Top-Down and Left-Right Orientation
Switch between a classic icicle layout (root at top, leaves pointing down) and a horizontal tree layout to match your presentation style.
Icicle Chart
Free Online Icicle Chart Maker
What is an Icicle Chart?
An icicle chart is a hierarchical visualization that displays parent-child relationships as stacked rectangular cells flowing top-down or left-right — resembling icicles hanging from a root. Each cell's width is proportional to its value relative to siblings, making it easy to compare subtree sizes at a glance. Use it whenever you need to show both the structure of a hierarchy and the quantitative weight of each branch simultaneously. It is ideal for org charts, budget breakdowns, file system usage, and any dataset with two or more levels of nesting.
Key Features
Proportional Cell Sizing
Each node's width automatically scales to reflect its value relative to its siblings, so structural weight is always visible at every level.
Color by Category or Level
Color nodes by their category group to highlight clusters, or by depth level to make the hierarchy immediately readable.
Flexible Label Modes
Display node name, numeric value, or both — with a configurable minimum cell width so labels only appear where there is room to read them.
Interactive Tooltips
Hover over any cell to see its full name, value, and path from root, without cluttering the chart with dense annotations.
Animate on Load
Smooth entry animation draws the hierarchy level by level, helping audiences follow the structure in presentations.
Best For
Department budget allocation breakdowns
Org chart headcount by team and role
File system or cloud storage usage by folder
Website traffic by section and sub-page
Product category revenue contribution
Supply chain components broken down by cost
When to Use
- When your data has two or more levels of parent-child hierarchy
- When you want to show both structure and proportional size in one view
- When a treemap feels too flat and you need to emphasize vertical depth
- When comparing subtree totals against their parent node
- When presenting how a whole budget or org breaks into nested parts
- When your audience needs to trace a path from root to leaf node
Common Mistakes
- Too many leaf nodes at the deepest level, making labels unreadable
- Assigning identical values to all nodes so proportional sizing adds no insight
- Omitting a single root node, which breaks the top-level hierarchy display
- Using too many distinct colors across levels, making depth hard to follow
- Mixing category and level color modes without a consistent legend
- Skipping the minimum cell width setting, causing labels to overflow into adjacent cells
Vorlagen
Beginnen Sie mit professionell gestalteten Vorlagen
Kostenlos starten
Create Your Icicle Chart with AI
Describe your hierarchy or paste values — our AI builds an icicle chart in seconds.
Free, no sign-up required