How to Create an Org Chart in Google Sheets (+ Free Template)

You've got 47 employees and someone just asked for "a quick org chart." So you open Google Sheets because it's free, it's familiar, and surely it can handle some boxes connected by lines.

Good news: it can. Google Sheets has a built-in organizational chart feature that most people don't know exists. You can create an org chart in under 10 minutes—no drawing, no manual connector lines.

Less good news: that chart will hit its limits faster than you'd expect. Each box displays exactly one field. Want to show name AND title? Pick one—the other gets buried in a tooltip that only appears on hover.

Here's how to do it anyway—and how to graduate to something better when you're ready.

How to create an org chart in Google Sheets

The process is simpler than you'd think. Google Sheets doesn't make you draw boxes or connect lines manually. You enter data in columns, and it generates the chart.

Step 1: Set up your data

Open a new Google Sheet. You need two columns minimum:

Column A: Employee name (or role/title)
Column B: Reports to (manager name)

Here's an example:

Name	Reports To
Sarah Chen
Marcus Johnson	Sarah Chen
Priya Patel	Sarah Chen
David Kim	Marcus Johnson
Ana Rodriguez	Marcus Johnson
James Wilson	Priya Patel

Notice that Sarah Chen has no manager listed—she's the CEO (or whoever sits at the top of your chart). Everyone else lists who they report to.

The order of rows doesn't matter. Google Sheets figures out the hierarchy from the reporting relationships.

Step 2: Select your data

Click and drag to select both columns, including your headers. If you have data in cells A1 through B7, select that entire range.

Step 3: Insert the chart

Go to Insert > Chart in the menu bar.

Google Sheets will probably guess wrong and give you a bar chart. That's fine.

In the Chart Editor panel on the right, click the Chart type dropdown. Scroll all the way down to the "Other" section. Select Organizational chart.

Your org chart appears. Boxes. Lines. Hierarchy. Done.

Step 4: Customize (a little)

Click Customize in the Chart Editor, then expand the Org section.

You can change:

Size: Small, Medium, or Large boxes
Node color: The fill color of each box
Selected node color: What happens when someone clicks a box

That's it. That's the full extent of customization Google Sheets offers.

Adding a second field with tooltips

Want to show employee names alongside job titles? Google Sheets supports a third column—but it only appears as a tooltip when you hover over a box. It won't show on the card itself.

Update your data:

Role	Reports To	Employee
CEO		Sarah Chen
VP Engineering	CEO	Marcus Johnson
VP Operations	CEO	Priya Patel
Senior Developer	VP Engineering	David Kim
Developer	VP Engineering	Ana Rodriguez
Operations Manager	VP Operations	James Wilson

Now select all three columns and recreate your chart. In the Chart Editor, check Use row 1 as headers, then select your third column under the Tooltip dropdown.

When someone hovers over "VP Engineering," they'll see "Marcus Johnson" appear.

It works. But if you export that chart or present it in a meeting, those names vanish. The tooltip only exists on hover, in the browser, in Google Sheets.

How to export your Google Sheets org chart

Once your chart looks right, you can download it as an image or PDF.

Click on your org chart to select it
Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the chart
Select Download
Choose your format: PNG, PDF, or SVG

The file downloads immediately. Done.

That's the complete Google Sheets org chart workflow: enter data, generate chart, customize colors, export. For a small team and a quick deadline, it gets the job done.

But if you're already hitting the limits—one field per box, tooltips that vanish on export, no way to show name AND title on the same card—read on.

Where Google Sheets org charts fall short

Let's be honest about what you're working with:

One field per box. Each card displays exactly one piece of information—whatever you put in Column 1. Want to show name AND title on the same card? You can't. You have to pick one for the box and bury the other in a tooltip. Some people hack around this by concatenating fields ("Sarah Chen, CEO"), but that's a workaround, not a feature.

Tooltips aren't real data fields. That third column everyone mentions? It only appears when someone hovers over a box. In a presentation, on a printout, or in an exported image—it's invisible.

No department visibility. You can't display department on the card or filter your view by team. For larger organizations, this makes the chart harder to navigate.

Styling is primitive. Everyone gets the same colored box. No way to differentiate executives from managers from individual contributors visually.

It doesn't scale. Once you pass 30-40 people, the chart becomes unwieldy. No zoom controls. No way to focus on a single branch.

For a quick internal reference with a small team? Google Sheets works fine. For anything you need to present or maintain over time? You'll outgrow it fast.

