How to Make a Pie Chart in Excel with Subcategories

Trying to show main categories and their smaller subcategories in a single Excel pie chart can feel surprisingly tricky. A standard pie chart quickly becomes a cluttered mess with too many tiny, unreadable slices. Fortunately, Excel has a built-in solution designed for exactly this situation. This guide will walk you through creating a "Pie of Pie" or "Bar of Pie" chart to display your layered data clearly and effectively.

What is a Pie Chart with Subcategories?

A standard pie chart shows parts of a whole, like market share or budget allocation. But what happens when one of those parts, like "Marketing Spend," is itself made up of smaller parts you want to display, such as spending on paid ads, content, and events? Shoving them all into one pie chart makes it impossible to read.

A pie chart with subcategories solves this. Excel offers two official chart types for this purpose:

• Pie of Pie: This displays a main pie chart with one slice exploded out into a second, smaller pie chart that shows its subcategories.

• Bar of Pie: This is identical in function but explodes the subcategory data into a small bar chart next to the main pie.

These chart types are perfect for bringing clarity to complex data. For example, you could show overall sales by region in the main pie, with one "Europe" slice broken down by country in the second chart. Or you might show website traffic sources, with a "Social Media" slice broken out by individual platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.

First, Prepare Your Data in Excel

The key to a successful subcategory pie chart starts with how you structure your data. Excel needs a clean, single list of categories and values to understand what you want to chart. Your subcategories shouldn't be in a separate table, they need to be listed directly below the main categories they belong to.

Let's use an example of a Q4 marketing budget. Our main categories are Paid Ads, Events, and Software. Our fourth category, Content Marketing, is made up of three subcategories: Blog Writing, Video Production, and Podcast Editing.

To set this up correctly in your worksheet, arrange your data in two columns like this:

Correct Data Structure:

Crucially, you must list all of the items you want to appear in the second pie chart (the subcategories) together at the bottom of your data range. Excel will, by default, group the last few items from your data series into the secondary plot. In our example, our three content marketing subcategories are the last three rows, which is exactly where Excel expects to find them.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Create a Pie of Pie Chart

With your data properly organized, creating the chart is a straightforward process. Follow these steps to build and customize your visual.

Step 1: Select Your Data

Click and drag your cursor to highlight the entire data range you prepared, including the column headers (e.g., A1:B7 in our example above).

Step 2: Insert the Chart

Navigate to the Insert tab on Excel's ribbon. In the Charts section, click the pie chart icon. From the dropdown menu, under the 2-D Pie section, choose either Pie of Pie or Bar of Pie. For this walkthrough, we'll select Pie of Pie.

Excel will immediately insert a chart onto your worksheet. It will automatically group the last three items from your data series (Blog Writing, Video Production, and Podcast Editing) into the second pie and represent them as a single "Other" slice in the primary pie.

Step 3: Customize What Appears in the Second Pie

While the default chart looks good, Excel just guessed what you wanted to show. You have full control over how your data is split between the two pies. This is the most important step for getting your chart just right.

Right-click on any slice of your pie chart and select Format Data Series... from the context menu. This will open the Format Data Series pane on the right side of your screen.

Under Series Options, you’ll find a dropdown menu for Split Series By. This tells Excel how to decide which slices go into the secondary pie. You have a few choices:

• Position: This is the default. It grabs the last 'X' number of data points from your list and puts them in the second plot. You can change 'X' in the "Values in second plot" box. In our budget example, since our three subcategories are the last entries, we would set this number to "3".

• Value: This splits the series by putting any slice below a certain absolute value into the second pie. For instance, you could set it to move all budget items less than $10,000 into the sub-pie.

• Percentage Value: Similar to the value option, but it uses a percentage of the total. For example, you can tell it to move all slices making up less than 10% of the total pie into the second plot. This is great for grouping tiny, miscellaneous slices.

• Custom: This gives you manual control. You can click a slice in the main pie and, from the dropdown in the format pane, choose whether it's in the "Primary Pie" or "Second Pie." You can even drag slices between the two pies directly on the chart.

For most pre-planned analyses, Position is the simplest and most reliable method, as long as your data is structured correctly. Go ahead and select "Position" and ensure "Values in second plot" is set to 3 for our example.

Step 4: Add and Format Data Labels

A chart without labels isn't very helpful. To add them, right-click on the chart again and select Add Data Labels.

By default, Excel will probably just add the dollar values. To make the chart more readable, you'll want to customize these labels. Right-click on any of the new data labels and choose Format Data Labels....

In the Label Options section of the format pane, you can choose what to display:

• Check Category Name to show what each slice represents (e.g., "Paid Ads").

• Check Percentage to show what portion of the total each slice occupies.

• Uncheck Value to hide the raw numbers if percentages are clearer.

A good combination is often Category Name and Percentage. You can also adjust the Label Position to make sure your labels are easy to read and don't overlap (e.g., "Outside End").

Step 5: Refine the Chart’s Appearance

Finally, give your chart a polished look. You can make these adjustments either with the formatting pane or the Chart Design tab that appears when your chart is selected.

• Chart Title: Click the "Chart Title" placeholder text at the top and give your chart a clear, descriptive name like "Q4 Marketing Budget Allocation."

• Colors: In the Chart Design tab, use the "Change Colors" option to choose a color palette that fits your branding or personal preference.

• Second Plot Size: Back in the Format Data Series pane (under Series Options), you can use the slider for "Second Plot Size" to make the smaller pie larger or smaller relative to the main one.

• Gap Width: This slider increases or decreases the space between the two pies.

Bar of Pie: A Quick Alternative

If you prefer a bar chart to visualize your subcategories, you can switch in just two clicks. Right-click on your chart, select Change Chart Type..., and choose the Bar of Pie option from the menu. All of your formatting and data series rules will carry over, the only thing that changes is the shape of the secondary plot. A bar chart can sometimes make it easier to compare the relative sizes of subcategories, especially if there are more than two or three.

Best Practices for Subcategory Pie Charts

• Don't Go Overboard: The point of this chart is to simplify a complex dataset, not complicate it further. A good rule of thumb is to keep the total number of slices (in both pies together) under seven or eight. If you have too many, a bar or column chart is a better choice.

• Ensure Logical Grouping: The subcategories should represent a logical breakdown of a single slice in the main pie. Don't group unrelated small items just for the sake of it. If you have several tiny, unrelated categories, it's better to label that main slice "Miscellaneous."

• Label Clearly: The main pie often labels the breakout slice as "Other." Double-click this label and rename it to something more descriptive, like "Content Marketing," so your audience understands exactly what's being shown in the second plot.

Final Thoughts

Creating a pie chart with subcategories using Excel's "Pie of Pie" or "Bar of Pie" features is an excellent way to add depth to your data visualization without overwhelming your audience. By carefully structuring your data and using the formatting options, you can turn a potentially confusing dataset into a clear and insightful visual story.

While mastering charts in Excel is a valuable skill, digging into formatting panes for every report can feel like a chore, especially when you need answers quickly. When we designed Graphed, we focused on eliminating that manual busywork. You can connect your marketing and sales data sources one time, and then just ask for the charts you need in plain English - like "create a pie chart of our marketing spend by channel for last quarter." It builds live, interactive dashboards in a matter of seconds, replacing the lengthy process of exporting CSVs and fighting with chart settings.