How to Make a Stacked Bar Chart in Google Sheets

A stacked bar chart is one of the most useful ways to show how different parts contribute to a whole across several categories. Instead of letting your data get buried in rows and columns, a stacked bar chart brings it to life, making it easy to spot trends and compare performance at a glance. This guide will walk you through exactly how to create, customize, and master stacked bar charts in Google Sheets, step-by-step.

What is a Stacked Bar Chart, and When Should You Use One?

Unlike a standard bar chart that places bars side-by-side, a stacked bar chart segments each bar into smaller pieces that represent its sub-categories. This lets you see the total for each category (the full length of the bar) while also understanding the proportional breakdown of its components.

So, when is it the right choice?

• Comparing Parts of a Whole: This is their primary job. Imagine you want to see your total sales for each quarter, broken down by product lines (e.g., Apparel, Accessories, Footwear). A stacked bar chart would show you the total sales for Q1 as one bar, with color-coded segments representing the contribution from each product line.
• Analyzing Trends Over Time: You can track how the composition of a total changes over months, quarters, or years. For example, you could visualize your website traffic per month, with each bar segmented by traffic source (Organic, Paid Search, Social Media, Direct). This would instantly reveal if your organic traffic is a growing portion of your total traffic over time.
• Survey Results Analysis: If you've run a survey and asked respondents to rate their satisfaction (e.g., Very Satisfied, Satisfied, Neutral, Dissatisfied), you can use a stacked bar chart to compare the response distribution across different customer segments or product users.

The key is that you need two types of categorical data and one set of numerical data. In our sales example, the categories are "Quarter" and "Product Line," and the numerical data is "Sales Revenue."

How to Make a Stacked Bar Chart in Google Sheets (Step-by-Step)

Let’s build one from scratch. For this example, we’ll use a simple dataset showing advertising spend across different social media platforms over three months.

Step 1: Get Your Data Ready

Clean, organized data is the foundation of any good chart. Before you do anything else, structure your data in a simple table. Your primary categories should be in the first column, and your sub-categories should be in the subsequent column headers.

Here’s our sample data. Open a new Google Sheet and type this in:

Month,    Facebook Ads,   Instagram Ads,  TikTok Ads
January,  5000,           3500,           1500
February, 5500,           4000,           2500
March,    4800,           4200,           3000

Notice the structure:

• Column A (Month) contains our main categories we want to compare.
• Row 1 contains our sub-categories (the different ad platforms).
• The numbers represent the values for each sub-category within each main category (e.g., $5,000 spend on Facebook Ads in January).

Step 2: Select Your Data Range

Click on the top-left cell of your data (the header "Month," which would be cell A1 in our example) and drag your mouse to the bottom-right cell to highlight the entire table, including all the headers and numbers. It's important to include the headers so Google Sheets can automatically label your chart axes and legend.

In our case, you would select the range A1:D4.

Step 3: Insert the Chart

With your data selected, go to the top menu and click Insert > Chart. Google Sheets will automatically analyze your data and suggest a chart type. Sometimes it guesses right, but often it will default to something else, like a line chart or a column chart. Don't worry, changing it is simple.

Step 4: Choose the Correct Chart Type

The Chart editor pane should automatically appear on the right side of your screen. If not, just double-click on your new chart to open it.

In the Setup tab of the Chart editor, look for the "Chart type" dropdown. Click it, scroll down to the Bar section, and you will see a few options. Select the icon labeled Stacked bar chart. Voilà! Your data will instantly reformat into a stacked bar chart.

You'll see each month represented as a horizontal bar, and each bar will be segmented by colors representing the ad platforms.

Step 5: Customize Your Chart for Clarity and Impact

A default chart gets the information across, but a well-customized chart tells a story. Switch from the Setup tab to the Customize tab in the Chart editor to start refining your visual.

Chart & Axis Titles

The default titles are often generic. You want titles that clearly explain what the viewer is looking at.

• Click on the Chart & axis titles section.
• For the Chart title, change it from something like "Facebook Ads and 2 more" to "Monthly Ad Spend by Platform." Be specific and concise.
• Give your horizontal and vertical axes titles if needed. For our bar chart, a "Horizontal axis title" of "Total Ad Spend ($)" adds valuable context. The vertical axis is likely self-explanatory (Months), but you could add a title if it isn't.

