NewLooking for Grafly? Chartmeister is its successor: live charts and dashboards, now inside Excel. What changed?

Beautiful Charts From Your Excel Data, Live as You Type

Select your numbers, pick a chart, done. Chartmeister builds polished, interactive charts right in the Excel task pane, and the chart follows every edit you make. No chart wizard, no fiddling, no starting over.

18 chart types, from bar and line to waterfall, heatmap and KPI cards
Send charts and dashboards anyone can open in a browser
Your data never leaves Excel

Try Chartmeister for free

Free for 7 days, no account; bar, line and pie stay free forever. Now available on Microsoft AppSource. Try the live demo below or add it to Excel.

Chartmeister Live

Product AProduct B

JanFebMarApr

	A	B	C
1	Month	Product A	Product B
2	Jan	120	90
3	Feb	135	95
4	Mar	148	121
5	Apr	162	118

A cell changes, the chart follows. That is the whole idea.

Chart types in one pane

7 days

Every feature free, no account

Bar, line and pie, forever

Network request, the license check

This is your Excel data. This is your chart.

Type over any number in the sheet below and watch the chart follow. Then click through all 18 chart types, drawn by the same chart engine the add-in ships.

Chartmeister running in Excel on the web: the sample data selected in the sheet and a live bar chart in the task pane

How it works

Three steps, and the first chart takes about a minute.

Select your data

Headers included, straight in the sheet. Or press "Try it with sample data" and skip even that. Single cell? It expands to the block around it.

Press Use selection

A live chart appears in the pane. Headers, label column and orientation are detected for you, and from now on the chart follows every edit you make.

Insert, export or share

Put it in the worksheet with one click, download it as an interactive page or image, send it as a link, or collect several into a dashboard.

Chartmeister in Excel on the web: six months of product data selected in the sheet, and the task pane showing the same numbers as a live bar chart — Select the range, and the chart is already live in the pane. Click to enlarge.

Made for ad-hoc analysis

The question is on the table and the numbers are already in your sheet. These are the moments Chartmeister was built for.

The quick question from your boss

"How did the regions do last month?" The numbers are in your sheet, so select them, pick a chart, and copy the image into your reply, or paste a share link into the chat. About a minute, start to send.

Charts for people who only have a browser

Every chart exports as one small HTML file. Email it to a client, drop it in Teams, put it on the shared drive: it opens in any browser, works offline, and keeps its tooltips. Nobody needs Excel, an account, or the add-in to see it.

A one-page dashboard for the team

Collect charts as you work, group them into tabs, and export a single page with draggable cards. A weekly team page or a month-end overview, without a data model, a gateway, or per-viewer licenses. Click around a live one right below.

The report that comes back every week

Next week's numbers land in the same range and the charts simply rebind. Inserted pictures update in place, dashboards re-read every range on export, and your templates and brand kit keep the look identical. Five minutes, most weeks.

Turn your charts into an entire dashboard

Collect your charts, group them into tabs, and export one HTML page, like this one. It is live: drag the cards, resize them, switch tabs.

Every card is a live chart: hover for tooltips, drag them around, resize them, switch tabs. The exported file also remembers the layout you arrange and re-reads your latest numbers on every export.

Excel charts, Power BI, or Chartmeister?

All three have their day. Excel's own charts live next to their data, Power BI is a platform you roll out, and Chartmeister turns the sheet in front of you into something you can send.

	Excel's built-in charts	Power BI	Chartmeister
Your first chart	Two clicks, right on the sheet	Install the desktop app, connect data, build a model	Select cells, press Use selection
Making it look good	Manual fiddling, every single time	Polished, once it is built	Polished out of the box; 14 themes and your brand kit
Chart types	The classics; gauges, KPI cards and heatmaps take workarounds	Everything, through custom visuals	18 types in one row of buttons
Once it leaves Excel	A static picture, or you send the whole workbook	A link into the service; viewers sign in, usually with a license	An interactive file or link; tooltips keep working in any browser
Dashboards	Arranged by hand on a sheet	Its whole job, after the setup	Tabs and cards, exported as one page
Price	Included with Excel	Per person, per month	Free tier; paid plans from $69 once
Built for	A chart that stays next to its data	Company-wide reporting on many sources	The chart you need to send today

To be fair: Excel's own charts are included, you already know them, and for a quick chart that stays in the workbook they are exactly right. Power BI earns its setup for big models and company-wide reporting. Chartmeister is for the chart that has to look good and leave the workbook.

The chart is just the start

What you do with it is the good part.

Chartmeister in Excel on the web, the pane bound to the selected range, ready to insert the chart into the sheet

Charts inherit the number formats of your cells, so currencies and percentages come out right
Headers, label column and orientation are detected automatically, with manual overrides
Handles up to 10,000 rows and 30 series in one chart
Each chart type remembers your last options, and presets save whole setups
Averages, min and max markers, stacking, zoom slider and a second axis when you need them
The pane itself has a dark mode and follows Excel's look

Your numbers never leave Excel

Most chart tools are websites: you upload your spreadsheet and hope. Chartmeister ships its chart engine inside the add-in, so every chart is built locally, in your Excel, on your machine.

That is not a promise buried in a policy. It is how the thing is built.

