How to Make a Funnel Chart and Find Where You Lose People

Published October 11, 2026

Free tool: Funnel Chart Maker→

A funnel chart shows how many people make it through each step of a process, from the first visit to the final purchase. Each stage is a bar, widest at the top and narrowing as people drop out, so you can see at a glance where you lose the most. This guide explains how to set up a funnel, calculate conversion rates and drop-off, and make one with the free Funnel Chart Maker.

What funnel charts are used for

• Sales and marketing: visitors, leads, qualified leads, proposals, customers.
• Online stores: visits, product views, add to cart, checkout, purchase.
• Sign-ups: landing page, form started, form completed, email confirmed.
• Hiring: applications, screening calls, interviews, offers, hires.

The stages must follow each other, and each stage should include only people who passed the stage before it.

Worked example: an online store

Here's a month of data for a small online store (it's the sample the Funnel Chart Maker opens with):

The calculations are simple:

• % of first stage = people at this stage ÷ people at the first stage. Only 8% of visitors bought something; that's the overall conversion rate.
• % of previous stage = people at this stage ÷ people at the stage before. This is the step's conversion rate.
• Drop-off = people at the previous stage − people at this stage.

Finding the leakiest step

Look at two things:

• The biggest drop-off in people: 4,000 visitors left without viewing a product. That may simply reflect casual browsing.
• The lowest step conversion: only 41.7% of product viewers added something to the cart. That's often the most useful place to start: better product photos, clearer prices or reviews could lift it.

Small improvements early in the funnel multiply through every later stage, which is why it pays to work out each step's rate instead of looking only at the final number.

How to make a funnel chart with Graph Maker

1. Open the Funnel Chart Maker.

2. Type a chart title, such as "Online Store Conversion Funnel".

3. Enter the stages, one per line from the top of the funnel down: a name, a colon, then the number. Thousands separators are fine:

   Website visits: 10,000
   Product views: 6,000
   Added to cart: 2,500
   Started checkout: 1,200
   Purchased: 800
   

4. Choose the stage labels: the count and the percentage of the first stage, the count and the percentage of the previous stage, or the count only.

5. Choose the colors: blue shades that darken toward the bottom, or one custom color. You can also set the background, title and font colors.

6. Check the table under the chart, which lists each stage's count, its percentage of the first and previous stages, and the drop-off.

7. Download the funnel as a PNG, JPG or SVG.

Tips for a useful funnel

• Use the same time period for every stage, such as one month, so the numbers belong together.
• Count unique people or sessions consistently at every stage.
• Keep it to about 3 to 7 stages. More detail can go in a separate analysis.
• Compare funnels over time or between groups, such as mobile vs desktop visitors, to see where one performs worse.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate a funnel conversion rate?

Divide the number of people at a stage by the number at the stage before it for that step's rate, or by the number at the first stage for the overall rate. In the example, 800 purchases from 10,000 visits is an 8% overall conversion rate.

What is drop-off in a funnel?

The number of people lost between one stage and the next. 2,500 people added items to their cart and 1,200 started checkout, so 1,300 dropped off at that step.

Should a funnel chart always get narrower?

In a true funnel, yes, because each stage contains only people from the stage before. If a stage has more people than the previous one, check whether the stages really follow each other or are counted differently.