Series

The "Series" refers to your data sub-categories (Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, TikTok Ads). Here you can change their colors to be more intuitive or match your brand.

• Under the Series dropdown, you can select each individual series to modify it. For example, if your brand color for Facebook is blue, change it here.
• A very helpful option here is adding Data labels. Check the box for "Data labels" to display the specific spend value inside each segment of the bar. This saves your audience from having to guess the value based on the axis, making your chart much easier to read. You can also customize the font, size, and color of these labels.

Legend

The legend tells the viewer what each color represents. You can adjust its position to best fit your report or dashboard.

• Expand the Legend section.
• The default position is typically "Auto." Try changing the Position to "Top," "Bottom," or "Right" to see what looks cleanest. Putting the legend at the top or bottom can often give your chart more horizontal space.

Gridlines and Ticks

Too many lines can make a chart look busy. In the Gridlines and Ticks section, you can add or remove gridlines to improve readability. For many charts, removing the minor gridlines and keeping just the major ones is a good practice for a cleaner look.

Standard vs. 100% Stacked Bar Chart: What's the Difference?

In the "Chart type" selector, you'll also see an option for a "100% stacked bar chart." This is a powerful variation that shifts the focus from showing absolute totals to showing relative proportions.

Standard Stacked Bar Chart

• What it shows: The absolute value of each segment and the total value of each bar. The length of the bars will differ, representing the different totals for each main category.
• When to use it: Use it when the total value is just as important as the breakdown. In our ad spend example, a standard stacked bar chart shows that total spend increased from January to March, while also showing how the mix of platforms changed.

100% Stacked Bar Chart

• What it shows: The percentage contribution of each sub-category to the total. All bars are the same length (stretching to 100%), which makes it incredibly easy to compare the proportional mix between main categories.
• When to use it: Use it when you only care about the relative proportions, not the actual totals. For example, if you wanted to see how your marketing channel mix has evolved over time, a 100% chart would make it immediately obvious if, say, "Organic traffic" grew from 20% of your total traffic to 45% over a year.

To switch to a 100% stacked bar chart, simply select it from the "Chart type" dropdown in the Chart editor. Your chart will instantly re-adjust to show percentages instead of absolute values.

Tips and Best Practices for Better Stacked Bar Charts

Creating the chart is half the battle, ensuring it’s effective and easy to interpret is the other half. Here are some common mistakes to avoid and best practices to follow.

• Keep Segments to a Minimum: A stacked bar chart becomes difficult to read when you have too many segments in each bar. As a general rule, try to stick to 5 or fewer sub-categories. If you have more, consider grouping the smallest ones into an "Other" category.
• Use Contrasting Colors: Use colors that are easy to distinguish from one another. Avoid using shades of the same color unless you are trying to show a gradient or progression. Also, be mindful of color-blindness and choose a palette that is accessible.
• Order Your Data Logically: Before creating your chart, arrange the data in your spreadsheet in a way that makes sense. For instance, you could order the bars from largest to smallest total value or order them chronologically. Within the bar, you can order the segments consistently (e.g., always have Facebook Ads at the bottom) by arranging the columns in your source data.
• Don't Be Afraid of White Space: Cluttered charts are hard to read. Use titles and labels effectively, but avoid adding every possible cosmetic feature. A clean, simple chart is often the most powerful.
• Always Start Your Axis at Zero: Google Sheets does this by default on bar charts, but it’s a critical rule. Starting an axis at a value other than zero can distort the perception of the data and mislead your audience about the true proportions between bars.

Final Thoughts

Stacked bar charts are a fantastic tool in your data visualization kit. With Google Sheets, you can graduate from static data tables to insightful, easy-to-read charts that highlight part-to-whole relationships and reveal trends over time - all in just a few clicks. Now, you not only know how to create them but how to customize them for maximum clarity.

We know that pulling all of this data from different platforms - like social media ads, web analytics, and your CRM - into one spreadsheet is often the most time-consuming part of the reporting process. We built Graphed to cut out that painful manual work. You can connect all your marketing and sales sources in seconds, then simply ask for the dashboard you want in plain English, like "Show me a dashboard of ad spend by platform vs. revenue for the last 30 days," and get a live, automated report in seconds.