How many measures can I add to a grouped bar chart?

The grouped bar chart requires a minimum of 2 measures and supports up to 10. Adding a single measure produces an invalid chart - use Basic Bar instead. Beyond 8 to 10 measures, the bars per cluster become too narrow to distinguish and the chart stops being readable.

When should I use a grouped bar chart instead of a stacked bar chart?

Use a grouped bar chart when the question is about absolute values per measure - which region had higher revenue, which had higher cost. Use Stacked Bar when the question is about composition - how much of the total does each measure contribute. Grouped bars make individual measure comparison easier. Stacked bars make part-to-whole relationships visible.

How many categories are too many for a grouped bar chart?

With 3 or more measures, readable capacity drops to 8 to 10 categories before cluster width collapses. At 10 categories and 5 measures, there are 50 bars on the chart. Enable Data Zoom to let viewers scroll, or pre-filter in Transform to the top N categories before building the chart.

Why does my chart show no data after I assign fields?

The most common cause is a pre-filter returning zero rows. Check the Filters panel and remove or adjust any active filter. The grouped bar chart requires at least 2 measures - if only one is assigned, the chart will not render.

Can I change the color of each measure's bars individually?

No. Gradient Bar Styles applies a shared gradient start and end color across all measure series. Per-series color control is not available on the grouped bar chart. The legend identifies which bar corresponds to which measure by position within each cluster.

What does Cluster Gap control?

Cluster Gap sets the space between category clusters - the gap between one category group and the next. Range is 0 to 100. At 0, clusters touch each other. At higher values, the gap between groups widens and the bars within each cluster become narrower. Keep Cluster Gap between 20 and 50 for most layouts.

How do I label the axes correctly when measure names are long?

The legend identifies each measure - it does not appear on the axis itself. Use Axis Name under Axes to add a plain-language label to the Y-axis (for example, 'Amount (USD)') rather than repeating long field names. Keep axis names under 20 characters to avoid layout issues.

Why are bars in my clusters extremely narrow?

Narrow bars mean too many measures or too many categories for the chart width. Reduce the measure count to 4 or fewer, reduce the category count by pre-filtering in Transform, or increase the chart size on the dashboard canvas.

Grouped Bar Chart | Edilitics Docs

Compare two to ten measures side by side per category. One dimension, multiple measures, grouped bars per category.

A grouped bar chart (also called a clustered bar chart) places multiple measures side by side within each category, so viewers can compare values both across measures and across categories in a single view.

Drop one categorical or date field into Column and two or more numeric fields into Row. Each measure becomes a separate bar within each category cluster. Bar height encodes the value. Position within the cluster encodes which measure you are looking at.

When to Use

The grouped bar chart works when the question involves comparing the same set of measures across the same categories at the same time. Revenue versus cost by region. Planned versus actual versus forecast by quarter. Budget versus spend by department. The grouped layout lets viewers read across each cluster to compare measures within a category, and read across clusters to compare the same measure across categories.

Cluster width collapses with too many measures or too many categories. With 5 measures and 12 categories, there are 60 individual bars in the chart. Each bar is a few pixels wide and the legend is the only way to tell them apart. Rule of thumb: keep the product of measures times categories under 40. Beyond that, either reduce the measure count, reduce the category count in Transform, or switch to a table where every value is readable.

Switch to a different chart when:

You have only one measure per category - use Basic Bar
The question is about how measures compose a total, not their absolute values - use Stacked Bar
You have more than 10 categories and more than 3 measures - use a table
Your dimension is time and trend lines are more useful than grouped bars - use Line Chart

Scenario	Dimension	Measures
Revenue vs. cost by region	Region	Sum of revenue, Sum of cost
Planned vs. actual by quarter	Quarter	Sum of plan, Sum of actual
New vs. returning users by channel	Acquisition channel	Count of new users, Count of returning users
Gross profit vs. net profit by product line	Product line	Sum of gross profit, Sum of net profit
Budget vs. spend by department	Department	Sum of budget, Sum of spend

Required Inputs

Field	Type	Count
Dimension	Categorical or Date	Exactly 1
Measure	Numeric	2 to 10

For step-by-step build instructions, see Build Your First Chart.

