Chart maker · Stacked bar
Stacked bar chart maker
Composition and total in the same breath: how the money splits, and how big the pile is. Paste the parts, get an editable native chart.
Paste, pick, download
Rows as periods, columns as the parts — product lines, segments, cost buckets. When the columns share a unit and add up to something meaningful, the stacked bar appears in the recommendations. Export a native, editable PPTX chart or an animated GIF. Free, no sign-up, no watermark.
When a stacked bar wins
- The sentence is "the mix is shifting". Same total, different composition — the sliding segments say reallocation better than any table.
- Total and parts both matter. Budget envelopes, revenue by segment per quarter: the bar top carries the total, the segments carry the structure.
- Two to four parts. At that count every segment stays readable and the chart stays calm.
When it lets you down
- You compare the middle segments. Only the bottom segment has a baseline; everything above floats. If the middle is the story, use grouped bars.
- Five-plus components. The stack turns into geological strata. Group the tail or split the chart.
- The units differ. Percent stacked on millions is a lie of scale — mixed units belong on a combo chart.
Try it with this data
| Quarter | Product A | Product B | Product C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 20 | 12 | 8 |
| Q2 | 24 | 15 | 7 |
| Q3 | 22 | 18 | 12 |
Field notes on stacks
- Put the segment you are selling at the bottom. It is the only one with a baseline — the only one the eye can truly compare across bars.
- Same unit, always. A stack is an addition problem; adding dollars to percentages is how credibility leaks.
- Label the totals on top. The segments explain, the total convinces — give the bar top its number.
- Order segments by meaning, not by accident. Biggest at the bottom, or the strategic one at the bottom — but never alphabetical.
A table of parts waiting to become a whole?
Paste it, show the mix →Other chart makers
From the field notes
"This is where the money sits" wants blocks and segments — the reallocation move is in field note #1, section three.
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