Notion Charts Made Easy: Bar, Line, Pie, Area & Radar
Learn how to create custom charts in Notion—Bar, Line, Pie, Area, and Radar—using Blocky. This complete guide covers Notion database design, choosing the right chart, accessibility, styling, embedding, dynamic filters, and advanced formulas. Includes pro tips, examples, troubleshooting, and citations.
Why “How to Create Custom Charts in Notion” is the guide to bookmark
I live inside Notion. It’s my second brain and my team’s daily cockpit. But raw data tables? They rarely tell the story. You need visuals—clean, responsive, and easy to scan. That’s where custom charts in Notion come in. And yes, you can do it today without coding and without duct-taping screenshots.
Here’s the plan I use with clients and my own projects: model the data well, pick the right chart, build with Blocky, and embed the result in Notion so it updates automatically as your database changes. No export-import shuffle. No stale images. Just living dashboards inside the pages your team already uses.
I’ll show you the exact steps. Bar, Line, Pie, Area, and Radar. Real examples. Accessibility. Brand styling. Even advanced Notion formulas and rollups. I’ll also add citations so you can double-check the specifics and share best practices with your team.
What “custom charts in Notion” really means (and what it doesn’t)
Notion itself doesn’t natively render arbitrary charts from a database (at least not like a dedicated BI tool). Instead, you embed visuals produced by a connected service. That’s where Blocky shines: it connects to your Notion workspace, reads the database you select, and turns it into a chart widget you can style and drop into any Notion page.
The result feels native. You work in Notion. You maintain a single source of truth. Your charts update as the underlying database changes. And yes—embedding is officially supported and straightforward to do with the Embed block in Notion. You can paste a link, use the /embed command, and resize inline. It’s simple and well-documented.
Could you DIY everything? Sure. But most teams don’t want to manage a separate site, auth, hosting, charting code, and an embed lifecycle. With Blocky, you focus on data, visual clarity, and decisions. The maintenance burden stays light.
Your fast toolkit: Notion + Blocky + your data
- Notion holds your data—tasks, content calendars, sales pipelines, class notes, fitness logs.
- Blocky reads that data and builds Bar, Line, Pie, Area, and Radar charts. You can also add timers (countdowns, world clocks, pomodoros, stopwatches),study widgets (habit trackers, flashcards, progress bars), and creative widgets (mood trackers, quotes, streaks) to round out your dashboard.
- Your data is everything. If your database is clean, consistent, and well-typed, your charts will sing.
Step 0: Make your Notion database chart-ready
Before we draw a single bar or line, I make sure the database is structured for visualization. That means:
- One row = one observation. If you’re tracking daily metrics, each day is a row. If you’re tracking tasks, each task is a row with fields like “Status,” “Assignee,” and “Estimate.”
- Atomic properties. Separate fields for “Date,” “Category,” “Value,” “Owner,” etc. Avoid stuffing multiple concepts into one field. The cleaner you are, the easier it is to group and aggregate later.
- Use the right property types.
- Date for dates.
- Number for values you’ll chart.
- Select/Multi-select for categories.
- Relation/Rollup when deriving metrics from linked databases—super helpful for dashboard roll-ups.
- Normalize your categories. No duplicates like Open vs open. Pick one casing and stick to it.
- Keep a “Chart View.” Create a dedicated Notion view filtered to the rows you want to visualize. This reduces noise and helps everyone understand what feeds the chart.Notion supports multiple views with filters, sorts, and groups, which you can tweak without changing the underlying data.
Pro tip: If you’re combining multiple databases—say “Tasks” and “Projects”—use Relations and Rollups to bring project-level status or dates into the task table. Notion’s rollups can compute values like average, min, max, earliest/latest date, and even ranges. That gives you the aggregations you need for weekly trend lines or per-project summaries.
Step 1: Pick the right chart for the job
The fastest way to lose your audience is to pick a chart that fights the data. Here’s how I decide quickly:
- Bar chart — Compare categories at a point in time. Example: tasks per status, tickets per assignee, sales by region.
- Line chart — Trends over time. Example: daily signups, weekly revenue, mood logs by date.
- Area chart — Like line, but emphasizes magnitude and part-to-whole over time. Great for stacked time series.
- Pie chart — Part-to-whole at one moment. Use sparingly. The fewer slices the better (three to five ideal).
- Radar chart — Profile across dimensions. Example: skill scores, sprint health across criteria.
Want a second opinion? I often consult From Data to Viz and similar chart choosers to sanity-check the choice against known caveats and use cases. It’s a quick way to validate whether a bar beats a line or a stacked area communicates part-to-whole better.
Questions I ask before I pick:
- Is this a comparison, trend, distribution, relationship, or part-to-whole task?
- Will the audience scan quickly or study deeply?
- Do I need precision or pattern recognition?
Libraries like the Data Visualization Catalogue and university chart choosers reinforce the same mental model—pick visuals based on purpose.
Step 2: Build your chart in Blocky (Bar, Line, Pie, Area, Radar)
Here’s the standard flow I use inside Blocky to create a chart from a Notion database:
- Connect Notion. Authorize one time. Pick the workspace and share the target database with Blocky.
