "Value." You can even add the "Category Name" directly to the label, which often allows you to delete the separate legend entirely for a cleaner look.

Changing Colors and Styles

Head to the Chart Design tab. Here, you’ll find two powerful tools:

• Change Colors: Excel provides several pre-built color palettes. You can choose a colorful-but-cohesive palette or go with a monochromatic one that uses different shades of the same color. Select one that fits your brand or the tone of your report.

• Chart Styles: This is a gallery of pre-formatted designs that combine color schemes, label placements, and effects. Hover over them to see a live preview. Some are great, while others can be a bit over-the-top with shadows and bevels. Simpler is often better.

Exploding a Slice

Need to draw attention to one specific piece of the pie? You can "explode" a slice to make it stand out. First, click on the pie itself to select all slices. Then, click a second time on just the slice you want to emphasize. Now, with only that single slice selected, click and drag it slightly away from the center of the pie. This is a very effective technique for presentations when you're discussing a particular category.

Going Further: Advanced Pie Chart Variations

Excel offers variants of the pie chart for specific situations. Two of the most useful are the Doughnut chart and the Pie of Pie chart.

The Doughnut Chart: A Modern Alternative

A doughnut chart is essentially a pie chart with a hole in the middle. Why use it? Some data visualization experts prefer them because they de-emphasize the use of angles and focus more on the arc length of each section, which can be slightly easier for our eyes to compare. From a design perspective, many find them to be more modern and less chunky than a standard pie.

The empty space in the middle is also functional. You can use it to display a key piece of information, like the total sales amount or a summary headline. To create one, simply select Doughnut from the initial chart selection dropdown.

Pie of Pie and Bar of Pie: Handling Small Slices

Do you remember the rule about not having too many slices? What happens when you have, say, two major categories and ten very small ones? Your pie chart gets an ugly, unreadable "sliver section."

The Pie of Pie or Bar of Pie charts solve this problem. These chart types automatically take the smallest categories, group them into an "Other" category on the main pie, and then display a second, smaller chart (either a pie or a bar) that breaks down that "Other" slice in more detail.

Excel will automatically group the smallest values for you when you select this chart type. You can also right-click a slice and select Format Data Series to customize how the split works — for instance, you can tell it to move any slice under 10% into the secondary chart, giving you more granular control.

Final Thoughts

Mastering the pie chart in Excel is a fundamental data visualization skill. It's a powerful tool for showing part-to-whole relationships in your data, but its effectiveness depends entirely on using it in the right context — for simple compositions with few categories, presented at a single point in time. By following the steps above, you can move beyond default charts and create customized, professional-looking visuals that clearly communicate your insights.

Of course, building these charts is often the last step after a lot of manual data work — downloading reports, copying data from your sales platform, and cleaning it up in a spreadsheet. That's a process we designed Graphed to simplify entirely. We automate the connection to data sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Salesforce so you can get insights without the report-building legwork. Instead of wrangling data in Excel, you can just ask a question like, "Show me a pie chart of our Shopify sales by product category for this month," and get a live, interactive dashboard instantly.