Chart maker · Pie
Pie chart maker
Paste a share-of-total table, get a pie that says one thing clearly — editable in PowerPoint or WPS, native chart object, free and no sign-up.
Paste, pick, download
Two columns — a category and its value — is all a pie needs. Paste the table, and when your numbers describe how a whole splits into a few parts, the pie (or its close relative, the donut) appears in the recommendations. Export as a native, editable PPTX chart or an animated GIF. Free, no sign-up, no watermark.
When a pie chart wins
- One slice dominates. "62% of our pipeline is one segment" lands harder as a single massive wedge than as any bar.
- Five slices or fewer. At that count, share reads at a glance — which is the only thing a pie is for.
- The audience is non-technical. Everyone alive knows how a pie works. Zero onboarding cost.
When it lets you down
- The slices are close. 23% vs 26% vs 25% — the eye cannot compare angles. That is a bar chart's job.
- You have seven-plus categories. A pie cut into twelve slivers is confetti. Group the tail into "Other".
- The story is change over time. A row of pies makes the audience flip back and forth between slices. Use a stacked bar and let the eye travel one direction.
Try it with this data
| Channel | Traffic share (%) |
|---|---|
| Organic search | 42 |
| Paid | 28 |
| Referral | 18 |
| Social | 12 |
Field notes on pies
- Start the biggest slice at twelve o'clock and run the rest clockwise, descending. An ordered pie reads in two seconds; a shuffled one reads never.
- Label the slice, not the legend. Name and percentage right on or beside the wedge — legends make eyes shuttle back and forth.
- A pie argues for one number. If your sentence is "organic carries us", the pie is the proof. If you have three sentences, you need a different chart — or three slides.
- Explode nothing. The pulled-out slice went out with clip art. Use color for emphasis instead.
A share-of-total table in your clipboard?
Paste it, get the pie →Other chart makers
From the field notes
The pie is the most abused shape in the deck — using it to tell a trend story is one of the two ways to give your conclusion away, covered in field note #1.
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