Is the bar chart race maker really free?
Yes. There’s no account, no watermark and no paid tier: MP4, GIF, transparent WebM and PNG exports are all free, at up to 4K and 60 fps.
Free · runs in your browser · no sign-up
Bar chart race maker
Paste a table of names and years, press play and watch them overtake each other. Export an MP4 for YouTube, a vertical cut for TikTok, or a GIF, without an account.
A bar chart race ranks a set of things (countries, brands, players, channels) at each moment in time and animates the bars as they grow and swap places. To make one here, open the Population race template below, replace its data with yours using Paste data or Open a file, and press Export video. Everything runs in your browser, so the spreadsheet never leaves your computer.
The race is drawn by the same engine for the preview and the export, one frame at a time, so the MP4 matches what you saw. Values glide between periods instead of jumping, overtakes ease in and out rather than snapping, and the axis rescales smoothly as the leader pulls away. If you want to understand the other ways to build one, the bar chart race guide compares Flourish, Python and this page honestly.
(enlarge image) A frame from an exported 1080×1920 race at 60 fps.
How to make a bar chart race
Open the template
Select Open the Population race template. The studio opens with World Bank population data already racing.
Bring your data
In Data, choose Paste data and paste cells straight from Excel or Google Sheets, or Open a file for a CSV or .xlsx. Names go down the first column and each period gets its own column; a table with one value per row works too.
(enlarge image) Paste cells in Paste data, then Use this data.
Tune the race
In Chart, set Bars shown and Colour by (item or category). In Motion, set Time per period or a Total length, and how long to Hold at the end.
(enlarge image) Bars shown, Colour by and Sort by value in the Chart step.
Add your words
In Style, write the Title, Subtitle and Source, pick a Theme, and add your logo under More options if you like.
Export
In Export, keep Video (MP4), choose the Format (16:9 for YouTube, 9:16 for Shorts, TikTok and Reels), Size and Frame rate, then Export video and Download video.
(enlarge image) Choose 9:16 for Shorts, TikTok and Reels.
What your data should look like
The race reads the layout most race data already uses: one row per item, with a name column, an optional category column (a region, a team, a brand family) and one numeric column per period. Column headers like 1990, 2024 Q1, Mar 2024 or 2024-03-01 are recognised as periods and put in date order.
If your sheet runs the other way, with a date column down the side and one column per item, choose Each row is a period under Layout in the Data step. Long tables with one value per row (Year, Country, Value) are read too; the studio works out which column is which, and the Columns section lets you correct it.
- Thousands separators, currency symbols, % and words like k, M and bn are understood.
- Blank cells, n/a and .. are treated as missing: the bar carries on between known values and fades in or out at the ends.
- Anything that isn’t a number is listed in plain English, with the row and column, so you can fix it.
What makes a race look good
Smooth overtakes
Each bar’s place is worked out from the values, then eased over a short window centred on the moment one bar passes another, so overtakes glide instead of snapping. Overtaking speed under Motion → More options makes swaps quicker or more relaxed.
Steady numbers
Values are drawn with fixed-width digits, so a number counting up doesn’t wobble, and Shorten big numbers (1.2M) keeps long figures readable. Set a prefix like $ or a suffix like bn under Style → More options → Numbers.
Colour that follows the item
A country keeps its colour wherever it ranks. With a category column, Colour by → Category colours by group and adds a legend. Every bar also carries its name, so colour is never the only clue.
Length, music and formats
A sixty-year race at 0.5 seconds per year runs for about half a minute. Use Total length if you need an exact running time, for example to fit a voiceover, or add your own track under Motion → Add music and press Match length to music.
Exports come out at 1920×1080 or 3840×2160 for 16:9, 1080×1920 or 2160×3840 for 9:16, and square or 4:5 for feeds, at 30 or 60 frames per second. Keep clear of app buttons keeps titles out of the areas TikTok, Reels and Shorts cover with their own buttons.
Bar chart race questions
Do I need to upload my spreadsheet?
No. Your browser reads the file or the pasted cells and draws every frame itself. Nothing about your data is sent to chart.video.
Can I use data from Flourish?
Yes. Flourish’s race layout (a name column, optional category and image columns, then one column per period) is the layout this page reads by default. Image columns are ignored.
How many bars can a race show?
Between 3 and 20 at a time, set with Bars shown. Your table can have many more items; they slide in from below as they climb into view.
Can the bars stay in the same order?
Yes. Turn off Sort by value in the Chart step for an animated bar chart where the bars grow and shrink in place.
Why is my year shown as 1,960?
It won’t be when the years are column headers or a date column: they’re read as periods. If you see that, the years have been read as values; switch the Layout in the Data step.
Can I add images or flags to the bars?
Not yet. Bars carry the item name and value, and you can add your own logo to a corner of the video.