Your pivot table, as a Sankey
A pivot table says how much; a Sankey shows where it goes. Excel does the first, not the second. Copy the grid of your pivot table and paste it: each row flows to each column, as wide as its value, and extra headers become dimensions to browse.
Free, in the browser, no account.
Excel alone and the Crosstab mini-app
Excel facts checked against Microsoft Support, October 2026.
| Excel (pivot tables and charts) | Crosstab mini-app | |
|---|---|---|
| The Sankey | No Sankey chart type, on Windows or on macOS | The Sankey is the core of the tool |
| Starting point | A pivot table is built from a list: a single header row, no merged cells | The crosstab grid itself, multi-row headers included |
| Dimensions | Fields in rows, columns, filters | The same areas (rows, columns, filter), and each one redraws the Sankey |
| Readings of the same table | PivotCharts: bars, lines, pies… | Sankey, pivot table, donut and bars, in sync |
| Back to Excel | You are there | Load an .xlsx or a .csv, save the table as .xlsx |
| Calculations | Formulas, calculated fields, source refresh | Sums and subtotals of the table, nothing more |
How the grid becomes a Sankey
The first column names the rows, the first row names the columns, every cell is a value: that is the shape of a pivot table once displayed, and it is all the mini-app needs. Each row becomes a node on the left, each column a node on the right, each cell a flow from one to the other. Totals rows and columns are left out: totals are recomputed, not carried.
Your pivot table has two levels of headers, years above the columns or scenarios in front of the rows? They become dimensions. As in Excel, each one goes into rows, columns or a filter; unlike Excel, the Sankey follows. Filter the year on 2024: the diagram shows 2024. Move the region to columns: the diagram rearranges itself.
And the round trip stays open: the table reloads from an .xlsx or a
.csv, and goes back out as .xlsx once edited.
When Excel alone is enough
When the reader wants numbers rather than a drawing: a financial report, a tracking table read line by line, amounts copied elsewhere. When your values compare with each other more than they split up: a bar chart says better than a Sankey which one is largest. And when the table lives on its formulas and updates every week, stay in the workbook: the mini-app reads a grid of values, not your calculations.
The mini-app works on a single flow, the one in your table. To chain several stages, "Open in the full editor" takes you to OpenSankey, free and open source.
Is your data a list?
If your sheet has one row per flow (source, target, value) rather than a grid, the right page is making a Sankey diagram from Excel.
Other comparisons
Thinking of doing it in Power BI? See Sankey and Power BI. You write your flows as text? See SankeyMATIC. All comparisons are here.