How to Add a Line to a Chart in Excel

Adding a horizontal line across your Excel chart for a target or average can instantly transform a simple visualization into a powerful performance-tracking tool. It provides immediate context, showing you exactly how your actual results stack up against your goals. While it sounds complex, the process is surprisingly straightforward. This guide will walk you through a few different methods, from a quick copy-and-paste trick to a more robust approach for creating dynamic lines that update automatically.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

First, Why Add a Line to Your Chart?

Before jumping into the "how," it helps to understand the "why." A simple line chart or bar graph shows your data, but adding a second line layered on top gives that data meaning. It answers questions at a glance:

• Targets and Goals: Are we hitting our monthly sales target? A solid line representing your goal makes the answer loud and clear.
• Averages: How does this month's performance compare to the average? An average line helps you spot anomalies and trends instantly.
• Thresholds and Baselines: Is website traffic above our minimum threshold for a successful campaign? A line can act as a floor or a ceiling.
• Comparing Two Data Sets: Sometimes you need to compare two different, but related, data sets on one chart, like Sales Revenue (bars) and Customer Acquisition Cost (line).

Whatever your reason, adding a line provides a reference point that makes your chart more intuitive and insightful.

The Foundation: Get Your Data Organized

Excel charts are only as good as the data they're built on. Before you even think about the chart, make sure your data is organized cleanly in a table. For this example, let's say you have monthly sales figures and you want to add a static monthly sales target.

Your data needs a separate column for the line you want to add. Every row that has a data point for your main chart (e.g., bars) needs a corresponding value for your line.

Your setup should look something like this:

Month | Actual Sales | Sales Target Jan | $42,000 | $50,000 Feb | $48,000 | $50,000 Mar | $55,000 | $50,000 Apr | $51,000 | $50,000

Notice how the “Sales Target” value is repeated for each month. This is an important step, a single cell with the target value won't work. You need to give Excel a full column of data so it can plot a point for each corresponding category (in this case, each month).

First, create a bar chart with just your "Month" and "Actual Sales" data. Simply highlight those two columns, go to the Insert tab, and choose your preferred column or bar chart.

Once you have your basic chart, you're ready to add the target line.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Method 1: The Quick Copy-and-Paste Technique

This is the fastest way to add a new data series to an existing chart and is perfect for quick analyses. It often works in one go but sometimes requires a small adjustment.

Step 1: Copy Your Line Data

In your spreadsheet, highlight the cells containing the data for your line. In our example, this would be the "Sales Target" column, including the header.

Step 2: Select the Chart and Paste

Click once on your existing chart to select it. You'll see a border appear around it. Now, simply paste the data you copied by pressing Ctrl + V (or Command + V on Mac).

Step 3: Change the Chart Type for the New Series

Excel will likely add your target data as another set of bars, which isn't what we want. To fix this, you just need to tell Excel to display this specific data set as a line.

• Right-click on the new data series on the chart (the orange bars in our example).
• From the context menu, select "Change Series Chart Type..."

This will open the "Change Chart Type" dialog box, automatically taking you to the "Combo" chart section. Here you’ll see each of your data series listed ("Actual Sales" and "Sales Target").

Next to your "Sales Target" series, click the dropdown menu and change its chart type from "Clustered Column" to "Line."

Click OK. And just like that, you now have a line overlaying your bar chart, clearly showing your target.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Method 2: The 'Select Data' Menu (for More Control)

Sometimes the copy-paste method can be a bit finicky. Using the "Select Data" menu is a more deliberate and reliable way to add new information to your chart.

Step 1: Right-Click and Choose 'Select Data'

Right-click anywhere in the main area of your chart and choose "Select Data" from the menu that appears.

Step 2: Add a New Legend Entry (Series)

The "Select Data Source" window will pop up. On the left side, under "Legend Entries (Series)," you'll see your existing data ("Actual Sales"). Click the "Add" button to create a new one.

Step 3: Define Your New Series

Now you'll see the "Edit Series" dialog. This is where you tell Excel exactly what to add.

• For "Series name," click the cell that contains the header for your line data (e.g., the cell with "Sales Target" in it).
• For "Series values," delete what's there (e.g., = {1} ), and then highlight the entire range of your line data (e.g., all the $50,000 values).

Click OK on the "Edit Series" window, and then OK again on the "Select Data Source" window.

Just like with the paste method, Excel will probably add this new data as more bars. You'll simply follow the exact same final step as before: right-click the new bars, select "Change Series Chart Type," and switch it to a line in the combo chart menu.

Pro Tip: Adding a Dynamic Average Line

A static target is useful, but what if you want a line that represents the average of your data and automatically updates as you add new numbers? This is easy to do with a simple formula.

Step 1: Create a Column for the Average

Add a new column to your data table called "Average Sales." In the first cell of this column (adjacent to your first sales data point), enter the AVERAGE formula. The key is to use absolute references (with dollar signs) so the range doesn't change when you drag the formula down.

The formula would look like this:

=AVERAGE($B$2:$B$13)

This formula tells Excel to always calculate the average of cells B2 through B13. After entering it in the first row, drag the fill handle down to copy this exact formula to all the other rows in your "Average Sales" column.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Step 2: Add the Average Data to Your Chart

Use either the copy-paste method or the "Select Data" method described above to add your new "Average Sales" column to the chart.

Step 3: Change the Series to a Line

Once again, right-click the newly added bars on your chart, go to "Change Series Chart Type," and switch its type to a line.

Now, you have a dynamic average line. If you go back to your data table and change any of the "Actual Sales" figures or add new ones, the average line on your chart will move automatically to reflect the new calculation. This creates a living report that requires no manual updates.

Final Thoughts

Converting a static chart into a performance-driven dashboard is a simple but powerful skill. Adding a line for context - whether it's a fixed target or a dynamic average - gives viewers an immediate understanding of what they're looking at and elevates your reporting from just showing data to providing clear, actionable insights.

And while these Excel techniques are incredibly valuable, we know that the work doesn't stop here. You often have to pull data from several sources, wrestle it into a spreadsheet, and repeat the process weekly. That’s why we built Graphed. Our platform automatically connects to your tools like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Salesforce and lets you build real-time dashboards just by describing what you want in plain English. Instead of building it all manually, you can just ask, "Show me a bar chart of sales by month with a line for our $50,000 target," and get an interactive, live-updating dashboard in seconds.