Line Graph Maker
Paste periods and values, or upload a spreadsheet, and get a line graph of the trend, with one line per column, ready to download as PNG or Excel.
- Runs in your browser
- Free
- No sign-up
Paste cells from Excel or Google Sheets, or type rows separated by tabs or commas.
Chart data as a table
| Category 1 | Series 2 | Series 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Month | 2,025 | 2,026 |
| Jan | 12,400 | 15,100 |
| Feb | 11,800 | 14,650 |
| Mar | 13,900 | 16,800 |
| Apr | 14,200 | 17,350 |
| May | 15,600 | 18,900 |
| Jun | 15,100 | 19,400 |
How to Make a Line Graph Online
- Add your data. Paste cells copied from Excel or Google Sheets into the Data box, or upload an .xlsx, .xls or .csv file. The sample data shows the layout.
- Check the headers. The first row is used as column names when it has no numbers in it; untick "First row is headers" if that guess is wrong.
- Give the chart a title. It is drawn at the top of the image and used for the file names.
- Download. PNG for slides, documents and email (drawn at twice the on-screen size so it stays sharp), SVG for print and the web, or Excel for the numbers behind the chart.
When to Use a Line Graph
A line graph shows how a value changes over an ordered sequence, usually time: monthly revenue, daily temperature, weekly sign-ups. The slope between points is the story, so it reads rises, falls and turning points better than bars do.
Several value columns give several lines on the same axis, which is the standard way to compare this year against last year, or one product against another, period by period.
How to Lay Out Your Data
Put the periods (dates, months, years, weeks) in the first column, in order, and one column of numbers per line after it. The points are spaced evenly in row order, so the first column is read as labels: sort it before you paste.
How to Make a Line Graph in Excel
To build the same chart natively in Excel, download the Excel file above (or use your own sheet) and:
- Select the periods and the value columns, including headers.
- Go to Insert > Insert Line or Area Chart.
- Choose Line with Markers (or plain Line for long series).
- If Excel plots the periods as a line of their own, open Select Data and move that column to Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels.
When the first column holds real Excel dates, Excel switches to a date axis and spaces points by calendar gaps. Format the dates as text if you want even spacing like this tool's.
What This Line Graph Maker Does Not Do
- Points are evenly spaced; the x axis is not a true time scale.
- One shared y axis. Two measures with very different scales belong on two charts.
- Up to eight lines.
Other Chart Makers
Every chart maker takes the same pasted or uploaded data, and you can switch type in the Chart type box without retyping anything. To chart a whole workbook column by column, with grouping by sum, count or average, use the Excel chart maker.
- Bar Graph Maker: Compare categories as bars; paste data, download PNG or Excel.
- Pie Chart Maker: Show parts of a whole with percentages worked out.
- Scatter Plot Maker: Plot X against Y to see whether two numbers are related.
- Doughnut Chart Maker: A pie chart with the total shown in the center.
- Radar Chart Maker: Compare profiles across several attributes on a spider chart.
- Histogram Maker: Count a column of numbers into bins to see its spread.
- Area Chart Maker: A line graph with the volume underneath shaded in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Use a line when the categories are in a meaningful order, such as time, and you care about the direction of change. Use bars when the categories are separate things, such as regions or products, and you are comparing sizes.
Not well, and this tool deliberately uses one y axis. Two units on one chart make the crossing points meaningless. Make two line graphs, or convert both series to an index (for example, each month as a percentage of January).
A blank or non-numeric cell in one line is drawn as zero for that period, as long as another column on the row has a number. Rows with no numbers at all are skipped and counted under the chart.
It contains the chart's data, laid out the way Excel's Insert > Chart expects, not a chart object. Open it, select the cells and insert the chart type named in the steps above; it takes a few seconds and gives you a native chart you can restyle. For a finished picture, use Download PNG.
No. Pasted data and uploaded files are read and drawn in your browser, and the PNG, SVG and Excel files are made there too. Nothing is sent to a server.