How to Make a Circle Chart in Looker

Creating a circle chart in Looker Studio is a fantastic way to visualize how different parts make up a whole. Whether you need a classic pie chart to show traffic sources or a sleek donut chart for sales categories, the process is straightforward once you know the steps. This guide will walk you through exactly how to build, customize, and effectively use both pie and donut charts in your Looker Studio reports.

When (and When Not) to Use a Circle Chart

Before jumping into the “how-to,” it’s important to understand the “when-to.” Circle charts are designed for a specific purpose: displaying composition. They excel at showing the proportional distribution of a single metric across different categories.

Use a circle chart for things like:

Website traffic breakdown by social media channel (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, X).
Sales revenue distribution by product category (e.g., Apparel, Accessories, Footwear).
User breakdown by device type (e.g., Desktop, Mobile, Tablet).
Survey results for a single-choice question (e.g., "Which feature do you like most?").

However, they aren't a one-size-fits-all solution. Avoid using a circle chart if:

You have too many categories. If you have more than 5-7 slices, the chart becomes cluttered and difficult for the human eye to interpret. Below a certain percentage, tiny slices become meaningless.
You need to show changes over time. For comparing data across weeks, months, or years, a line chart or bar chart is far more effective.
The category values are very close. It's difficult to accurately compare the size of two similarly sized slices. A bar chart makes these subtle differences much clearer.

The Key Ingredients for Your Looker Studio Circle Chart

To build any circle chart, you'll need two key pieces of data. Understanding these upfront will make the setup process much smoother.

Dimension: This is your categorical data - the labels for each slice of your pie or donut. It answers the question "what are we measuring?" Examples include Device Category, Country, or Default Channel Grouping.
Metric: This is your numerical data - the values that determine the size of each slice. It's the quantitative figure you're measuring. Examples include Sessions, Users, Revenue, or Conversions.

Think of it like this: if you’re charting website traffic, your Dimension is the set of channels (Organic Search, Direct, Social), and your Metric is the number of Sessions from each channel.

How to Make a Pie Chart in Looker Studio: A Step-by-Step Guide

With your data and goal in mind, you're ready to start building. Let's create a pie chart that shows website sessions by device category using Google Analytics data.

Step 1: Open a Report and Add a Chart

Start by opening a new or existing report in Looker Studio. Make sure you are in Edit mode. In the main menu at the top, click on Add a chart. A dropdown menu with various visualization options will appear.

Step 2: Select the "Pie" Chart Type

In the "Add a chart" dropdown, find the section labeled "Pie." Here, you'll see two options: Pie chart and Donut chart. For this step, click on the classic Pie chart icon.

Once selected, your cursor will turn into a crosshair. Click and drag on the report canvas to place and size your new, empty chart.

Step 3: Configure Your Chart's Data

With your new pie chart selected, a Properties panel will appear on the right side of the screen. This is where you connect your data.

Data Source: The first thing to check is that the correct data source is selected. If not, click on it and choose the right one, such as your Google Analytics view.
Dimension: Under the Data tab, you'll see the Dimension field. It may already be populated with a default value. Click on it and organize the dimension you want, such as Device Category.
Metric: Below the Dimension, find the Metric field. Click it and select the metric you want to measure, such as Sessions.

As soon as you select your dimension and metric, the pie chart on your canvas will automatically populate with your data, displaying the proportional breakdown of sessions by device.

Step 4: Managing the Number of Slices

A common issue with pie charts is having too many small, unreadable slices. Go to the Setup tab in the properties panel and look under the dimension list. You’ll see a field called "Pie Chart - Slices." Here, you can specify the maximum number of slices to display (e.g., 5). Looker Studio will then automatically group all the smaller remaining categories into a single slice labeled "Other." This is essential for keeping your chart clean and focused on the most significant data points.

Turning Your Pie Chart into a Donut Chart

Transforming your pie chart into a donut chart is incredibly simple and can often create a more modern and readable visualization. The central empty space in a donut chart can be used to display a total value or simply improve the visual balance.

With your pie chart selected, navigate from the Setup tab to the Style tab in the properties panel. The very first option you’ll see under “Pie Chart” is a slider labeled Donut. Simply click and drag this slider to the right. The hole in the center of your chart will grow as you drag, instantly converting your pie chart into a donut chart. You can adjust the thickness of the circle to match your report's aesthetic.

Pro Tips for Customizing Your Circle Chart

A default chart gets the job done, but a well-styled chart tells a clearer story. Looker Studio's Style tab offers powerful options to refine your visualization.

1. Color and Labels

Communicating information effectively is all about clarity. How you handle your colors and labels plays a huge role.

Slice Colors: You can apply colors based on "Slice Order" or "Dimension Values." For consistent branding, use "Dimension Values" to assign specific colors to categories like 'Desktop' or 'Mobile' so they look the same across all charts in your report.
Slice Label: Under the Labels section, you have a dropdown to control what information is displayed on the chart itself. You can show the Percentage, the raw Value, the category Label, or nothing at all (None). Showing the Percentage is often the most useful option, as it immediately conveys a slice's share of the total.

2. The Legend

The legend is the key that explains your color-coded categories. You can control its position (right, bottom, top) or hide it completely (none).

Pro-Tip: If you use slice labels directly on the chart (e.g., displaying the category name and percentage on each slice), you can often hide the legend entirely. This saves valuable space on your dashboard canvas, making your report feel less cluttered.

3. Add Interactivity

Your chart doesn't have to be static. Scroll down to the bottom of the Style tab to the Interactions section. Make sure Apply filter is checked. This turns your chart into an interactive filter for the rest of your report. When a user clicks on the "Mobile" slice of your donut chart, all other charts and tables on the page will automatically filter to show data for mobile users only, allowing for quick, drilled-down analysis.

Final Thoughts

Building a pie chart or donut chart in Looker Studio is an intuitive process perfect for showcasing the composition of your data. By choosing the right dimension and metric, you can quickly visualize proportions in your key business areas, and with a few styling tweaks, you can create polished, interactive elements for any dashboard.

While creating charts in Looker is powerful, we know that connecting different data sources like Shopify, Google Ads, and Salesforce and then pulling it all together can still be a manual chore. At Graphed we automate the entire reporting process from start to finish. Instead of clicking through menus to build each chart, you can just describe what you want - like "show me a donut chart of sales revenue by product category from Shopify for this quarter" - and our AI builds the real-time dashboard for you in seconds.