You don't need clean data to make a chart — you need text with numbers in it. This tutorial shows exactly which formats work, what the parser does with them, and how to fix anything it gets wrong.
The four formats that just work
1. Key-value lines (best for trends)
Jan: 120 Feb: 145 Mar: 170 Apr: 210
Colons or dashes both work. Paste in chronological order and pick the line chart.
2. Comma lists (best for comparisons)
Apples, 35 Oranges, 24 Bananas, 18
Tabs and semicolons work too — this is why spreadsheet copy-paste just works.
3. Bullets and numbered lists
- Rent 1400 - Food 620 - Transport 240
Markers like -, *, 1) are stripped automatically.
4. Messy real-world text
Chat messages, meeting notes, a paragraph someone emailed you — the parser pulls out every "label + number" pair it can find and ignores the rest. Missing something? Add it in the editable table.
The 4-step workflow
- Paste your text into the GPT Chart tool — parsing starts as you type.
- Check the table: every label and value found. Rename sloppy labels ("Q3 - final v2" → "Q3"), fix numbers — the chart redraws instantly.
- Pick the type: comparison → bar, trend → line, share-of-whole → pie. Add a title and palette.
- Download the 2× PNG — crisp enough for slides and docs.
Pro tips
- Numbers with $, €, £, % and thousands separators ($1,200 / 45%) are parsed cleanly — don't clean them first.
- European decimals (1.234,56) are detected automatically.
- For percentages that don't sum to 100, use a pie chart — shares are computed for you.
- Keep labels under ~12 characters for the cleanest x-axis.
Everything runs in your browser, so you can chart confidential numbers without them leaving your machine. Start on the homepage tool or read how to pick the right chart type.