Formatting Options

The Format tab unlocks after at least one field is assigned. Once your chart is rendering, use these controls to define how it looks and how viewers interact with it.

Style

The title sits above the chart and defaults to the name you gave the visualization at save time. On a multi-measure chart, the title carries extra weight - without it, viewers need the legend alone to understand what they are comparing.

Control	What it does
Show Chart Title	Shows or hides the title. The text is preserved when hidden so you can toggle it back without re-entering.
Enter Chart Title	Title text. Maximum 50 characters.
Font family	Font applied to the title.
Font size	5 to 30.
Bold / Italic	Weight and style.
Alignment	Left, center, or right within the chart container.

Defaults to transparent, inheriting the dashboard canvas color. Set an explicit color when the chart needs a distinct surface inside a card layout, or when exporting as a standalone image and a white background is required.

Control	What it does
Background Color	Fill color of the chart container.

Reach for these controls when bars feel visually flat, clusters are too tight, or the chart needs a background track to show capacity against a target. On a grouped bar chart, all measures share the same gradient style - the legend differentiates them by position within each cluster, not by individual bar color.

Control	What it does
Cluster Gap	Space between category clusters, 0 to 100. At low values, clusters pack tightly and bars within each cluster become narrower. At high values, clusters are well-separated but each bar is narrower. Keep between 20 and 50 for most layouts.
Gradient Start Color	The color at the base of each bar. Used as the solid fill color when no gradient is needed - set Start and End to the same color for a flat fill.
Gradient End Color	The color at the top of each bar. Set to a lighter or darker shade of the Start Color for a subtle gradient effect.
Background Color	A secondary color filling the full axis height behind each bar cluster, like a track. Use this to show remaining capacity against a fixed target. Leave it off if there is no reference value to show.
Corner Radius (top-left, bottom-left, top-right, bottom-right)	Rounds bar corners independently, 0 to 10 each. Rounded tops (4 to 6) suit card-style dashboard layouts. At high category counts the bars are already narrow - pushing corner radius to 10 turns narrow bars into pill shapes and the height encoding breaks down.

Data labels print the exact value on or above each bar. On a grouped bar chart with 4 or more measures, labels from adjacent bars in the same cluster will overlap unless font size is very small. Use data labels on charts with 2 to 3 measures and no more than 8 categories.

Control	What it does
Show Data Labels	Shows or hides value labels on each bar.
Font family	Font applied to data labels.
Font size	Maximum 18. On dense clusters, keep this at 10 or below to avoid label collision between adjacent bars.
Bold / Italic / Color	Text styling.
Position	Where the label sits on the bar: Top (above), Middle (centered), or Bottom (at the base). Top is the most readable. Middle works when bars are tall enough for the label to fit inside without overlapping the bar from the adjacent measure.
Number Type	Default (raw value), Scientific, Decimal, or Percentage.
Display Unit	None, Thousand, Million, or Billion. Match this to the Y-axis Display Unit.
Decimal Places	0 to 6. Available when Number Type is not Default.

The legend is the primary way viewers identify which bar corresponds to which measure in a grouped bar chart. Do not hide it unless the chart title or axis labels already make the measure assignment unambiguous.

Control	What it does
Show Legends	Shows or hides the legend. On by default. Hiding it on a multi-measure chart removes the only visual key to measure identity.
Vertical position	Top, middle, or bottom alignment of the legend block relative to the chart area. Top is the default.
Horizontal position	Start, center, or end alignment.
Show Name	Default: legend item labels are always visible. On Hover: labels appear only when the viewer hovers the legend. Use Default on shared or exported dashboards.
Orientation	Vertical: legend items stacked in a column. Horizontal: legend items in a row. Horizontal works best when legend labels are short and there are 4 or fewer measures. Vertical suits longer measure names.
Item Gap	Spacing between legend items. Increase if legend items are crowding each other.
Font Size	Legend label font size.
Color	Legend label text color.

Axes

The axis name sits alongside the axis line - below the category labels on X, to the left of the value scale on Y. On a multi-measure chart, the Y-axis name is more important than on a single-measure chart because the axis scale represents the shared unit across all measures. If measures are in different units (currency and count on one chart), note it in the axis name or title.

Select X or Y before making changes. Settings apply to the selected axis only.

