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Sankey Diagram Maker

Trace where a quantity comes from and where it ends up, stage by stage. Upload a source, target and value column, and publish an interactive Sankey diagram you can embed anywhere — free.

Créer un Sankey Diagram — gratuitVoir la galerie

Qu’est-ce qu’un Sankey Diagram ?

A Sankey diagram shows flow. Nodes represent stages or categories, links represent movement between them, and the width of every link is proportional to the quantity moving along it. Because widths are conserved from one stage to the next, the diagram enforces its own arithmetic: whatever enters a node must leave it. That is what makes a Sankey good at questions of the form "where did it all go?", and why energy budgets, website journeys and money flows are its classic subjects.

Quand utiliser un Sankey Diagram

  • You are tracing a quantity through stages

    Visitors from channel to page to outcome, energy from source to use, revenue from segment to cost to profit. The subject is movement, not comparison.

  • The losses matter as much as the gains

    A Sankey shows the branch that drops away just as clearly as the one that continues, which makes it unusually honest about drop-off.

  • Your data has a source, a target and an amount

    That three-column shape is exactly what the diagram consumes. If your spreadsheet already looks like that, this is probably the chart you want.

  • You have two or three stages

    Two stages show a split, three show a journey. That is where a Sankey stays readable.

Quand éviter un Sankey Diagram

  • Nothing actually flows

    A Sankey asserts that a quantity moves from one node to another. Using it for unrelated categories borrows a sense of causation that the data does not support.

  • You need to read precise values

    Link widths are compared by eye, and thin links are almost unreadable. If exact numbers matter, put them in a table beside the diagram.

  • You have many nodes and many links

    Past roughly a dozen nodes the crossings dominate and the diagram becomes decorative. Aggregate the small flows into a named group first.

  • You are showing a simple breakdown of one total

    A single total split once is a bar or a donut. A Sankey earns its complexity only when there is a second stage.

Comment créer un Sankey Diagram

D’un tableur à un graphique publié, étape par étape.

01

Start from the Sankey template

Open the PlotSet Sankey template. It loads with sample data bound so you can see the three-column shape it expects.

02

Shape your data as source, target, value

One row per flow: where it comes from, where it goes, and how much. A node appears simply by being named in either column, so there is no separate node list to maintain.

03

Upload or connect your data

Import a CSV or Excel file, paste from a spreadsheet, or connect a Google Sheet so the diagram can be refreshed later.

04

Aggregate the small flows

Group the long tail of tiny links into a single named flow before you upload. Ten legible links beat forty threads, and the reader can still see what the group contains.

05

Publish, embed or export

Publish for a live interactive embed where hovering a link shows its value, or export a PNG, SVG or PDF.

Partez du modèle Sankey Diagram avec des données d’exemple déjà chargées, puis remplacez-les par les vôtres.

Ouvrir le modèle

Les éléments d’un Sankey Diagram

Node
A stage or category. Its height is the total flowing through it, so nodes are sized by the data rather than chosen by you.
Link (flow)
Movement from one node to another. Width is proportional to quantity, and width is the only thing encoding the value.
Stage (column)
A vertical band of nodes at the same depth in the flow. Reading left to right follows the quantity forward through the process.
Conservation
The rule that what enters a node must leave it. It is what lets a reader trust the widths, and what makes an unbalanced Sankey obviously wrong.
Terminal node
Where flow stops — converted, lost, or left over. Naming these honestly is usually where the insight is.
Link colour
Normally inherited from the source or target node, to help the eye follow one path through the crossings.

Erreurs courantes avec un Sankey Diagram

Flows that do not balance

If the totals entering and leaving a node differ, the widths are lying. Reconcile the numbers before plotting, and add an explicit "unaccounted" flow if some quantity genuinely goes missing.

Too many nodes

A Sankey with forty nodes is a picture of complexity rather than an explanation of it. Aggregate first, and keep the nodes a reader can name.

Hiding the drop-off

Leaving out the flow that ends in nothing makes the process look more efficient than it is. The branch that stops is usually the most useful part of the diagram.

Using it for a single split

One stage of division is a bar chart. Reaching for a Sankey there adds visual complexity without adding information.

Sankey Diagram : questions fréquentes

Showing how a quantity flows between stages. Link widths are proportional to the amount moving, so you can see both the main paths and where quantity drops away.

Créez votre Sankey Diagram maintenant

Gratuit pour commencer, avec plus de 300 modèles. Sans carte bancaire.

Créer un Sankey Diagram — gratuitTous les types de graphiques