Nothing is uploadedYour worksheet data is never sent anywhere. Not to me, not to anyone.

No account, no trackingNo sign-up, no analytics, no cookies, no ads. Install it and chart.

One network requestValidating a license key. During the trial and in free mode there is none at all.

Exports go where you send themFiles and share links contain the charted values, because that is their job. They are created on your machine and travel only where you send them.

Pay once, no subscription

Everything is free for 7 days, no account. Bar, line and pie stay free forever. Both paid plans unlock all 18 chart types. Choose a plan for yourself or your team.

Free

forever, no account

Bar, line and pie charts, free for good
All 18 types free for the first 7 days
Live preview, insert, exports, share links and dashboards included
Exports carry a small "Made with Chartmeister" mark after the trial

Add to Excel, free

Lifetime license

Single User

$69

once, yours forever

1 user, up to 3 devices
All 18 chart types, unlocked for good
No watermark on anything you export
Every future update included
One payment. No subscription, no account.

Get Single User

Lifetime license

Team

$199

once, yours forever

Up to 15 users
All 18 chart types, unlocked for good
No watermark on anything you export
Every future update included
One payment. No subscription, no account.

Get Team

14-day refund, no questions asked. If it is not for you, email me and you get your money back.

Excel on Windows
Excel on Mac
Excel on the web
Microsoft 365 or Office 2021 and later

Frequently asked questions

I was looking for Grafly. Is this the same product?

Chartmeister is the successor to Grafly. Grafly was the downloadable Excel add-in built with VBA; Chartmeister installs from Microsoft AppSource and runs in Excel on Windows, Mac and the web. It keeps the idea of interactive charts and shareable HTML dashboards, with 18 chart types, a live preview that follows your cell edits, and charts built locally inside Excel. There is no macro-enabled add-in file to install.

I already use Grafly. Where can I find help?

The Grafly documentation is still available for your existing add-in. For a question about your Grafly purchase or moving to Chartmeister, contact me with your purchase email so I can help with your license and setup.

Which Excel do I need?

Chartmeister supports Excel on Windows and Mac with Microsoft 365 or Office 2021 and later, plus Excel on the web. Excel on iPad and iOS is not supported. Install it from Microsoft AppSource; there is no separate installer to download.

Is it really free to try?

Yes. The full product is free for 7 days from first use: no account, no card, no sign-up anywhere. The trial does not even make a network request.

What happens when the trial ends?

Nothing breaks. Bar, line and pie charts stay free forever; their exports carry a small "Made with Chartmeister" mark. A one-time license unlocks all 18 chart types and removes the mark.

Does my data leave Excel?

No. Every chart is built locally inside Excel by a chart engine that ships with the add-in. The only network request it ever makes is validating a license key. Files you export and links you share do contain the charted values, because that is their job, and they go only where you send them. The full details are in the privacy policy.

Do charts update when my numbers change?

Yes, that is the point. While the pane is open, the preview follows every edit in the bound range, about half a second behind your typing. Inserted pictures update when you press Insert again, and an exported dashboard re-reads every chart's range on export.

Can I edit a chart after inserting it into the sheet?

Yes. Every inserted picture remembers its chart setup and its data range. Open the menu, pick "My inserted charts", choose one, and it is live in the pane again. Insert once more and the picture updates in place.

How do share links work? Where is the chart stored?

In the link itself. The chart's setup and values travel compressed inside the address, and the viewer page rebuilds the chart in the recipient's browser. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account. Treat a share link like the chart it contains: anyone you give it to can see the data in it.

Can it replace Power BI?

For a lot of everyday reporting, yes: interactive charts and multi-tab dashboards straight from your sheet, shared as a file or a link instead of workspaces and viewer licenses. What it deliberately is not: a data platform. There are no data models, no scheduled refresh, no combining ten sources. If you need those, Power BI is the right tool; if you need an answer out of the spreadsheet in front of you, this is faster.

Can charts use our company colors?

Yes. Pick "Custom (my colors)" as the theme and set your palette, background and text colors once. Better still, save six company colors as your brand kit: from then on, one click on "My brand" restyles any chart, and you can hand the kit to your team as a small text code so everyone's charts match. The "My brand (custom)" entry in the demo above shows the idea.

What does the license cost, and what do I get?

Single User is $69 once for 1 user on up to 3 devices. Team is $199 once for up to 15 users. Both are lifetime licenses: they include all 18 chart types, remove the export watermark, and include future updates. There is no subscription. Enter the key from your purchase email in Settings & license to activate.

Do you offer a refund?

Yes, 14 days, no questions asked. Email me at sven@pythonandvba.com. The full policy is at pythonandvba.com/refund-policy.

What if I get stuck?

Email me, or use the form right below. Mention which Excel you are on (Windows, Mac, web) and which chart type you were using; that answers half of all questions before they are asked. I reply myself, usually within a day.

Still have a question?

I’m Sven, the developer, and I usually reply within a day.

Ready when your next chart is

Install it from AppSource, press Use selection, and your first live chart is on screen in under a minute.

Add Chartmeister to Excel

Free for 7 days, no account. Paid plans from $69 once, with a 14-day refund.

Chartmeister is made by Sven Bosau and published by Bosau Digital LLC. Privacy policy · Terms of use · Refund policy