Where Are Time Series Charts Located in Power BI?

Trying to find a specific "Time Series Chart" button in Power BI can leave you searching for a while. That's because it doesn't exist as a standalone visual. This article will show you exactly how to create beautiful, insightful time series charts using Power BI's standard visuals, so you can start spotting trends in your data immediately.

Graphed

Build AI Agents for Marketing

Build virtual employees that run your go to market. Connect your data sources, deploy autonomous agents, and grow your company.

Build Your First Agent

What Exactly Is a Time Series Chart?

Before we dive into the "how," let's quickly clarify the "what." A time series chart (or graph) plots data points in chronological order. It's a simple but incredibly powerful way to visualize how a metric changes over a specific period. One axis, usually the horizontal X-axis, represents time intervals (days, weeks, months, years), and the other axis, the vertical Y-axis, represents the quantity or metric you're measuring.

Why are they so useful? Because they help you answer critical business questions at a glance:

• Is our website traffic growing month-over-month?
• Do our sales numbers spike at certain times of the year? (Hello, seasonality!)
• Did that big marketing campaign in Q2 actually cause a lift in revenue?
• Are our customer support tickets trending up or down?

By plotting your data over time, you transform rows of numbers into a clear visual story, making it easy to spot trends, patterns, cycles, and outliers that you'd otherwise miss in a spreadsheet.

Power BI's Secret: It's All About the Line Chart

The main reason you can't find a dedicated "Time Series Chart" visual in Power BI is that you don't need one. The primary tool for this job is the versatile Line Chart. By configuring a standard Line Chart with a date or time field on its X-axis, you effectively create a time series chart. It's the most common and intuitive way to show change over time.

Let's walk through the exact steps to build one from scratch.

AI Agents for Marketing

Crash Course

Graphed

Free PDF · the crash course

AI Agents for Marketing Crash Course

Learn how to deploy AI marketing agents across your go-to-market — the best tools, prompts, and workflows to turn your data into autonomous execution without writing code.

Download the PDF

Step-by-Step: Creating a Time Series Chart in Power BI

For this example, let's imagine we have a simple sales dataset with columns for OrderDate and SalesAmount. Our goal is to visualize how our sales have trended over time.

Step 1: Make Sure Your Data is Ready

A successful time series chart relies on having the right data structure. You need at least two things:

• A Time Field: A column in your data that contains dates or date-time values. Power BI is smart about recognizing date formats, but make sure the column is set to a Date or Date/Time data type in the Data view for the best results.
• A Numeric Field: A column containing the numbers you want to plot over time, like sales, revenue, user count, or expenses. This column must have a numeric data type, such as "Decimal Number" or "Whole Number."

If your OrderDate column is ready and correctly formatted, you can move on.

Step 2: Add a Line Chart to Your Report Canvas

In the Power BI Desktop report view, look at the Visualizations pane on the right side of your screen. Find the icon for the Line Chart (it looks like a small line graph) and click it. A blank chart placeholder will appear on your report canvas.

Step 3: Configure the Chart Fields

With your new blank chart selected, you'll see fields in the Visualizations pane for X-axis, Y-axis, Secondary Y-axis, Legend, and more. This is where the magic happens.

1. From your Data pane, find your date column (e.g., OrderDate).
2. Click and drag OrderDate into the X-axis well.
3. Next, find your numeric column (e.g., SalesAmount).
4. Click and drag SalesAmount into the Y-axis well.

Instantly, Power BI will generate a line chart that plots your sales amount over the date range in your data. Congratulations, you've just created a time series chart!

Step 4: Understand and Adjust the Date Hierarchy

You might notice that the X-axis of your chart doesn't just show a continuous line of dates. Instead, it's likely grouped by Year, Quarter, Month, and Day. This is Power BI's automatic date hierarchy, a feature that allows you to easily drill up and down through time periods.

Let's say your chart is currently showing total sales by year. In the top corner of the chart visual, you'll see a series of arrows. These control the drill-down functionality:

• Drill Down Arrow: Click the single down arrow to turn on "Drill Mode." Then, click on a data point (like the year 2023) to see the next level down (the quarters within 2023).
• Go to the Next Level Arrow: Click the double-down arrow to expand the entire chart to the next level of the hierarchy (e.g., move from seeing all years to seeing all quarters).

But what if you don't want a hierarchy? What if you just want a single, continuous line showing dates on the X-axis? This is a common requirement.

1. Select your line chart.
2. In the Visualizations pane, find the field you put in the X-axis well (OrderDate).
3. Click the small downward arrow next to the field name.
4. In the context menu that appears, change the selection from "Date Hierarchy" to "OrderDate."

This tells Power BI to treat the axis as a continuous value axis rather than a categorical one, giving you that smooth, unbroken timeline you might be looking for.

Graphed

Build AI Agents for Marketing

Build virtual employees that run your go to market. Connect your data sources, deploy autonomous agents, and grow your company.

Build Your First Agent

Other Visuals That Work for Time Series Analysis

While the line chart is the go-to, it's not the only option. Depending on the story you want to tell, other visuals can be just as effective for time-based data.

Area Chart

The Area Chart is essentially a line chart with the space below the line filled in with color. This is excellent for visualizing volume changes over time and emphasizing the magnitude of a value. You'll find it right next to the Line Chart in the Visualizations pane.

Column Chart

A Column Chart (or Bar Chart) is great for comparing distinct, discrete time periods. If you want to compare total sales across different months or quarters, a column chart can make the comparisons clearer than a line chart. Just drag your date field to the X-axis and it will work similarly to the line chart.

AI Agents for Marketing

Crash Course

Graphed

Free PDF · the crash course

AI Agents for Marketing Crash Course

Learn how to deploy AI marketing agents across your go-to-market — the best tools, prompts, and workflows to turn your data into autonomous execution without writing code.

Download the PDF

Line and Clustered Column Chart

Sometimes you need to compare two different metrics over the same time period. For example, what if you want to see your advertising spend (a large number) and the number of new customers acquired (a smaller number) on the same chart? The Combo Chart is perfect for this. You can plot advertising spend as columns and new customers as a line on a secondary Y-axis.

Power-Up Your Chart with the Analytics Pane

Once you have your basic time series chart, you can add extra context using the Analytics pane. This lets you overlay useful analytical lines without complex calculations.

Select your chart, then look in the Visualizations pane for a small magnifying glass icon. This is the Analytics pane. Here you can easily add:

• Trend line: This adds a straight line showing the overall trend of your data (up, down, or flat). It's a fantastic one-click way to see the big picture.
• Constant line: Add a line representing a specific value, like a sales target or a monthly budget, to see how your performance tracks against it.
• Forecast: For line charts with time data, Power BI can even project your data into the future using built-in forecasting models. This allows you to predict future trends based on historical patterns.

Final Thoughts

Creating a time series chart in Power BI isn't about finding a hidden visual, it's about using the classic Line Chart and configuring it with your date field. By understanding how to manipulate the date hierarchy, use different visuals for different stories, and enhance your charts with analytics, you can turn your time-based data into powerful business insights.

Spending a few hours each week locating the right fields, setting up visuals, and wrangling dashboards in tools like Power BI is a common chore. We built Graphed because we wanted to turn that hours-long process into a 30-second conversation. Instead of clicking through menus, we just connect our data sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, or Salesforce and ask questions in plain English, like "Show me a line chart of Shopify revenue vs Facebook Ads spend for the last quarter." It builds the live dashboard for you instantly, freeing you up to focus on the insights, not the setup.