How to make a pie chart in Google Sheets

A pie chart shows how the parts of a whole compare. Each slice is one category, and its size is that category’s share of the total, which makes it a good fit for a handful of categories such as the items in a monthly budget.

This guide shows you how to make a pie chart in Google Sheets, step by step. You’ll start with a basic chart, then turn it into a 3D or doughnut chart, show percentages or labels, change slice colors, add a title, and edit the chart when your data changes.

Insert a pie chart from your data range

First, let’s create a simple pie chart based on a monthly budget. The table below contains the expense names and amounts used for the pie chart.

1. Open the Google Sheets file with the data.

2. Select the columns with the data.

3. Go to Insert > Chart.

4. That’s it. Google Sheets recognized the type of data and automatically inserted a pie chart. If it picks a different chart, double-click the chart, open the Setup tab in the Chart editor, and choose Pie chart under Chart type.

How to customize a Google Sheets pie chart

Now that you have a basic pie chart, let’s see how you can customize it to suit your needs and preferences. Follow the instructions below to change your pie chart to a 3D pie chart or a doughnut chart, display the percentages without labels, or change how the labels appear.

Make a 3D pie chart

Double-click your current pie chart to get the ‘Chart editor’ sidebar.

1. Click the ‘Customize’ tab in the ‘Chart editor’.

2. Click ‘Chart style’ to expand the options.

3. Check the “3D” checkbox to turn it into a 3D pie chart.

4. Alternatively, you can change it under ‘Chart type’ in the ‘Setup’ tab.

Make a doughnut chart

If you prefer, you can quickly turn your pie chart into a doughnut chart.

1. Double-click your pie chart to get the ‘Chart editor’ sidebar. In the ‘Setup’ tab, click the drop-down under ‘Chart type’.

2. Scroll down to the ‘Pie’ area and select the doughnut chart.

3. That’s it. Your doughnut chart is ready.

Show percentages on the slices

As you saw in the first section, Google Sheets automatically adds labels with the category name and the corresponding percentage. However, you may prefer to display the percentages directly in the corresponding slices of the pie chart.

1. Double-click your pie chart to access the ‘Chart editor’ sidebar.

2. Click the ‘Customize’ tab, then on ‘Pie chart’ to expand the options.

3. Click the dropdown menu under ‘Slice label’ and select ‘Percentage’.

4. That’s it. Since the percentages are shown within the pie slices, you don’t need to display them in the legend.

5. Under ‘Customize’, click ‘Legend’ to display the options.

6. Next, click the dropdown menu under ‘Position’ and select one of the options. For this example, I want to display the legend to the left of the pie chart.

7. That’s it. Your pie chart has a legend to identify the different categories, and the percentages are displayed directly in the slices.

Show labels on the slices

You can do this if you prefer not to show the values or percentages and only want the labels.

1. In the ‘Customize’ tab of the ‘Chart editor’, click ‘Pie chart’ to expand the options.

2. Click the dropdown menu under ‘Slice label’ and select ‘Label’.

3. That’s it. The labels are now included within each slice. To remove the legend on the left, click ‘Legend’ in the sidebar to expand the options.

4. Click the dropdown under ‘Position’ and select ‘None’.

5. That’s it. The legend is gone.

Change slice colors and pull out a slice

The screenshots in this section use a different example, a chart of customers by age group, but the steps are the same.

1. Double-click the chart, open the Customize tab in the Chart editor, and click Pie slice.
2. Pick a slice from the drop-down menu, then choose a new color under Color.

3. To pull that slice away from the rest of the pie, choose a percentage under Distance from center.

Add a chart title

In the Customize tab, open Chart & axis titles and choose Chart title from the drop-down menu. Type the title under Title text, then set its font, size, format, and color.

How to edit a pie chart in Google Sheets

Once you have created a pie chart, editing it is easy. Follow the instructions below to change the chart style or the data range.

Change the chart style

To change the chart’s colors, font, or size:

1. Click the vertical ellipsis in the top-right corner of the chart and choose ‘Edit chart’.

2. In the ‘Customize’ tab, under ‘Chart style’, you can choose the background and border colors, as well as the font.

3. In addition to changing it to a 3D pie chart, you can check ‘Maximize’ to maximize the amount of space used by the pie chart.

Change the data range

To change which cells the chart uses:

1. Right-click anywhere in the chart area and select ‘Data range’ from the menu.

2. You can modify the range manually or use the button shown below to select the range.

How to add a pie chart to Google Docs

Google Docs doesn’t build charts on its own. A chart in a document comes from a Google Sheets file, and you can add one in two ways.

1. To reuse a chart you already made, open your document and go to Insert > Chart > From Sheets. Choose the spreadsheet, select the pie chart, keep Link to spreadsheet checked, and click Import.
2. To start from scratch, go to Insert > Chart > Pie. Docs adds a sample chart and creates a new spreadsheet for its data. Click the chart, then the link icon, and choose Open source to replace the sample data with yours.

When the data in the spreadsheet changes, click Update on the chart in your document to refresh it.

Conclusion

As you have seen, pie charts visually represent the proportions that make up a whole. This makes them ideal to use when dealing with a small number of categories or values. However, if you have too many categories, it can become visually confusing. In other words, the pie will be divided into so many slices it will be difficult to read and interpret.

You now know how to create a simple pie chart in Google Sheets. Additionally, you know how to make a 3D pie chart, a doughnut chart, how to display percentages, and how to add labels. You also know how to edit your pie chart to change the style or the data range. To learn more about creating charts and tables in Google Sheets, check out our guides on:

• How to create a pivot table in Google Sheets
• How to make a table in Google Sheets
• How to create a Gantt chart in Google Sheets

For other chart types, see how to make a line graph, create a bar chart, or make a scatter plot in Google Sheets.

To show how numeric values are spread across ranges instead, make a histogram in Google Sheets.