Master pie chart creation in Excel — or skip the license fee and use our free browser-based generator.
Launch Microsoft Excel and create a new workbook. Enter your category names in column A and their numeric values in column B. For example, place 'Salaries' in cell A1 and '45' in cell B1. Add headers in row 1 if desired.
Click on the first cell of your data and drag to select all categories and values. If you included headers, select those too — Excel can use them as chart labels automatically.
Navigate to the Insert tab on the ribbon, click the Pie Chart icon in the Charts group, and choose a style — 2D Pie is the most common. Excel will instantly generate a pie chart embedded in your worksheet.
Click on the chart to reveal the Chart Design and Format tabs. Add a chart title, toggle data labels to show percentages or values, and change slice colors by right-clicking individual slices. Use Chart Styles for quick theme changes.
Right-click the chart and choose 'Save as Picture' to export as PNG or JPEG, or copy and paste it into PowerPoint or Word. If you do not have an Excel license, our free online pie chart maker produces the same result with zero software cost.
Practice what you learned with our interactive pie chart editor below. The chart is pre-filled with sample data to get you started.