- Choose chart type. Bar, Line, Pie, Area, or Radar.
- Select your data source. Pick the exact Notion database (or view) that drives this chart.
- Map fields. Tell Blocky which Notion property is X (labels or dates) and which property is Y (values). For pie and radar, map categories/dimensions.
- Group or stack. Optional but powerful. Group by Status, stack by Assignee, split by Region.
- Aggregate. Sum, average, min, max—match the story you want to tell.
- Style. Colors, axis labels, legend placement, fonts, line thickness, gridlines, and brand presets.
- Save. Blocky generates a secure widget URL that you can embed anywhere, including Notion.
- Embed in Notion. Use /embed, paste the Blocky URL, confirm, and resize.
Blocky also supports non-chart widgets you can sprinkle in the same Notion page—countdowns, world clocks, pomodoro timers, stopwatches, plus habit trackers, flashcards, progress bars, mood trackers, quotes, and streaks—for complete dashboards and study spaces.
Step 3: Style, contrast, and accessibility (so your charts are readable)
A pretty chart that’s hard to read is still a bad chart. I respect contrast rules from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), which recommend a 4.5:1 contrast ratio for normal text, 3:1 for large text/UI components, and 7:1 for AAA standards. These ratios help users with low vision, color deficiencies, or simply older monitors.
How I apply this in Blocky:
- Choose a dark or light chart theme that pairs with your Notion page background.
- Use the WebAIM Contrast Checker o validate axis labels, legend text, and data labels. It’s quick and keeps you honest.
- Avoid color-only encodings. Use patterns, markers, or labels when series colors are close.
- Keep two or three brand colors for the main series. Use tints/opacity for secondary series.
- Make line weight thick enough to read on laptop screens.
- Cap the number of categories in a single view. Five to seven is a sweet spot.
Micro-copy matters: Rename axes (Daily Signups, not Y-Axis). Write a short caption that states the takeaway, not just the what: “Signups climbed 28% after launch week.” Your chart should whisper the conclusion before anyone thinks to squint.
Step 4: Embed charts into Notion the right way
Notion’s Embed block makes this dead simple:
- Place your cursor, type /embed, paste the Blocky widget URL, press Enter, and resize. You can also click the + icon on a new line, choose Embed, then paste the link. This is the officially documented path for adding third-party content to Notion pages.
If you’re preparing a multi-widget dashboard:
- Use a two-column layout: KPIs and timers on the left, detailed charts on the right.
- Add headings and toggles to organize clusters of related visuals.
- Create separate pages or toggles for “This Week,” “This Month,” “This Quarter” views.
Advanced moves: relations, rollups, formulas, and grouped views
Notion databases are deceptively powerful. When I need a richer chart, I lean on:
Relations & Rollups
Connect databases with Relation properties, then summarize values with Rollups—average, sum, earliest/latest date, range, and more. Handy for “Project → Sprints → Tasks” roll-ups or “Student → Assignments → Grades.”
If you’re using the Notion API in your own tools, note that rollups with a lot of references may need a specific endpoint to retrieve fully. That’s a performance detail worth remembering.
Formulas
Formulas turn raw fields into meaningful dimensions. Examples I use all the time:
- Week of Year: Bucket daily data for weekly charts.
- Status Flags: Convert complex status text into a neat category.
- Score Normalization: Map raw scores to 0–100 for radar charts.
Want a primer on referencing properties inside formulas? This explainer is a quick refresher on selecting properties from the formula editor and composing expressions.
Views: Filters, Sorts, and Groups
Set up dedicated views for each use case—like “Marketing KPIs,” “Sprint Health,” or “Attendance by Class.” Fine-tune with filters, sorts, and groups so the data feeding your charts stays clean and relevant. This is first-class behavior in Notion and it keeps dashboards maintainable.
Live dashboards & performance tips
You’re building a living page, not a poster. A few habits keep things snappy:
- Narrow the view. Feed charts with filtered views so they ingest only the rows that matter. Notion supports multiple views out of the box.
- Aggregate upstream. Use Rollups or a “Metrics” database to pre-compute weekly totals or moving averages. Your charts render faster with less crunching on the fly.
- One page = one story. Don’t cram unrelated charts. Build thematic dashboards for clarity and speed.
- Caption everything. Every chart gets a one-sentence insight. If you can’t summarize it, you probably don’t need the chart.
Real-world templates and use cases
1) Product Operations Dashboard
- Line Chart: Daily active users over the last 90 days, with deploy markers.
- Bar chart: Bugs by severity, grouped by release.
- Area chart: Cumulative signups by week since launch.
- Timers: Next release countdown and a world clock for your distributed team.
- Study/Creative widgets: Team habit tracker (code reviews/week), quotes for engineering values, and a streak widget to gamify “no broken builds.”
2) Sales & Revenue
- Bar chart: MRR by plan tier.
- Pie chart: New bookings by region (limit slices to keep it readable).
- Line chart: Pipeline created value over time, 7-day moving average.
- Progress bars: Quarterly quota attainment per rep.
