How to Make a Pie Chart in Google Analytics

Want to turn your Google Analytics data into a clean, easy-to-read pie chart? It's a fantastic way to quickly visualize proportions, like which traffic sources or device types make up the biggest slice of your audience. This guide will walk you through exactly how to create pie charts in both the old Universal Analytics and the current Google Analytics 4.

Graphed

Your AI Data Analyst to Create Live Dashboards

Connect your data sources and let AI build beautiful, real-time dashboards for you in seconds.

Build Your First Dashboard

Why Use Pie Charts in Google Analytics?

Before diving into the "how," let's quickly touch on the "why." Pie charts are perfect for showing a "part-to-whole" relationship. They instantly answer questions about the composition of your data at a glance. They make percentages tangible. Common examples include:

• Traffic Sources: What percentage of your traffic comes from Organic Search vs. Direct vs. Social Media?
• Device Breakdown: How many of your users are visiting from a mobile device compared to a desktop or tablet?
• User Demographics: What's the split of your audience by gender or age group?
• New vs. Returning Visitors: What's the ratio of first-time visitors to repeat users on your site?

While bar charts are better for comparing the precise values of many categories, nothing beats a pie chart for quickly understanding the main contributors to a whole.

Making a Pie Chart in Universal Analytics (GA3): The Classic Way

If you're still working with historical data in a Universal Analytics property, creating a pie chart is incredibly straightforward. The functionality was built directly into most standard reports.

For those nostalgic for the old days, here’s how simple it was:

1. Navigate to nearly any standard report that contains a data table, such as Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels or Audience > Mobile > Overview.
2. In the top-right corner of the data table, you'll see a small group of icons for different visualization options.
3. Simply click the pie chart icon.

That's it! Google Analytics would instantly transform the data table into a pie chart. It was a simple, one-click process. This simplicity is one of the main things users miss when they move over to GA4.

AI for Data Analysis

Crash Course

Graphed

Free PDF Guide

AI for Data Analysis Crash Course

Learn how to get AI to do data analysis for you — the best tools, prompts, and workflows to go from raw data to insights without writing a single line of code.

Download Free Guide

The GA4 Challenge: Where Did the Pie Charts Go?

When you first start using Google Analytics 4, one of the most common questions is, "How do I change this report to a pie chart?" It’s a bit of a shock to discover that the simple one-click visualization toggles are gone from the standard reports.

GA4's standard reports are designed to be simple, high-level summaries. For any deeper or more customized analysis - like creating a pie chart - Google wants you to use the Explore section. While this adds a few more steps, it also gives you significantly more power and flexibility. So, don't worry, pie charts are still very much possible in GA4, they just live in a different neighborhood.

How to Create a Pie Chart in GA4 Using "Explore"

The "Explore" section is GA4’s powerful analysis hub where you can build completely custom reports from scratch. This is where you'll go to create your pie charts.

Let's walk through creating a common report: a pie chart showing website sessions by device category.

Step 1: Go to the Explore Section

In the left-hand navigation menu of your GA4 property, click on the Explore icon. This will take you to your exploration hub, where you can see saved explorations or create a new one.

Step 2: Start a "Free Form" Exploration

In the Explore hub, click on the large plus sign labeled "Blank" or the box for "Free form exploration." This gives you a clean canvas to build your report.

Graphed

Your AI Data Analyst to Create Live Dashboards

Connect your data sources and let AI build beautiful, real-time dashboards for you in seconds.

Build Your First Dashboard

Step 3: Import Your Dimensions and Metrics

Your exploration is divided into three main columns: Variables, Tab settings, and the report canvas on the right. First, you need to tell GA4 which building blocks you want to use by importing them into the Variables column.

• Import your Dimension: A dimension is what you want to measure (the "what"). In the Variables column, click the plus sign (+) next to "Dimensions." Search for Device category, check the box next to it, and click the blue "Import" button in the top right.
• Import your Metric: A metric is the number you want to count (the "how many"). In the Variables column, click the plus sign (+) next to "Metrics." Search for Sessions, check the box, and click "Import."

