How to create a chart from Google Sheets

Create and share charts

InstaCharts lets you create a chart from Google Sheets and share it with your team in just a few steps.

TLDR: Sign up for a free account!

This article has been adapted from our guide Import From Google Sheets

Open InstaCharts

To connect to a Google Sheet, you need to have a (free) InstaCharts account. The first step is to login to your account.

Share your Google Sheet

The next step is to share your Google Sheet. From Google Drive, find the file you want to share. Right click on it, and open the Share window. From the share window, you have two options:

Share with anyone

Underneath General Access, change “Restricted” to “Anyone with the link”. This allows anyone with the link to view your file.

In the Role dropdown, InstaCharts only requires Viewer access.

Share with the InstaCharts account

If you’d rather not share your file publicly, you can share it with an InstaCharts email address.

In the “Add people” text box, paste in charts@instacharts.iam.gserviceaccount.com . Change the role dropdown to “Viewer” and press Send to update access.

InstaCharts should now be able to read your file. InstaCharts only requests Viewer access, and you can remove that access at any time from the Share settings in Google Drive.

Be sure to copy the Google Sheet’s shared link before closing the Share window

Connect the Google Sheet to InstaCharts

To import a spreadsheet from Google Sheets, click New, then New Sheet from your InstaCharts workspace.

From the New Sheet dialog, click the middle option “Connect a data source”.

On the next screen, select Google Drive from the source dropdown. Then enter the copied link from the previous step into the Google Drive url text box.

Click Next to view a preview of the Google Sheet.

Data Source Preview

If the file is successfully shared, a preview of it will show in the Preview window. If nothing is showing, recheck that your file was shared correctly with InstaCharts in the previous step.

The preview shows the first 100 rows, and each column header is color coded by the type InstaCharts detected: green for dates, blue for numbers, and pink for text. The import options on the left side of the preview let you name the sheet, skip title rows above the data, choose whether the first row holds column names, import only some of the columns, and set the file encoding.

A Google Sheet with several tabs imports as a workbook, and each tab becomes its own sheet in InstaCharts. Use the Pages dropdown to choose which tabs to import.

Next to the Import button is a Generate AI charts checkbox. When it is checked, InstaCharts builds three recommended charts as soon as the sync finishes, which uses 1 AI credit.

Click Import to finish. Free accounts can import up to 500 rows per spreadsheet, and paid plans raise the row limit.

Imported Spreadsheet

Once your sheet has been imported, it will automatically open to a chart created with your data. Click the Data tab to check that the columns were read correctly.

Keep the chart in sync

A connected sheet keeps its link to the Google Sheet, so you can pull in new data whenever the source changes. Open the sheet menu and choose Sync Settings to see the options.

• Sync Now re-syncs the sheet right away. Free accounts can run 5 manual syncs a day, and paid accounts can sync as often as they like.
• Sync Schedule (paid plans) checks the Google Sheet for changes automatically. Choose Automatic, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. Automatic syncing picks up changes shortly after they happen, and Google can take up to 5 minutes to send them through.
• Keep InstaCharts column names stops a sync from overwriting column names you changed inside InstaCharts.

Every chart, dashboard and embedded chart built on the sheet shows the new data after a sync. Each sync uses 1 task from your workspace’s monthly task allowance, so a daily schedule uses about 30 tasks a month. Edits you make to the data inside InstaCharts are overwritten by a sync, so make lasting changes in the Google Sheet.

InstaCharts also syncs Excel, CSV, PSV and log files stored in Google Drive, along with Google Docs. Upload a new version of the file in Google Drive to keep the same link, and the next sync picks up the changes.

Troubleshooting

• The preview is empty. Confirm the file is shared with “Anyone with the link” or with the InstaCharts email address as a Viewer.
• Only some rows are imported. Free accounts process up to 500 rows per spreadsheet. Trim the sheet or upgrade the plan.
• The chart did not update after I changed my sheet. Syncing does not happen on its own until you set a sync schedule. Click Sync Now or set a schedule.

Next Steps

How to Re-sync data with Google Sheets

How to Download Chart Images

How to Share a Chart via a link

How to create a dashboard from your synced sheet

Give it a try

InstaCharts helps you create and share professional-looking charts without writing any code. Sign up for a free account today!