How to Make a Pie Chart From Excel Data

Pie charts are everywhere in reports and slides, and they're also one of the easiest charts to get wrong. Here's how to make one quickly, and how to make it readable.

When a pie chart makes sense

Use a pie chart when:

• the values are parts of one whole (they add up to 100%),
• there are few categories, roughly two to five,
• the point is the rough proportion, like "one category is about half".

Avoid it when you need to compare values that are close to each other, show change over time, or have many categories. People judge angles and areas poorly; a bar graph shows small differences far more clearly.

Prepare the data

You need two columns: a label and a value.

Channel	Visitors
Search	5,400
Direct	2,100
Social	1,300
Email	700
Other	500

Tips before charting:

• Sort from largest to smallest.
• Group tiny categories into "Other". Slices under about 3% are hard to see and label.
• Use raw values or percentages, not both; the chart computes percentages for you.

Option 1: In the browser

1. In Excel or Google Sheets, select the label and value columns, including the header, and copy them.
2. Open the pie chart maker and paste into the data table. The columns and number formats are detected, including thousand separators.
3. Choose pie or donut. A donut leaves room for a total or title in the middle.
4. Turn on labels with percentages. Small slices get labels outside with leader lines, so nothing overlaps.
5. Pick a palette. The colorblind-safe palette keeps slices distinguishable for everyone.
6. Download as SVG for crisp slides and documents, or PNG at 2× for chat and email.

The data stays in your browser.

Option 2: Directly in Excel

1. Select the data range, including headers.
2. Go to Insert → Charts → Pie (the circle icon) and pick 2-D Pie or Doughnut.
3. Click the chart, then the + button (Chart Elements) to add Data Labels. Under more options, show Percentage and Category Name.
4. Sort the source data if the slices are in a random order.

Excel's charts can look busy by default. Remove the legend if slices are labeled directly, and delete 3-D effects, which distort proportions.

Design tips that make pie charts readable

• Start the largest slice at 12 o'clock and go clockwise.
• Label slices directly instead of relying on a legend.
• Limit colors to what you need. Use one accent color to highlight the slice your story is about, and gray for the rest.
• Never use 3-D pies. The tilt makes front slices look larger than they are.
• Add the total somewhere, especially in a donut's center.

Just need to look at the data?

If you only need to explore a CSV or Excel file (sort, filter, see totals), open it in the spreadsheet viewer first. For other chart types, the general chart maker handles bar, line, area and scatter charts from the same pasted data.

Frequently asked questions

Should percentages be rounded? For readability, yes, but rounded values may not add up to exactly 100%. Mention it in a footnote or show one decimal place.