What Google Sheets charts can't do (and what to do instead)
Google Sheets charting is underrated for quick exploration and overrated for anything that gets published. Knowing the boundary saves a lot of wasted effort.
No Sankey, and the workarounds are worse
There is no Sankey chart type. Apps Script and third-party add-ins exist, and they break whenever the data shape changes or the add-in stops being maintained.
Waterfalls exist but are stiff
Sheets added a waterfall type, but controlling which columns are totals and which are movements is fiddly, and formatting the connectors is close to impossible.
Annotation is very limited
Callouts, highlighted single bars and explanatory notes are how a chart becomes an argument. In Sheets most of that has to be faked with overlaid drawings that break when the chart resizes.
Exports are raster only
You get PNG. For print, large-format slides or anything a designer will touch, that is a real constraint compared with SVG.
What Sheets is genuinely good at
Fast bar and line charts next to the data, live updates as the sheet changes, and collaborative commenting. Explore in Sheets, then rebuild the one chart that gets published somewhere that can export vector.
Turn a Sheets export into a real chart →The workflow that holds up: Sheets stays the source of truth, and the published chart is regenerated from a CSV export each period.
Frequently asked
Can Google Sheets make a Sankey diagram?
Not natively. There is no Sankey chart type, and the add-in and Apps Script workarounds are fragile enough that most people export the data instead.
Can Google Sheets export charts as SVG?
No. Chart export is PNG only, which is a limitation for print and large-format presentation work.