About FastChart

01Why this site exists

Most people who need a chart need it once, right now, from data they already have in a spreadsheet or a query result. The existing options do not fit that job well: spreadsheet software buries charting behind menus and produces dated defaults, while dedicated BI tools ask you to create an account, start a project and connect a data source before you can see a single bar.

FastChart removes all of that. There is one text box and one preview. You paste your rows, and the chart is already there — no import wizard, no Generate button, no signup.

02How it works

When you paste data, the site inspects it to work out the delimiter, whether the first row is a header, and which columns are numeric, categorical or dates. It then picks a sensible chart type and axis layout for the shape of that data, and you can override any of it.

All of this runs as JavaScript in your own browser. Nothing is uploaded. That is what makes the preview instant, and it is also the privacy guarantee: we could not look at your data even if we wanted to, because it never leaves your tab.

Exports are generated locally too. PNG, SVG and PDF files are produced by your browser and saved straight to your machine — with no watermark and no export limit.

03Where the sample data comes from

Every chart type page and each of the 25 worked examples ships with a small dataset already loaded, so you can see what a chart looks like before pasting your own numbers.

Those datasets are illustrative figures we wrote ourselves for demonstration purposes. They are designed to be realistic in shape and magnitude — a plausible revenue curve, a plausible retention grid — so that the chart reads the way a real one would. They are not sourced from any real company, individual, or third-party data provider, and they contain no personal data.

If you need a chart of real-world figures, paste in your own data or a dataset from a source you trust. Treat the samples as scaffolding, not as evidence.

04What it covers

• 26 chart types, from everyday bar, line and pie charts through to candlestick, Sankey, chord, violin and hexbin plots.
• Input from CSV, TSV, JSON, Markdown tables, and anything you copy directly out of Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.
• 25 worked examples that open in a live editor with their data loaded, plus notes on what each chart actually shows.
• Guides on choosing between similar chart types, so you pick the right one before you spend time on it.

05How it is funded

The site is free to use with no paid tier. It is funded by advertising served through Google AdSense, which is why you will see ads on these pages. That is the entire business model — we do not sell data, and there is nothing to sell, since we never receive any.

Details of the cookies Google may set, and how to opt out of personalised advertising, are on our Privacy Policy page.

06Get in touch

Bug reports, a chart type you wish we supported, or data that the parser reads incorrectly — all of it is welcome at service@fastchart.org. Requests that come with a sample of the data are the ones that get fixed fastest.