How to make a pie chart in Excel

Learning how to make a pie chart in Excel takes about two minutes: Excel draws the pie from two columns, and the real work is in the labels. This guide follows Microsoft 365 on Windows; the Mac and web versions use the same menus with small differences noted below.

Need the chart right now, without Excel? Paste your two columns into the maker above, choose your labels, and download a PNG. Then come back for the Excel steps.

How do you set up the data in Excel?

A pie chart needs one column of names and one column of numbers:

Three rules save you trouble later:

• One header row, no blank rows or totals inside the range. A “Total” row would become a slice that is half the pie.
• Numbers as numbers. A value typed as text, with a stray space or apostrophe, won’t be charted.
• Sort largest to smallest (Data > Sort Largest to Smallest). Excel draws slices in table order, starting at 12 o’clock.

Microsoft’s own advice for pie charts matches the general rules of chart design: one data series, no zero or negative values, and no more than seven categories.

How do you insert a pie chart in Excel?

1. Select the data, headers included (A1:B5 in the example).
2. Open the Insert tab and find the Charts group.
3. Click Insert Pie or Doughnut Chart (the round icon) and choose 2-D Pie.
4. Excel places the chart on the sheet. Click the title to rename it, such as Sales by region, Q3.

Keyboard users: Alt + F1 inserts a chart from the selected data, then Chart Design > Change Chart Type > Pie switches it to a pie.

How do you add percentages to an Excel pie chart?

1. Click the chart. On Windows, click the + (Chart Elements) button at its top right. On a Mac, use Chart Design > Add Chart Element.
2. Tick Data Labels, then open the arrow next to it and choose More Options.
3. In the Format Data Labels pane, under Label Options, tick Percentage. Tick Category Name too if you want to drop the legend, and untick Value.
4. Set Label Position to Best Fit or Outside End so labels on small slices don’t overlap.
5. For decimals, open Number in the same pane, choose Percentage and set Decimal places to 1.

The faster version: Chart Design > Quick Layout has layouts that show the category name and percentage on every slice in one click.

How do you change colors and the starting angle?

• One slice’s color: click the pie once to select all slices, click again on one slice, then right-click > Format Data Point > Fill.
• All colors at once: Chart Design > Change Colors, or pick a style in Chart Styles.
• Rotate the pie: right-click a slice > Format Data Series > Angle of first slice. Rotating puts the slice you want to talk about at the top.
• Pull out one slice: drag that slice outward, or set Point Explosion. Use it for one slice at most.
• Donut: change the chart type to Doughnut and set Doughnut Hole Size in Format Data Series.

What if your data is a list of answers, not counts?

Survey exports list one answer per row. Excel needs counts per answer first:

1. Write each possible answer once in a new column (A2:A5).
2. Next to it, count with =COUNTIF(Responses!B:B, A2) and fill down.
3. Chart the two new columns.

A PivotChart (Insert > PivotChart) does the counting and the chart in one go: drag the answer field to Axis and again to Values (set to Count), then change the chart type to Pie.

Which Excel pie chart mistakes should you avoid?

• 3-D pies. Tilting makes front slices look bigger than they are.
• Pie of Pie for everything. It helps for one cluster of tiny slices; for anything else, an “Other” slice is clearer.
• Totals inside the range, as mentioned above.
• Too many categories. Past seven, switch to a bar chart.

Is there a faster way than Excel?

For a one-off chart, yes: copy the two columns from Excel, paste them into the pie chart generator, and download a PNG or SVG. The maker on this page shows percentages and degrees in a table, and the pie chart maker with percentages explains how to make the labels add up to exactly 100%. Working in Google’s spreadsheet instead? Here is the Google Sheets version of this guide, and on a Mac the guide to pie charts in Numbers.

This guide is part of the free pie chart toolkit from Fe/male Switch, the startup game where women build a company. Excel pie charts end up in plenty of business plans, and the steps above keep them readable.

Published 26 October 2026 · by the Fe/male Switch team