How to Delete a Chart in Excel

Need to remove a chart from your Excel spreadsheet? It's usually a simple click-and-delete process, but sometimes charts can be surprisingly stubborn, or you might need to remove dozens at once. This guide will walk you through every method, from the absolute basics for a single chart to power-user tricks for managing multiple visualizations efficiently.

The Simplest Way to Delete a Single Chart

For most situations, getting rid of an Excel chart takes just two seconds. This is the method you'll use 99% of the time.

Step 1: Select the Chart

Click anywhere on the chart you want to delete. You’ll know it's selected when you see a border appear around the entire chart area, often with small circles or squares (called "handles") at the corners and midpoints.

Step 2: Press the Delete Key

With the chart selected, simply press the Delete key on your keyboard. The chart will disappear instantly.

Alternative Keys and Clicks

If the Delete key isn't working for some reason (perhaps a keyboard issue), you have a couple of other straightforward options:

• Use the Backspace Key: Just like the Delete key, selecting the chart and pressing Backspace will also remove it.
• Right-Click and Cut: Right-click anywhere on the chosen chart's border. In the context menu that appears, select Cut. This also removes the chart from your sheet.
• Use the Ribbon: Select your chart, go to the Home tab on the Excel ribbon, and click the Cut icon (the pair of scissors).

Why Can't I Select or Delete My Excel Chart?

Occasionally, you might find that you can't click on a chart or that pressing the Delete key does nothing. This can be frustrating, but the cause is usually one of two things: a protected sheet or a locked object.

Is the Worksheet Protected?

Worksheet protection is a feature used to prevent accidental changes to data and objects. If the sheet is protected, you often can't edit or delete objects like charts.

How to Check and Fix:

1. Go to the Review tab on the Excel ribbon.
2. Look for a button that says Unprotect Sheet. If you see this, the sheet is protected.
3. Click it. You may be prompted for a password if one was set.
4. Once unprotected, you should be able to select and delete your chart as usual.

Is the Chart Object Itself Locked?

Even on an unprotected sheet, individual elements can be "locked." This prevents them from being moved, resized, or deleted.

How to Check and Fix:

1. Right-click the chart and look for the Format Chart Area option. Click it.
2. A pane will open on the right. Navigate to the Size & Properties icon (it often looks like a square with arrows).
3. Expand the Properties section.
4. Look for a checkbox labeled Locked. If it’s checked, un-check it.

After unlocking the object, you should be able to select and delete it.

Recognizing the Two Types of Excel Charts: Embedded vs. Chart Sheets

Understanding where your chart lives is key to managing it correctly. In Excel, charts come in two forms, and deleting them works differently.

Embedded Charts: Living on Your Worksheet

This is the most common type of chart. An embedded chart is an object that sits on top of a regular worksheet, right alongside your cells and data. All the methods we've covered so far (Delete key, right-clicking, etc.) apply to embedded charts.

Chart Sheets: A Dedicated Tab for Your Chart

Less common but very useful for presentations, a Chart Sheet is a separate tab in your workbook that contains nothing but a single, large chart. You'll know you have a Chart Sheet if you see a tab with a chart icon labeled "Chart1," "Sales Chart," or something similar in your tab list at the bottom of the window.

You can't select a Chart Sheet and press "Delete" in the same way. The process is different:

1. Locate the Chart Sheet's tab at the bottom of your workbook.
2. Right-click directly on the tab name.
3. From the menu that appears, select Delete.
4. Excel will show a confirmation prompt because deleting a sheet cannot be undone with Ctrl+Z. Click Delete again to confirm.

How to Delete Multiple Charts at Once

What if your dashboard is cluttered with ten outdated charts? Deleting them one by one is tedious. Here’s how to do it efficiently.

Method 1: The Ctrl + Click Method

This is the quick-and-dirty method for deleting a few charts simultaneously.

1. Click on the first chart to select it.
2. Hold down the Ctrl key (or Cmd on a Mac).
3. While holding the key, click on each of the other charts you want to remove. You'll see each one get a selection border.
4. Once all desired charts are selected, release the Ctrl key and press the Delete key.

This works well for 2–3 charts, but it becomes clumsy if you have many charts or if they are overlapping.

Method 2: Use the Selection Pane (The Professional's Method)

The Selection Pane is one of Excel’s best-kept secrets for object management. It gives you a clean list of every object on your sheet (charts, shapes, images, etc.) and is the perfect tool for bulk deleting.

Step 1: Open the Selection Pane

Go to the Home tab. On the far right, click Find & Select, and then choose Selection Pane... from the dropdown menu.

Pro Tip: A faster way to open it is to press Alt+F10.

Step 2: Select Your Charts from the List

A new pane will appear on the right side of your screen, listing every object on the current sheet (e.g., "Chart 1," "Rectangle 5," "Picture 3").

You can now easily select multiple charts from this list:

• To select several specific charts, click the first one, then hold Ctrl and click the names of the other charts in the list.
• To select a continuous block of charts, click the first one, then hold Shift and click the last one.

Step 3: Delete the Selected Charts

With the charts highlighted in the Selection Pane, just press the Delete key on your keyboard. They'll all be removed at once.

An Alternative to Deleting: How to Hide a Chart

Sometimes you don't want to permanently delete a chart, you just want it out of the way to declutter your view or prepare a sheet for printing. The Selection Pane is also the perfect tool for this.

In the Selection Pane, each object has an eye icon next to its name. Clicking this icon will toggle the object's visibility.

• Visible (Open Eye): The chart is visible on the worksheet.
• Hidden (Empty Space/Closed Eye): The chart is hidden from view but still exists and can be made visible again by clicking the icon.

This is incredibly useful for creating clean printouts without losing the visual analysis you’ve already built.

For Power Users: Deleting Charts with a VBA Macro

If you're managing complex reports or find yourself repeatedly deleting specific charts, automating the task with a simple VBA macro can save a lot of time. This is an advanced method, so proceed with care if you're new to macros.

VBA Code to Delete All Charts on the Active Sheet

This code will loop through every chart object on the sheet you're currently viewing and delete it.

Sub DeleteAllChartsOnSheet()
    Dim chrtObj As ChartObject
    ' Loop through all chart objects on the active sheet and delete them
    For Each chrtObj In ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
        chrtObj.Delete
    Next chrtObj
End Sub

VBA Code to Delete a Specific Chart by Name

If you have a chart named "Q4 Revenue Forecast" that you need to remove often, you can target it directly.

Sub DeleteSpecificChart()
    'Deletes a chart with a specific name
    'First, make sure a chart with this name exists to avoid errors
    On Error Resume Next
    ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Q4 Revenue Forecast").Delete
    On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

You can find a chart's name by clicking on it and looking in the name box (to the left of the formula bar) or by using the Selection Pane we discussed earlier.

Final Thoughts

From a simple press of the Delete key to targeting multiple objects with the Selection Pane and writing macros for automation, you are now fully equipped to manage any chart in Excel. Mastering these simple techniques helps keep your spreadsheets clean, organized, and focused on delivering clear insights without the visual clutter.

Managing visuals in Excel is a common part of manual reporting - the exact kind of painstaking work we built Graphed to eliminate. Instead of spending hours creating, formatting, and deleting charts in a spreadsheet, we allow you to connect your data and generate entire real-time dashboards just by asking in plain English. With Graphed , you get the insights you need in seconds, not hours of spreadsheet busywork.