How to Copy a Chart from Google Sheets

Copying a chart from Google Sheets into a document or presentation is one of those tasks that seems simple until you're faced with a menu of options you don't fully understand. This guide will walk you through exactly how to copy your charts, explaining the pros and cons of different methods and showing you a few tricks to make your reports and presentations look great.

First, A Quick Refresher on Creating a Chart in Google Sheets

Before you can copy a chart, you need to have a chart to copy. If you've already got yours built, feel free to skip to the next section. If not, here’s a quick primer on how to turn your raw data into a clean visualization.

1. Organize Your Data

The key to a good chart is well-organized data. The best structure is usually a simple table with headers. Each column represents a different category or metric, and each row represents an entry. For example, if you're tracking monthly website traffic, your table might look like this:

• Column A: Month (Jan, Feb, Mar)
• Column B: Pageviews (5,000, 6,200, 7,100)
• Column C: Unique Visitors (2,500, 3,100, 3,800)

2. Select Your Data

Click and drag your cursor to highlight all the cells you want to include in your chart, including the headers. Don't worry about including the title of your whole sheet, just the data table itself is perfect.

3. Insert the Chart

With your data selected, navigate to the menu bar at the top of the screen and click Insert > Chart. Google Sheets will automatically analyze your data and create a default chart for you, which will pop up right on your spreadsheet. More often than not, it does a pretty good job of guessing what kind of chart you need (like a line chart for data over time).

If Google's default choice isn't quite right, the Chart editor pane will appear on the right side of your screen. Under the "Setup" tab, you can easily change the chart type from a line chart to a bar chart, pie chart, or a whole host of other options.

How to Copy Your Chart into Google Docs or Slides

Once your chart is ready, moving it into another Google Workspace app like Docs or Slides is incredibly simple. This process works almost identically whether you're moving a chart into a written report or a presentation slideshow.

Step 1: Select the chart you want to copy by clicking on it once. You’ll see a blue border appear around it.

Step 2: Click the three vertical dots (the "kebab" menu) in the top-right corner of the chart.

Step 3: From the dropdown menu, select Copy chart. The chart is now copied to your clipboard, ready to be pasted.

Step 4: Open your Google Doc or Google Slides presentation where you want the chart to appear. Place your cursor where you'd like to insert it and then either press Ctrl + V (or Cmd + V on Mac) or right-click and choose Paste.

Once you paste, a small dialog box will pop up, giving you one of the most important choices in this whole process.

Understanding Your Two Pasting Options: Linked vs. Unlinked

This little pop-up window is where you tell Google how you want your copied chart to behave. You have two options, and choosing the right one can save you a ton of time down the road.

Option 1: Link to spreadsheet

This is usually the option you want. When you link a chart to the original spreadsheet, you create a dynamic connection. If you ever update the data in your Google Sheet, the chart in your Google Doc or Slide will also update to reflect those changes.

Example: You create a monthly sales report in Google Docs with a sales performance chart linked from your Sheets. When you add the new month's sales figures to the Sheet, an "Update" button will automatically appear on the chart in your Google Doc. One click, and the chart instantly refreshes to show the latest data. This is a game-changer for recurring reports.

Option 2: Paste unlinked

Choosing this option breaks the connection to the original spreadsheet. Pasting an unlinked chart is essentially taking a screenshot of the chart at that exact moment in time and placing it in your document. It becomes a static image.

Example: You're creating an annual business review for 2023. You want the charts to be a permanent record of last year's performance, and you don't want them to accidentally change if someone alters the original spreadsheet later. In this case, pasting unlinked is the safest choice.

Copying a Chart for Use Outside of Google Workspace (e.g., PowerPoint, Email)

What if you need to use your chart in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, a Word document, or just paste it into an email? Since you can't create that "linked" connection, the process is slightly different. You'll need to save the chart as an image first.

Downloading Your Chart as an Image File

Google Sheets makes it easy to download your chart in a few high-quality formats that can be used anywhere.

Step 1: Click the chart you want to download.

Step 2: Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the chart.

Step 3: Hover over the Download option, and you'll see a small fly-out menu with three choices:

• PNG Image (.png): This is the best choice for most situations. PNG files have a transparent background, are high quality, and work perfectly in presentations, documents, and emails.
• PDF Document (.pdf): Best if you need to send the chart as a standalone document or include it in a larger PDF report. The quality is excellent and it's easily viewable on any device.
• Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg): This is a format for designers. SVG files can be resized to any dimension without losing quality, making them ideal for high-resolution printing or web graphics. For everyday business use, you probably won't need this.

Select your desired format (usually PNG), and the chart will be saved to your computer’s "Downloads" folder. From there, you can easily insert it into PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, an email, or any other application just like you would with any other image file.

Pro-Tips for Managing Your Linked Charts

Working with linked charts is a massive time-saver, but a few advanced tips can make the process even smoother.

How to See All Linked Charts in a Document

If you have a long report with multiple linked charts and tables, it can be tough to keep track of them all. Luckily, Google has a handy tool for this.

In your Google Doc or Slide, navigate to the menu bar and click Tools > Linked objects. A sidebar will open on the right, showing you every single chart, table, or slide linked from another file. From here, you can see if any are out of date and click "Update all" to refresh everything at once.

Managing the Data Range

If you build a chart for January through June data and then add data for July, the linked chart won't automatically expand to include it just by updating. The chart is linked to a specific data range (e.g., cells A1:B7).

To include new data, you need to go back to the original Google Sheet, click your chart, and open the Chart editor. Under "Setup," adjust the "Data range" to include the new rows or columns. Once that's done, the "Update" button in your Doc or Slide will pull in the newly shaped chart.

Unlinking a Chart You've Already Pasted

What if you change your mind? Maybe you pasted a chart as "linked," but now you want to freeze it in place. No problem.

Go to your Google Doc or Slide and click on the linked chart. In the top-right corner of the chart, you'll see a small icon that looks like a chain link. Click that icon, and then select Unlink. The connection is now permanently broken, and your chart is a static image.

Final Thoughts

Mastering how to copy a chart from Google Sheets gives you a ton of flexibility in how you share and present your data. By choosing between a dynamic, linked chart that updates automatically or a static, unlinked image, you can build smarter, more efficient reports that suit your exact needs.

This process of manually creating and updating your weekly or monthly reports - downloading CSVs, wrangling them in spreadsheets, and building charts - can turn into a repetitive and time-consuming cycle. At Graphed, we help you break free from that cycle by automating the entire workflow. By connecting directly to your data sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, and social media platforms, we help you create live dashboards using simple natural language. Instead of copy-pasting, you get real-time charts in a permanent home, always up-to-date and ready to share.