You should now see "Device category" listed under Dimensions and "Sessions" under Metrics in your Variables panel.

Step 4: Configure the 'Tab settings' to Build the Chart

Now you'll use the variables you just imported to tell GA4 how to construct the visualization. This all happens in the Tab settings column.

First, find the Visualization section at the top of the column. It defaults to a "Table" icon. Click on it and select the "Donut chart" or "Pie chart" icon from the options that appear.

Now, you need to populate the chart fields:

• Breakdowns: Drag your "Device category" dimension from the Variables panel and drop it into the "Breakdowns" box in the Tab settings.
• Values: Drag your "Sessions" metric from the Variables panel and drop it into the "Values" box.

Step 5: Review Your Pie Chart

As soon as you drop the metric into the "Values" box, your pie chart will magically appear on the right side of the screen. You'll see slices representing Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet, showing the proportion of sessions each one contributed. Hovering over a slice will give you the exact number of sessions and the percentage of the whole.

You can repeat this process for any report you need. Want to see users by country? Import the "Country" dimension. Want to see conversions by landing page? Import the "Landing page" dimension and the "Conversions" metric.

AI for Data Analysis

Crash Course

Graphed

Free PDF Guide

AI for Data Analysis Crash Course

Learn how to get AI to do data analysis for you — the best tools, prompts, and workflows to go from raw data to insights without writing a single line of code.

Download Free Guide

Take it Further: Using Looker Studio for Powerful Dashboards

Creating one-off charts in GA4's Explore section is great for quick analysis. But if you need to create shareable, automatically updating dashboards with multiple charts, a better tool for the job is Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio).

Looker Studio is Google's free data visualization tool that connects seamlessly with Google Analytics. Here's the simplified workflow:

1. Connect Your Data: In Looker Studio, create a new report and choose Google Analytics as your data source. Authorize the connection to your GA4 property.
2. Add a New Chart: From the toolbar, click "Add a chart" and select either a "Pie chart" or a "Donut chart."
3. Configure Your Chart: A "Chart properties" panel will appear. Here, you'll set your "Dimension" (e.g., Session default channel group) and your "Metric" (e.g., Sessions). Looker Studio will instantly generate the chart.

The beauty of Looker Studio is that you can build entire dashboards with pie charts, bar charts, scorecards, and a dozen other visualizations all drawing live from your GA4 data. This is the professional-grade option for anyone who needs to build and share reports regularly.

Quick Tips for Better Pie Charts

To make your charts as effective as possible, keep these best practices in mind:

• Limit Your Slices: A pie chart becomes cluttered and hard to read with more than 5-7 slices. If you have more categories, consider grouping smaller ones into an "Other" category or using a bar chart instead.
• Clearly Label Everything: Ensure viewers can easily understand what each slice means, either through direct labels or a clear legend. Include percentages for clarity.
• Order Slices Logically: Arrange the slices from largest to smallest, starting at the 12 o'clock position, to make them easier to compare.
• Don't Use 3D: 3D or "exploded" pie charts can visually distort the proportions of the slices, defeating the purpose of the visualization. Stick with a clean, flat 2D design.

Final Thoughts

While Google Analytics 4 changed where and how to build pie charts, it's a process that opens up far more customization. By moving custom visualizations into the Explore section, GA4 encourages you to go beyond standard reports and dig deeper into what makes your data unique. The steps might be different, but the end result is a highly effective, shareable chart.

When you need quick answers without spending time in GA4's Explore section or building a custom Looker Studio dashboard, tools like ours can make the process nearly instant. At Graphed, we’ve connected directly to the Google Analytics API, which means you can simply ask, "Show me a pie chart of my traffic sources for the last 30 days," and our AI analyst will build it for you in seconds. We help you skip the configuration and get right to the insights.