Google Sheets vs. Org Chart Studio

Feature	Google Sheets	Org Chart Studio
Fields per card	1 (others hidden in tooltip)	3 (name, title, department)
Tooltip data in exports	No	N/A (fields visible on card)
Zoom controls	No	Yes
Auto-layout	Yes	Yes
Drag to reparent	No	Yes
CSV import	No	Yes
Price	Free	Free (paid export passes)

How to export your Google Sheets data as CSV

Here's where it gets interesting. Your data already exists in a clean format: names in one column, reporting relationships in another. That's exactly what dedicated org chart tools need.

To export your data as a CSV file:

Make sure your employee data is in a clean table (just the columns you need, with headers)
Go to File > Download > Comma Separated Values (.csv)
Save the file to your computer

That's it. You now have a portable file that any modern org chart tool can import.

If you've been maintaining employee data in Google Sheets anyway—and let's be honest, most companies have a spreadsheet somewhere—this is your bridge from "data I update manually" to "org chart that builds itself."

Import your CSV into Org Chart Studio

Org Chart Studio was built for exactly this workflow. Upload your CSV, map the columns, and your org chart generates automatically.

Step 1: Prepare your CSV

Your CSV needs three things at minimum:

Name: The employee's name
Title: Their job title or role
Manager: Who they report to (matching another name in your list)

You can also include a Department column, and it'll import as a field you can display on each card.

If you've been following along with the Google Sheets tutorial, your data is already in the right format. The "Name" column becomes your employee names, and "Reports To" maps to the manager field.

Step 2: Start the import

Go to orgchartstudio.com/studio. Click Import and select your CSV file.

Step 3: Map your columns

Org Chart Studio will show you your data and ask you to confirm which column is which:

Which column contains employee names?
Which column contains their manager?
Which column has job titles?

Select the right columns from the dropdowns. The tool validates your data and flags any issues—like circular reporting relationships or managers who don't exist in your list.

Step 4: Generate your chart

Click import. Your org chart appears. Auto-layout positions everyone correctly. No box-dragging. No connector-wrangling. No rage.

From here you can:

Display name, title, and department on each card (not hidden in tooltips)
Adjust spacing with five layout presets
Drag to reparent employees under new managers or reorder people left ot right
Export to PNG without watermarks (with an export pass)

The whole process takes maybe five minutes. Most of that is the upload.

What if you don't have data in Google Sheets?

Then skip the spreadsheet entirely.

Org Chart Studio has a table view that works like a spreadsheet—add rows, type names, assign managers—but it's built for org charts, not general-purpose data. To use it. Open the Studio. Open the Command Panel on the left by hovering over it. Select Table View. Then click to import the CSV or simply build yourself. No chart type dropdowns. No column mapping. Just type and watch the chart build itself.

Or use the drag-and-drop canvas directly. Click to add a direct report. Drag to reparent. Double-click to edit. The auto-layout handles positioning so you never manually align boxes or wrestle with connector lines.

Two paths, same destination:

Already have employee data in a spreadsheet? Export to CSV, import into Org Chart Studio. Your data becomes a chart in minutes.
Starting from scratch? The table view and drag-and-drop builder are faster than setting up a Google Sheet. Build directly where you'll use it.

Free org chart templates

We've created two templates to get you started—one optimized for Google Sheets, and one ready for Org Chart Studio.

Template 1: Google Sheets Template

Download Google Sheets Template (CSV)

This template is optimized for Google Sheets' built-in organizational chart feature:

Two columns: Name and Reports To
Ready to import directly into Google Sheets
Sample data you can replace with your own team

How to use it:

Download the CSV file
Go to Google Sheets
Click File > Open > Upload and select the CSV file
Once it opens, select your data, go to Insert > Chart, choose Organizational chart
Customize colors and sizing as needed

This template is simple and fast—perfect for getting your chart built in minutes.

Template 2: Org Chart Studio Import Template

Download Org Chart Studio Template (CSV)

This template is optimized for importing into Org Chart Studio:

Four columns: Name, Title, Manager, Department
All fields display on the card—not hidden in tooltips
Ready for immediate import with no column mapping needed

How to use it:

Download the CSV file
Go to orgchartstudio.com/studio
Click Import and select the CSV file
The tool validates your data and generates your org chart with auto-layout

Your chart builds immediately with name, title, and department visible on every card. From here you can drag to reparent, adjust spacing with layout presets, and export to PNG.

Key differences

The Google Sheets template gives you a quick org chart for internal reference. The Org Chart Studio template gives you an interactive chart that scales with your team—and all fields are visible (not hidden in tooltips that disappear on export).

Done with spreadsheet org charts? Build in Org Chart Studio

Org Charts without the struggle.