Control	What it does
Show Axis Name	Shows or hides the axis name label.
Axis name text	Label text. Maximum 20 characters. Defaults to the field name.
Font family	Font applied to the axis name.
Font size	5 to 30.
Bold / Italic	Weight and style.
Offset (%)	Distance between the axis name and the axis line as a percentage of the chart dimension. Increase if the axis name overlaps the axis labels below it.
Alignment	Start, center, or end along the axis.

Leave these at their defaults unless you are building a minimal dashboard layout where the axis border adds visual noise that grid lines already handle. Hiding the axis line also removes ticks - do that only when the chart has enough other spatial reference that category alignment is still clear.

Select X or Y before making changes.

Control	What it does
Show Axis Line	Shows or hides the axis line. Hiding it also hides ticks.
Line Color	Color of the axis line.
Line Width	Thickness of the axis line, 0 to 5.
Line Type	Solid, Dashed, or Dotted.
Show Ticks	Shows or hides tick marks on the axis line.
Tick Color	Color of the tick marks.
Tick Length	Length of the tick marks, 5 to 10.
Boundary Gap	Adds padding at both ends of the category axis so the first and last clusters do not sit flush against the chart edges. On by default.

Axis labels are the text values along each axis - category names on X, numeric scale on Y. On a grouped bar chart with many measures, X-axis category labels often need rotation because cluster width narrows as measure count increases.

Select X or Y before making changes. Hiding axis labels also hides the axis name.

Control	What it does
Show Axis Label	Shows or hides labels along the axis.
Font family	Font applied to axis labels.
Font size	Label font size.
Bold / Italic / Color	Text styling.
Rotation	Angle of category label text. With 3 or more measures per category, cluster width shrinks and category names collide at 0 degrees faster than they do on a basic bar chart. Set rotation to 30 or 45 degrees as a default on any grouped chart with more than 6 categories.
Text case	Title Case, Uppercase, or Lowercase. Available on the categorical axis (X) only.
Display Unit	Scale for numeric axis labels: Auto, None, Thousand, Million, or Billion. Available on the value axis (Y) only.

Grid lines give viewers a horizontal reference to trace a bar back to its value on the Y-axis. Y-axis grid lines are on by default. X-axis grid lines run vertically and cut through every bar cluster - they add visual complexity on an already-busy grouped chart. Leave X-axis grid lines off.

Select X or Y before making changes.

Control	What it does
Show Gridlines	Shows or hides grid lines for the selected axis.
Grid Color	Color of the grid lines.
Left / Right / Top / Bottom	Plot area margins as a percentage. Increase Bottom when rotated axis labels are clipped by the chart edge. Increase Left when large Y-axis numbers run into the plot area.

Interactivity

The tooltip appears when a viewer hovers over a bar. On a multi-measure chart, the tooltip is especially useful - it shows all measure values for the hovered category in a single pop-up, so viewers get the full comparison without reading individual bar heights.

Control	What it does
Show Tooltip	Shows or hides the tooltip on hover.
Trigger	Item: tooltip shows data for the specific hovered bar only. Axis: tooltip shows all measure values for the hovered category position. Use Axis on a grouped bar chart - it gives viewers the full cluster comparison in one hover, which is the whole point of a grouped bar chart.
Pointer	When Trigger is Axis: the visual indicator shown on the axis - Line, Shadow, Cross, or None. Shadow highlights the full cluster area at the hovered position.
Background Color	Tooltip background color.
Headers / Values tabs	Separate styling for the dimension label row (Headers) and the measure value rows (Values). The Values tab includes Number Type, Display Unit, and Decimal Places.

Keep animation on for presentation dashboards where the build sequence draws attention to the data. Turn it off on operational dashboards that auto-refresh on a short interval - repeated animations on every data load become distracting quickly and signal instability rather than freshness.

Control	What it does
Enable Animation	Turns the build animation on or off.
Duration	How long the animation runs, 0 to 3000ms. The default is 1000ms.
Delay	Time before the animation starts after the chart loads, 0 to 2000ms.
Easing Function	The motion curve of the animation. Cubic Out (the default) gives a natural deceleration. Elastic and Bounce are attention-grabbing - use them deliberately on presentation dashboards, not on operational ones.

