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Change chart color based on value in Excel

Sometimes, when you insert a chart, you may want to show different value ranges as different colors in the chart. For example, when the value range is 0-60, show series color as blue, if 71-80 then show grey, if 81-90 show color as yellow and so on as below screenshot shown. Now this tutorial will introduce the ways for you to change chart color based on value in Excel.
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Change column/bar chart color based on value
Method 1:Change bar char color based on value by using formulas and built-in chart feature
Method 2:Change bar char color based on value by using a handy tool

Change line chart color based on value

Download sample file


Change column/bar chart color based on value

Method 1 Change bar char color based on value by using formulas and built-in chart feature

Firstly, you need to create the data as below screenshot shown, list each value range, and then next to the data, insert the value range as column headers.
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1. In cell C5, type this formula

=IF(AND(C$1<=B5,$B5<=C$2),$B5,"")

Then drag fill handle down to fill cells, then continue dragging the handle right.
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2. Then select the Column Name, hold Ctrl key, select the formula cells including value range headers.
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3. click Insert > Insert Column or Bar Chart, select Clustered Column or Cluster Bar as you need.
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Then the chart has been inserted, and the chart colors are different based on the value.
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Method 2 Change chart color based on value by using a handy tool

Sometimes, using the formula to create a chart may cause some errors while the formulas are wrong or deleted. Now the Change chart color by value tool of Kutools for Excel can help you.

Kutools for Excel, with more than 300 handy functions, makes your jobs more easier. 

After free installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:

1. Click Kutools > Charts > Change chart color by value. See screenshot:
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2. In the popping dialog, do as these:

1) Select the chart type you want, then select the axis labels and series values separately except column headers.
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2) Then click Add button doc add button to add a value range as you need.
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3) Repeat above step to add all value ranges to the Group list. Then click Ok.
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Tip:

1. You can double click the column or bar to display the Format Data Point pane to change the color.

2. If there has been inserted a column or bar chart before, you can apply this tool - Color Chart by Value to change the color of chart based on value.

Select the bar chart or column chart, then click Kutools > Charts > Color Chart by Value. Then in the popped-out dialog, set the value range and the relative color as you need. Click to free download now!
color chart by value


Change line chart color based on value

If you want to insert a line chart with different colors based on values, you need another formula.

Firstly, you need to create the data as below screenshot shown, list each value range, and then next to the data, insert the value range as column headers.

Note: the series value must be sorted from A to Z.
doc change chart color by value 12

1. In cell C5, type this formula

=IF(AND(C$1<=$B5,$B5<=C$2),$B5,NA())

Then drag fill handle down to fill cells, then continue dragging the handle right.
doc change chart color by value 13

3. Select the data range including the value range headers and the formula cells, see screenshot:
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4. click Insert > Insert Line or Area Chart, select Line type.
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Now the line chart has been created with different color lines by values.
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Download sample file

Click to download sample file


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Comments (10)
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This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Dear sir,
Here I have the daily workers efficiency. Now I need the column chart in a conditional formatting method. I want the graph in a different colors as per the average efficiency. Can you give me the solution?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Is there anyway I can do this to an already existing graph that a colleague made? For example, I'm tracking how productive people are and want anything 95%-105% to be green and anything else to be red; at the moment, anything 100%+ is green and anything below is red.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
In the "change bar color based on value example", consider using the stacked bar chart as all the columns then will be centred on the x axis label.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
how do I remove the zeroes at the ends of the bars when I choose "show values" for the bars?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Sorry, I did not understand your question. Your data is number or a formula result needed to be remove trailing zeros? Or if you just want to remove zeros after decimal point, this tutorial can help you https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/3621-excel-remove-zeros-after-decimal.html
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Re "Change bar chart color based on value" many thanks - I suggest using stacked bars or columns not clustered, then all the bars come evenly spaced even when they have different colors.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Extremely helpful, but I'm struggling to get it to work where there is just one data point that should be a different colour. Can you help?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Greetings This does not seem to work in Excel 2016 for Mac. All I get are Colored Horizontal Lines for each X Axis Observation instead of a Multicolored Line Chart. Please help.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Very helpful. Thank you. But have one query - How do you customise the colours ?
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