3) Education & Personal Knowledge
- Radar chart: Skills proficiency across subjects.
- Line chart: Study hours by week, with pomodoro streaks.
- Flashcards + Habit Tracker: Reinforcement loop on the same page.
- Countdown: Exam dates and project deadlines.
4) Fitness & Wellness
- Line chart: Bench press progression, RPE by session.
- Area chart: Sleep hours stacked by workdays vs weekends.
- Pie chart: Macro distribution—protein, carbs, fats.
- Mood tracker: Overlay good/bad days with notes to find patterns.
Accessibility & brand: the quick checklist
- Contrast: Validate text and critical lines against WCAG 2.1 targets (4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text/UI). Use WebAIM’s checker to verify.
- Color dependency: Don’t rely only on color to differentiate series. Add markers or patterns.
- Font sizing: 12–14px minimum for axes; larger for dashboard TV screens.
- Legends: Place near the data (top-right works well).
- Captions: One sentence with the key insight.
- Consistency: Use the same palette and typography across charts to reduce cognitive load.
How to embed Blocky charts inside Notion (step-by-step)
- In Blocky, copy the widget link.
- In Notion, type /embed or click + → Embed.
- Paste the URL, press Enter.
- Resize as needed and add a short caption below the chart.
- Use columns or toggles to arrange multiple charts. This is the standard Notion workflow for embedding third-party content.
If you’re assembling a big dashboard, split the page into sections: KPIs, Trends, Breakdowns, Annotations. Label each section with a heading so scan-readers can jump directly.
Blocky power-ups for your Notion charts
- Presets: Save your brand palette, font pairings, and chart defaults so every new widget matches your style in seconds.
- Dynamic datasets: Point a chart at a filtered Notion view (e.g., Status = Shipped, Created within past 30 days) so the widget always reflects the same rules your team uses in Notion. Filters, sorts, and groups in Notion are first-class and play nicely here.
- Widget families: Pair charts with timers, habit trackers, flashcards, progress bars, mood trackers, quotes, and streaks to turn a page into a workspace, not just a report.
Advanced Notion modeling (for richer visuals)
Weekly buckets
Add a Formula property to compute WeekOfYear from Date. Use that field on the X-axis to smooth day-to-day volatility. If you’re new to referencing properties in formulas, this quick guide helps you compose expressions cleanly.
Relations across tables
Relate “Tasks” to “Sprints,” “Orders” to “Customers,” “Assignments” to “Students.” Then use Rollups to compute per-relation metrics, like tasks completed per sprint or revenue per customer cohort. Notion lets you compute a range of rollup functions including averages and date calculations.
Aggregations as first-class properties
Create “Weekly Total,” “Monthly Average,” or “90-Day MA” as Number properties—calculated via formula or rollup—so Blocky doesn’t need to perform heavy calculations at render time. This keeps widgets fast and predictable. If you’re pulling data via API for any custom logic, remember the rollup property note on retrieving large references.
Troubleshooting (read this when something looks off)
The embed doesn’t load in Notion.
- Double-check that you’re using the Embed block and pasting a supported URL. Notion’s Help Center covers the exact steps and supported behavior for embeds.
- If a page renders as a link preview instead of a full embed, try the /embed command explicitly.
Wrong data appears in the chart.
- Confirm the Notion view filters are what you expect. The chart reflects what the view returns. Views with filters/sorts/groups are a core Notion feature; verify your conditions.
- Check property types (Number vs Text). Convert where needed.
Performance feels sluggish.
- Reduce dataset size with a filtered view (e.g., last 90 days).
- Pre-aggregate with Rollups or a “Metrics” table.
Labels are hard to read.
- Enforce contrast targets (4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text). Validate with WebAIM’s checker.
- Increase font size or rotate X-axis labels for crowded categories.
Too many colors.
- Limit series to essentials. Use tints for variants. Provide direct labels for highlight series.
DIY alternatives (when you need more control)
If your team wants to run a custom chart stack, you can host a small visualization site and embed it into Notion:
- Chart.js — friendly API, canvas-based.
- Recharts - React-based, composable components.
- Apache Echarts — powerful option with great theming.
You’ll manage deployment, auth to your data, and stable embed URLs. It’s doable but heavier than plugging Notion + Blocky together. If your needs are mostly operational dashboards inside Notion, Blocky keeps your stack lean.
Wrap-up: my final word on Notion charts
You don’t need a BI suite for daily visibility. You need clarity, consistency, and speed inside the tool your team already uses. That’s exactly what this How to Create Custom Charts in Notion process gives you.
Start with the data. Pick the chart that matches the job. Style with empathy and accessibility. Embed with confidence using Notion’s native Embed block. Layer in Blocky’s ecosystem—charts, timers, study tools, and fun widgets—and suddenly your Notion page isn’t just informative; it’s energizing.
When you’re ready, go build your first chart. Keep it simple. Keep it clear. Then add the second, and the third. Before long, you’ll have a living dashboard that nudges your team toward action—day after day.
Explore 60+ Free Notion Widgets
Timers, charts, habit trackers, mood tools, and more—all free to customize and embed with Blocky.