How to make a Gantt chart
- List your tasks with a start date and duration in days. A duration of 0 makes a milestone, shown as a diamond.
- Add the percentage complete, a group (phase or team) for colour, and dependencies: the number of any task that must finish first.
- Choose a day, week or month scale. The red line marks today, and warnings appear if a task starts before something it depends on.
- Download the chart as a PNG for slides and reports, or the tasks as a CSV to open in a spreadsheet.
Planning with a Gantt chart
A Gantt chart, named after Henry Gantt who popularised it around 1910, shows a project's tasks as bars on a timeline. It answers the questions people ask most about any project: what happens when, what depends on what, and are we on schedule? Bars that overlap show work happening in parallel; dependency lines show the sequence that drives the end date, often called the critical path. Shading by percentage complete makes progress visible at a glance in status meetings.
Keep the chart at a useful level of detail: for most projects, tasks of a few days to a few weeks work better than hundreds of tiny items. Group tasks into phases, add milestones for key decisions and launches, and build in some buffer before fixed deadlines. Update start dates and progress weekly so the chart stays honest. For large projects with resources and costs, dedicated project software may be better, but for planning and communicating most projects a clear chart like this is enough. Your tasks are saved only in this browser.
What is a milestone in a Gantt chart?
A point in time with no duration, such as a launch or sign-off. Enter 0 days to show it as a diamond.
How do I show dependencies?
Enter the number of the task that must finish first in "After #". Several tasks can be listed with commas.
Can I import tasks from Excel?
Yes. Copy rows with task name, start date, days and percentage, then use "Paste from spreadsheet".