🪜 Waterfall Chart Maker
Paste a starting value followed by positive and negative changes, and get a waterfall chart of the running total — download a crisp PNG or an editable SVG in your browser.
Typography
Colors
Fonts are self-hosted and embedded into the download, so your chart looks identical everywhere. Everything renders in your browser — the data you paste is never uploaded. 🔒
How the waterfall chart maker works
Enter one “label, value” pair per line. The first line is treated as a starting total drawn from zero; each line after it is a change that floats up (for a positive value) or down (for a negative one) from wherever the running total left off, so you can see exactly how each item builds up or eats into the total. Positive and negative steps are coloured differently, dashed connectors link them, and each bar is labelled with its signed value. Drawn as an SVG in your browser with a 2× PNG export — your data is never uploaded.
Waterfall charts (also called bridge or cascade charts) are ideal for explaining how a starting figure becomes an ending figure through a series of gains and losses — revenue to profit, budget variance, inventory changes, headcount movement. Enter negative changes with a minus sign (for example “Refunds, -180”). Order the steps the way the story flows; the chart’s job is to make each contribution visible.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a waterfall chart?
Paste a starting value first (for example “Start, 1000”), then each change on its own line, using a minus sign for decreases (“Fees, -120”). The tool floats each bar from the running total and labels its signed value. Download as PNG or SVG.
What is a waterfall chart used for?
Showing how an initial value becomes a final value through a sequence of increases and decreases — profit bridges, budget variance, cash-flow movement, headcount changes. Each floating bar is one contribution to the running total.
How do I enter decreases?
Put a minus sign in front of the value, like “Refunds, -180”. Positive and negative steps are drawn in different colours and float down or up from the previous running total accordingly.
What is the first value?
The first line is treated as the starting total and is drawn as a full bar from zero. Every line after it is a change relative to the running total, so the chart reads left to right as a story.
Is a waterfall chart the same as a bridge chart?
Yes — “waterfall,” “bridge” and “cascade” chart are different names for the same running-total visualisation. This maker builds it from your data and exports PNG or SVG.