Data Zoom lets viewers scroll or zoom across the category axis when there are more categories than fit in the chart width. On a grouped bar chart, the effective capacity per chart width is lower than on a basic bar chart because each category takes up multiple bar widths.

Control	What it does
Show Data Zoom	Shows or hides the zoom control.
Zoom Type	Slider: a draggable range bar below the chart. Inside: scroll-to-zoom directly on the plot area. Use Slider on dashboards where viewers expect a scrollbar UI. Avoid Inside on trackpad-scrolled dashboards.
Slider Size (px)	Height of the slider bar, 10 to 100. Slider type only.
Position	Vertical position of the slider: Top, Middle, or Bottom. Bottom is the convention.
Alignment	Horizontal position: Left, Center, or Right.
Orientation	Horizontal or Vertical. Horizontal scrolls across categories, which is the standard orientation for a bar chart.
Show Detail Label	Shows range values at the slider handles so viewers know which categories they are viewing.
Background Color	Slider background.
Filler Color	Color of the selected range inside the slider.
Border Color	Slider border.
Handle Color	Color of the drag handles.
Brush Selection	Enables click-and-drag on the chart to zoom into a range.

Avoid Zoom Type "Inside" on dashboards that viewers scroll with a trackpad. Scroll events captured by the chart zoom the chart instead of scrolling the page, which is disorienting and hard to exit without knowing to click outside the chart first.

Emphasis controls the hover highlight effect on individual bars. On a grouped bar chart, Series focus is more useful than Item - it highlights all bars of the same measure across every cluster, letting viewers trace one measure clearly through the full dimension.

Control	What it does
Show Emphasis	Enables or disables the hover effect entirely.
Focus Type	Item: highlights only the hovered bar and dims all others. Series: highlights all bars of the same measure across every cluster and dims the rest. None: no visual change on hover. Use Series on a grouped bar chart with more than 3 measures - it makes individual measure tracking through clusters much easier.
Enable Scale	Scales the hovered bar slightly larger. At Scale Size above 1.2 on a dense cluster, scaling causes bars to visually overlap with adjacent bars in the same cluster.
Scale Size	How much the hovered bar scales up. 1.1 is subtle. 1.5 is aggressive.

Enable the Toolbox when viewers need to export the chart or verify raw values behind the bars - finance reviews, board decks, or any context where a viewer will ask "what is the exact number." Leave it off on embedded public dashboards where export and data access should be locked down.

Control	What it does
Show Toolbox	Shows or hides the toolbox icon bar.
Save as Image	Adds a download icon that saves the chart as a PNG.
Data View	Adds an icon that opens the underlying data table in the chart area. Viewers can read exact values without hovering every bar.

Best Practices

Keep measure count at 4 or fewer unless the chart is large. At 5 or more measures, clusters become narrow even on wide canvases and the legend needs careful reading to identify each bar. The chart stops being a comparison tool and becomes a data table with visual noise. Four measures at 8 categories is readable. Five measures at 10 categories is not.

Use Axis tooltip trigger, not Item. The entire value of a grouped bar chart is that viewers can see all measures for a category at once. Setting Tooltip Trigger to Axis delivers that - one hover shows the full cluster comparison. Item trigger forces viewers to hover each bar individually, defeating the purpose of the grouped layout.

Match Y-axis scale across all measures. If revenue runs in the millions and order count runs in the hundreds, a shared Y-axis makes the count bars invisible. These measures should not be on the same grouped bar chart. Either normalize the measures to the same unit, split them into two separate charts, or use a Mixed Line and Bar chart with dual axes.

Use Series focus in Emphasis when measure count is high. When a chart has 6 measures per cluster, the individual bar a viewer hovers is nearly indistinguishable from its neighbors. Focus Type "Series" highlights all bars of the same measure across every category, letting viewers trace one measure clearly across the full dimension.

Set axis label rotation before the chart goes to a dashboard. With 3 or more measures, cluster width is narrower than on a basic bar chart, so X-axis labels collide sooner. Default rotation to 30 or 45 degrees on any grouped chart with more than 6 categories. Do not wait for a viewer to report overlapping labels.

FAQs

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Grouped Bar Chart