Free Pareto Chart Maker
Charts & GraphsMake a Pareto chart online: paste counts, or a raw list to tally, and get sorted bars, the cumulative percentage line and the 80% cut-off. Free PNG, no signup.
Free PNGNo signupNo watermark
Loading tool...
Was this tool helpful?
How to Use
- 1
Enter your categories
Choose Counts and type or paste category + count from Excel or Google Sheets. Or choose Raw list and paste a log with one entry per line — it is tallied for you.
- 2
Let it sort and add up
Bars sort largest first and the cumulative percentage line runs against a 0–100% right axis. No formulas, no sorting by hand.
- 3
Set the cut-off
Pick where the vital few end — 70, 75, 80 or 90% — or turn the line off. The bars up to the cut-off are highlighted and the summary sentence says how many categories that is.
- 4
Group the tail and style it
Optionally fold small categories into Other, which always stays the last bar. Click the title, axis titles or the summary's words on the chart to type, and pick a theme and size.
- 5
Download it
Download a free PNG at exactly the size shown, with no watermark. Pro adds vector SVG and HD PNG.
Why Choose GraphMake?
How to Read a Pareto Chart
Read the bars left to right: they are the categories from the most frequent to the least. Then read the line: at each bar it shows what share of the total the categories so far add up to. Where the line crosses the cut-off, everything to the left is the "vital few".
A steep line that bends early means a few causes dominate, and fixing them pays off quickly. A line that rises almost straight means the problem is spread across many causes, and no single fix will move it much. That shape is often the most useful finding of the whole analysis.
The summary sentence on the chart states the result in words ("3 of 8 defect types account for 81% of all defects"), so the chart still makes its point when someone only glances at it in a slide deck.
From a Raw Log to a Pareto Chart
Most Pareto data starts as a list, not a table: one row per defect, ticket or complaint. Instead of building a pivot table, paste that column into Raw list. Entries are grouped regardless of capitals and spacing, counted, sorted and charted in one step, and you can hand the tally over to the table to rename or merge categories.
If each line already has a name and a number, the studio notices and offers to read them as counts. Event logs with a cause and a duration per line add up per cause, which is how downtime and delay charts are usually built.
Getting the Categories Right
A Pareto chart is only as good as its categories. Categories that are too broad hide the real cause; too many tiny ones spread the counts so thin that nothing stands out. Aim for five to ten meaningful categories, and fold the rest into Other, which stays last by convention so it can never pose as the top cause.
Count what matters. Frequency is the default, but a chart of cost, downtime minutes or customers affected can reorder the bars completely — the most common defect is not always the most expensive one.
Pair it with a cause-and-effect diagram from the fishbone diagram maker: the fishbone lists the possible causes, and the Pareto chart shows which of them actually happen most.
What You Can Create
Quality Control
Rank defect types from an inspection log and show which three causes to attack first.
Customer Complaints
Paste a column of complaint reasons and get the tallied Pareto chart in one step.
Downtime and Delays
Add up minutes or hours per cause and find where most of the lost time goes.
Six Sigma and Lean Projects
The Measure and Analyze chart for DMAIC reports and A3s, in a clean Blueprint theme.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Pareto chart?
A Pareto chart is a bar chart sorted from the largest category to the smallest, with a line showing the running total as a percentage. It shows at a glance which few causes account for most of a problem — the defect types, complaint reasons or downtime causes worth fixing first.
What is the 80/20 rule?
The Pareto principle says that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. Real data rarely splits exactly 80/20, so this maker draws a cut-off line (80% by default, or 70, 75 or 90%) and highlights the "vital few" — every category up to and including the first one whose running total reaches the line. Landing exactly on 80% counts.
Can it count categories for me?
Yes. Choose Raw list and paste a log with one entry per line — a column of defect types, ticket reasons or complaint categories exported from a spreadsheet. Entries are grouped ignoring capital letters and extra spaces ("Late delivery" and "late delivery " count together), the most common spelling is shown, and up to 20,000 entries are counted.
What goes in the "Other" bar?
Turn on Other to fold small categories together — those under 2, 5 or 10% of the total, or everything beyond the top 5, 8 or 10. By Pareto convention Other is always the last bar, even when it is bigger than some of the bars before it, and a category you named Other or Misc is treated the same way. Charts with more than 40 categories group the smallest automatically.
Why does the left axis go up to the total?
That is the classic Pareto layout: the left axis runs to the grand total so it lines up with 100% on the right axis, and each bar can be read against the cumulative line directly. Switch the left axis to "To tallest bar" if you would rather the bars fill the height; the right axis stays 0–100% either way.
What data can I paste?
Tabs, semicolons or commas, with or without a header row. Thousands separators, currency and % signs and decimal commas are understood, a closing Total row is dropped, extra rank or % columns are ignored, and repeated names are added together — so an event log of cause and minutes adds up per cause.
Why do the percentages always end at exactly 100%?
Amounts are added as exact decimals, so the last point is exactly 100% and no earlier point shows 100% by rounding. When whole-number labels would misplace the cut-off (79.6% printed as 80%), the labels switch to one decimal.
Is this Pareto chart maker free?
Yes. Making the chart and downloading it as a PNG is free, with no signup and no watermark. SVG and high-resolution PNG downloads are part of GraphMake Pro.
Related Tools
Fishbone Diagram Maker
Create Ishikawa fishbone diagrams online for free. Identify root causes with the 6M framework. Export as PNG — no signup required.
Try it freeFree Bar Chart & Bar Graph Maker
Create bar charts, bar graphs, and column charts online for free. Use horizontal or vertical bars, grouped or stacked layouts, custom colors, and PNG export - no signup, no watermark.
Try it freeFree Combo Chart Maker
Create combination charts (bar + line) online for free. Overlay two data series on one chart to show relationships between different metrics. Download as PNG.
Try it freeFree Histogram Maker
Create histograms online for free. Visualize frequency distributions with touching bars that show how data is spread across ranges. Download as PNG — no signup.
Try it free