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How to Create a Donut Chart in Power BI

Cody Schneider•

A donut chart is one of the cleanest ways to show how different parts make up a whole in a Power BI report. While it looks simple, its formatting options and best practices can turn a good visual into a great one. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know, from preparing your data to customizing your chart for maximum impact.

What Exactly is a Donut Chart?

Think of a donut chart as a pie chart with the center cut out. Both charts are used for the same purpose: to visualize the proportional contributions of different categories to a total. The key difference is that a donut chart's empty center can be used to display additional information, like a total value or an important KPI. This makes it a bit more space-efficient and sometimes easier on the eyes.

You should use a donut chart when you want to:

  • Show how a single total amount is broken down into parts (e.g., sales by region).

  • Highlight the percentage contribution of each category.

  • Present simple, proportional data in a visually engaging way.

However, it's best to avoid a donut chart if you have too many categories (more than five or six can look cluttered) or if you need to compare the values of different categories precisely against each other - a bar or column chart is better for that.

Preparing Your Data for a Donut Chart

Before you can build anything in Power BI, you need data that's structured correctly. Fortunately, the data requirements for a donut chart are very straightforward. All you need are two columns:

  1. A category column: This contains the labels for each slice of the donut (e.g., Product Type, Marketing Channel, Country).

  2. A values column: This contains the numbers that determine the size of each slice (e.g., Total Sales, Number of Visitors, Units Sold).

Imagine you have an Excel or Google Sheets file with sales data for a few retail locations. Your data should look something like this:

Location

Total Sales

North

$150,000

South

$225,000

East

$120,000

West

$85,000

To use this in Power BI, you'll first need to import it. On the Home tab of Power BI Desktop, click on Get Data, choose the appropriate source (like Excel Workbook or a Google Sheet), and load your dataset into the Power BI report.

Step-by-Step: How to Make a Donut Chart in Power BI

Once your data is loaded into Power BI, creating the initial chart takes only a few clicks. Follow these simple steps.

1. Select the Donut Chart from the Visualizations Pane

In your Power BI report canvas, look for the Visualizations pane on the right-hand side. Find the icon for the Donut chart (it looks like a ring) and click on it. An empty visual placeholder will appear on your report canvas.

2. Map Your Data Fields to the Chart

With the new blank chart selected, look at the fields now available in the Visualizations pane below the icons. You'll see several boxes, but we only need to focus on two for a basic donut chart:

  • Legend: This is for your categorical data. Drag your category column (in our example, "Location") from the Data pane and drop it here.

  • Values: This is for your numerical data. Drag the column with your numbers (in our example, "Total Sales") and drop it here.

As soon as you drop both fields into the correct spots, Power BI will automatically generate the donut chart. You'll see a ring with different colored slices, one for each "Location," with the size of each slice representing its share of the "Total Sales." A legend will also appear to show which color corresponds to which location.

Customizing and Formatting Your Donut Chart

A default chart gets the job done, but taking the time to format it will make your report look more professional, polished, and easier to understand. To start customizing, click on your donut chart to select it, then click the paintbrush icon in the Visualizations pane, which represents the Format visual tab.

Here are some of the most important formatting options to explore.

Legend

Here you can control how the legend appears:

  • Position: Change where the legend is located (e.g., Top center, Right, Bottom left). In many cases, turning the legend off and relying on data labels directly on the slices can create a cleaner look.

  • Text: Adjust the font style, size, and color of the legend text to match your report's theme.

  • Title: You can turn the legend title on or off.

Slices

This section lets you control the colors of the chart itself. You can click on each category and manually assign a color. This is incredibly useful for matching your company's branding or using specific colors to represent certain categories consistently across your report (e.g., always making the "East" region blue).

Detail Labels

Detail labels are the text that appears on or near each slice of the donut to give readers context without them having to look back and forth at the legend. Under the Detail labels dropdown, you can customize:

  • Position: Choose whether the labels appear 'Inside', 'Outside', 'Prefer outside,' or 'Prefer inside'. 'Outside' usually provides the most clarity.

  • Label contents: This is a powerful feature. You can choose what information the label displays. Common options include:

    • Category, percent of total: Shows both the name and its percentage (e.g., "South, 38.79%"). This is often the most informative option.

    • Data value: Shows the raw number (e.g., "225,000").

    • Percent of total: Only shows the percentage.

  • Values: Further format the text by adjusting font, color, and display units (e.g., show thousands as 'K', millions as 'M').

Shapes

The key setting here is the Inner radius. By adjusting this slider or number, you can control the size of the hole in the center of the donut chart. A larger percentage makes the ring thinner, while a smaller percentage makes it thicker and more like a pie chart.

Adding a KPI Card to the Center

One of the best design tips for donut charts is to place a Card visual in the center to display a key metric, like the total sales value. This makes your visual much more information-dense.

  1. Go to the Visualizations pane and select the Card visual.

  2. Drag your main value field ("Total Sales" in our example) into the Fields well of the Card visual. It will display the sum total.

  3. Resize the card so it fits comfortably inside the hole of your donut chart.

  4. Format the card: In the Format visual settings for the card, turn the Category label off and adjust the font size and color of the Callout value to be clear and prominent. Critically, expand the Size and style section and turn off the background so the card is transparent.

  5. Drag the transparent Card visual and place it directly over the center of your donut chart.

This simple trick elevates your design and gives viewers the most important information at first glance: the total and how it’s broken down.

Advanced Tips for Effective Donut Charts

Knowing how to create the chart is just the beginning. Follow these best practices to ensure your visuals are truly effective.

  • Don't Use Too Many Slices: A donut chart becomes hard to read with more than five or six slices. If you have many small categories, consider grouping the smallest ones together into an "Other" category or switching to a bar chart.

  • Order Your Data Meaningfully: A donut chart is not automatically sorted. Consider displaying the slices in a logical order. Sorting from largest to smallest (clockwise) is a common convention and makes it easy to see the largest contributors quickly. You can do this by clicking the three dots (...) in the top right of your visual and selecting a Sort order.

  • Highlight a Single Slice: If your goal is to draw attention to one specific category (e.g., your region's performance relative to others), consider using a neutral color like gray for all other slices and a bright, contrasting color for the one you want to highlight.

Final Thoughts

Donut charts are a fundamental and highly effective visualization in Power BI for showing parts-to-whole relationships. By thoughtfully preparing your data, selecting clear labels, and using strategic formatting like a central KPI card, you can create dashboards that are not only informative but also intuitive and visually compelling.

Mastering tools like Power BI is a critical skill, but preparing and syncing your data can feel like a job in itself. Our approach with Graphed is to eliminate that friction by connecting directly to your marketing and sales platforms (like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Salesforce) and letting you build dashboards using plain English. Instead of clicking through menus, you can just ask, "Show me a donut chart of sales by region for this quarter," and we build the live, interactive visual for you in seconds, automatically keeping it up-to-date.