How to Create Charts and Graphs in Airtable

Airtable gives you two separate ways to create charts. Most articles cover only one of them, which leads to confusion when people discover the other and cannot figure out which to use.

The first is the Chart Extension, which sits in the extensions panel and is available on paid plans. The second is the chart element inside Airtable Interfaces, which is available to anyone who can access the interface builder.

They look similar but behave differently and are suited to different situations. This article covers both, plus what each one can and cannot do.

Option 1: The Chart Extension

The Chart Extension lives in the extensions panel of your base. It is good for quick internal data analysis when you want to visualise something without building a full interface around it.

Installing the extension

• Open your Airtable base

• Click Extensions in the top-right toolbar

• In the Extensions panel, click Add an extension

• Search for Chart and click Install

The extension is free but you can only install it only install it on paid Airtable plans.

Building a chart in the extension

• Open the Chart extension from the extensions panel

• Select the table you want to pull data from

• Select a view of that table. The chart will only use records visible in that view, so if you want to filter the data, set up the view first

• Choose a chart type from the options available

• Map your fields to the chart axes

• Add a title, adjust colours, and enable labels or legends as needed

• Click Done

The chart updates automatically when your underlying data changes, so you do not need to rebuild it each time.

Chart types available in the extension

Bar chart: Compares values across categories. Use this for things like task counts by status, revenue by team, or records per month. The most versatile chart type for general data comparison.

Line chart: Shows how a value changes over time. Use this for tracking trends in a date-based field, such as new records added per week or sales figures over a quarter.

Pie chart: Shows how a whole is divided into parts. Use this when you want to show proportions, such as what percentage of tasks are in each status. Works best with five or fewer categories, otherwise the slices become hard to read.

Scatter chart: Plots individual records on two axes to show relationships between two numeric fields. Useful for spotting correlations, such as the relationship between deal size and time to close.

Donut chart: A variation of the pie chart with a hollow centre. Functionally identical to pie but some people find it easier to read.

Bar (stacked): A bar chart where each bar is divided into segments representing a sub-grouping. Use this to compare both totals and composition at the same time, such as tasks per team broken down by priority.

Limitations of the Chart Extension

The extension is useful but has real constraints worth knowing before you commit to it:

• Charts live in the extensions panel, not inside your base or your interfaces.

• Charts cannot be exported or embedded outside Airtable. You can take a screenshot, but there is no embed code or export option.

• The extension requires a paid plan. Free plan users cannot use it.

Option 2: Charts Inside Interfaces

Interface charts are a different beast entirely. They live inside an Airtable interface page and are visible to anyone who has access to that interface, including clients and external users you share the interface with.

This makes interface charts much more useful for dashboards you want to share or for giving non-technical team members a view of the data without exposing the underlying tables.

How to add a chart to an interface

• Open or create a Dashboard interface page

• In the interface builder, click the plus button to add an element

• Select Chart from the element options

• Choose the table and view to pull data from

• Select a chart type and configure the fields

The chart appears directly on the interface canvas. You can resize it, reposition it, and place it alongside other elements like record grids, summary numbers, and text blocks to build a proper dashboard layout.

What interface charts can do that the extension cannot

They are shareable. When you share an interface with a client or an external user, the charts are part of what they see. The extension is only visible internally.

They work with interface filters. If you add filter controls to your interface, your charts can respond to those filters dynamically. A user selecting a date range or a team member from a dropdown can see the chart update in real time based on their selection.

They can be embedded. Interfaces can be embedded in external websites and tools. If you embed an interface, the charts come with it.

They support progress bars and summary metrics. You can combine chart elements with number summary elements on the same interface page to build a proper reporting dashboard.

Limitations of interface charts

• Like the extension, there is no way to export chart data as an image file natively. Screenshots are the workaround.

Which One to Use

Use the Chart Extension if: You want to quickly visualise data for yourself or your internal team without building a full interface. It is faster to set up and does not require you to design a page around it.

Use Interface charts if: You want to share the chart with clients or external users, build a proper dashboard that people interact with, or combine charts with other data elements on the same page.

In practice, many bases end up using both. The extension for quick internal analysis and interface charts for the polished dashboard you share with stakeholders.

What to Do When You Need More

Airtable's charting options cover most basic visualisation needs but have real limitations. If you need more advanced charts, conditional colouring on charts, custom date groupings, or export capabilities, the usual next step is to connect Airtable to a dedicated reporting tool.

Data Studio can connect to Airtable and give you far more flexibility over chart types and formatting. Make can pipe your Airtable data into Google Sheets, which has its own charting tools and can then power a Looker Studio report.

For building dashboards that show data from two separate bases on the same interface page, see How to Display Data from Two Airtable Bases in One Interface.

If you want to show progress toward a goal rather than a comparison chart, see How to Show a Progress Bar in Airtable Interfaces.