Chartmeister draws everything locally. The chart engine ships inside the add-in, so your worksheet data is never uploaded anywhere, and the only network request the add-in ever makes is checking a license key. This page is the plain-words version.
The formal document is the Chartmeister Privacy Policy.
Your worksheet data never leaves Excel #
Reading the range you bind, building the live preview, rendering the chart, inserting it as a picture, exporting a file: all of it happens inside Excel on your device. We do not receive, store or have any access to your workbook contents. During the free trial, and in free mode, the add-in makes no network requests at all.
What you create does carry your data #
A chart is only useful if it shows your numbers, so the things you deliberately produce contain them:
- Exported files (interactive HTML charts, PNG images, dashboard pages) are generated on your device and saved where you choose. They include the charted values.
- Share links pack the chart’s configuration and its values, compressed, into the link itself, in the part after the
#. Browsers never transmit that part, so nothing is uploaded and the viewer’s browser rebuilds the chart locally. Treat a share link like the chart itself: anyone you give it to can see the data in it. - Inserted chart pictures keep their settings and the address of the source range, never the cell values, in the picture’s alternative text inside your own workbook, which is what lets you reopen and edit them later.
Each of these is created only when you ask for it, and none of them travel through us.
What ever reaches us #
- The license check: your license key, an anonymous installation identifier (a random value generated on your device, not derived from your hardware) and the add-in version. It runs when the add-in starts and when you save a key. Enter no key and the request is never made at all.
- Nothing else. There is no analytics, no advertising, no tracking and no automatic error reporting.
A record of the last successful check stays on your device so licensed features keep working for a 7 day offline grace period when the license server cannot be reached.
What stays on your device #
Your license key, your settings, your presets, your dashboard collection (chart snapshots, including their charted values), your per-chart-type options and the date of your first use all live in your local Office add-in storage. Settings, then “Reset all Chartmeister settings”, clears every bit of that except the first-use date, which anchors the free trial and stays until you remove the add-in and clear its storage.
One optional exception: the CDN #
Exported HTML files normally have the chart engine embedded, so they open with no internet connection at all. If you switch off Embed chart engine in Settings to get smaller files, the exported file loads the open source chart library from the jsDelivr CDN when someone opens that file. The request comes from the exported file in the viewer’s browser, not from the add-in, and it carries no worksheet data.