Chart Types in Excel: Which Are Built-In (and Which Aren't)
Excel covers the common chart types natively — bar, line, pie, scatter, area, stacked bar, radar, donut, waterfall, treemap, bubble, and Pareto. But step outside those and you hit a wall: no native gauge chart, no waffle chart, no Marimekko. For those, you either build a workaround or use a dedicated tool. This guide covers twelve chart types in Excel — with step-by-step guides for each.
Quick Reference: Excel Chart Support
| Chart Type | Native in Excel? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Waterfall Chart | Yes — Excel 2016 | Excel 2016 |
| Pareto Chart | Yes — Excel 2016 | Excel 2016 |
| Bubble Chart | Yes — All versions | All versions |
| Treemap | Yes — Excel 2016 | Excel 2016 |
| Gauge Chart | No | Donut chart with hidden bottom half |
| Waffle Chart | No | 10×10 cell grid with conditional formatting |
| Dumbbell Chart | No | Scatter chart with horizontal error bars |
| Marimekko Chart | No | 100% stacked area chart with step-function data |
| Pie Chart | Yes — All versions | All versions |
| Donut Chart | Yes — All versions | All versions |
| Stacked Bar Chart | Yes — All versions | All versions |
| Radar Chart | Yes — All versions | All versions |
How to Make Charts in Excel
For all native chart types, the process follows the same pattern regardless of which chart type you're making:
- Select your data range including headers.
- Go to Insert → Charts → choose the chart category.
- Select the specific chart subtype from the dropdown.
- Right-click the chart → Select Data to adjust series and axis labels if Excel misread your data.
- Click the + button (Chart Elements) to add titles, data labels, and gridlines.
- Double-click any chart element to open its Format pane and adjust colors, fonts, and styling.
For workaround chart types (gauge, waffle, dumbbell, Marimekko), the Insert step is just the beginning — see the individual guides below for the full setup.
Native Excel Chart Types
These chart types are built directly into Excel and insert in one or two clicks from your data.
Waterfall Chart
Native · Excel 2016Show how a starting value is built up or broken down through a sequence of increases and decreases. Standard for P&L bridges, cash flow, and budget variance.
Pareto Chart
Native · Excel 2016Bar chart sorted descending with a cumulative percentage line. Identifies the vital few causes driving most of an effect — the 80/20 chart.
Bubble Chart
Native · All versionsScatter chart with a third variable encoded as circle size. Compare items across three dimensions simultaneously.
Treemap
Native · Excel 2016Nested rectangles sized by value. Shows part-to-whole relationships across flat or hierarchical data, handling many more categories than a pie chart.
Pie Chart
Native · All versionsCircular chart showing proportional data as slices. Native in all Excel versions under Insert → Pie or Donut Chart. Best for 3–6 categories with at least one dominant slice.
Donut Chart
Native · All versionsA pie chart with a hole in the center — useful for displaying a KPI or total in the middle. Native in all Excel versions, same data structure as a pie chart.
Stacked Bar Chart
Native · All versionsMultiple series stacked end-to-end within each bar. Shows both individual contribution and total. Horizontal = stacked bar; vertical = stacked column. Includes 100% stacked variant.
Radar Chart
Native · All versionsAlso called a spider chart or web chart. Plots multiple attributes on radial axes forming a polygon. Native in all versions. Critical step: fix the axis scale so all spokes use the same range.
Chart Types That Require a Workaround in Excel
Excel has no native type for these charts. Each one can be replicated using existing chart types with extra data manipulation — but expect significantly more setup time than a native chart.
Gauge Chart
WorkaroundSpeedometer-style chart for a single KPI. Excel requires a donut chart workaround — no native gauge type exists.
Method: Donut chart with hidden bottom half
Waffle Chart
Workaround100-square grid where filled squares represent a percentage. No native chart type — built from worksheet cells and conditional formatting.
Method: 10×10 cell grid with conditional formatting
Dumbbell Chart
WorkaroundTwo dots per category connected by a bar, showing the gap between two values. Also called a connected dot plot or gap chart. Requires a scatter + error bars workaround.
Method: Scatter chart with horizontal error bars
Marimekko Chart
WorkaroundVariable-width stacked chart where column width encodes one variable and column height encodes another. The most complex Excel chart workaround — requires 30+ minutes of data prep.
Method: 100% stacked area chart with step-function data
When Excel Falls Short
For recurring reports and presentations, rebuilding complex workaround charts from scratch each time is time-consuming. AECharts supports all eight chart types on this page natively — paste your data, customize, and export as animated video or static image in under a minute. No helper tables, no error bar configuration, no conditional formatting formulas.