How to create a Gantt chart in Excel

Start with a task table that counts working days

Both methods below read from the same table. Put one task per row, with these columns:

WORKDAY(start, days, holidays) returns the date a given number of working days after the start, skipping Saturdays, Sundays and any dates in the holidays range. The -1 is there because a one-day task starts and ends on the same day. Holidays is a named range: list your public holidays and shutdown days in a column, select them and name the range. Leave the argument off if you don’t need it.

Two related functions help. NETWORKDAYS(start, end, holidays) runs the other way, counting the working days between two dates you already have. Use it when someone hands you a deadline rather than an estimate. WORKDAY.INTL does the same job as WORKDAY with a different weekend, for example Friday and Saturday.

The separate chart-days column is there because an Excel bar chart knows nothing about working days. It draws a bar across every calendar day between two dates, so a 7-working-day task that crosses a weekend needs a 9-day bar. Plan in working days, draw in calendar days.

Method 1: make a Gantt chart from a stacked bar chart

This is the classic Excel Gantt chart. The trick is a stacked bar with two series: the start date, which you make invisible, and the duration, which is the bar you see. The invisible bar pushes the visible one along to the right date.

1. Select the task names and start dates (columns A and B, including the header row).
2. Insert a stacked bar chart. On the Insert tab, open the bar chart menu and choose Stacked Bar (the horizontal one, not Stacked Column). You’ll get one set of long bars, because Excel is plotting each date as a very large number.
3. Add the duration series. Right-click the chart, choose Select Data, and add a new series. Name it “Duration” and set its values to the chart days column (E2 down). Check the category (axis) labels point at the task names.
4. Hide the start-date bars. Click the first series (the start dates), open Format Data Series, and set the fill to No fill and the border to No line. What’s left looks like a Gantt chart floating in empty space.
5. Put the first task at the top. Excel draws bar charts bottom-up. Select the vertical axis, open Format Axis, and tick Categories in reverse order. The date axis jumps to the top of the chart when you do, which most people prefer anyway.
6. Remove the empty space before the project. Select the horizontal (date) axis and open Format Axis. Set the minimum bound to your first start date. Excel stores dates as serial numbers, so if typing a date doesn’t work, find the number by formatting the start-date cell as General: 16 November 2026 is 46342. Set the major unit to 7 for weekly gridlines, and the maximum a little past your last end date.
7. Tidy up. Reduce the gap width on the duration series (around 30 to 50%) so the bars are thicker, delete the legend, and format the axis labels as short dates.

Milestones are awkward here, because a stacked bar can’t draw a diamond. The simple fix is a one-day bar in a contrasting colour (click a single bar twice to format it on its own). The fancier fix is an extra scatter series with diamond markers plotted on the same axes, which works but takes a while to get aligned. Either way, name the milestone clearly in the task column.

Method 2: shade a grid with conditional formatting

Plenty of Excel users skip the chart and shade cells instead. It looks more like a wall planner than a chart, but adding a task is just inserting a row, and it prints predictably.

1. Add date columns to the right of your task table. For a weekly grid, put the Monday of the first week in the header of the first column (=B2-WEEKDAY(B2,3) gives the Monday on or before a date). If that first date is in H1, put =H1+7 in I1 and fill right. For a daily grid, add 1 instead of 7.
2. Select the grid, starting from the top-left cell under the first date header.
3. Add a rule. Open Conditional Formatting, choose New Rule, then the option to use a formula to decide which cells to format. For a weekly grid where dates are in row 1, starts in column B and ends in column D, the formula for the top-left cell is =AND(H$1<=$D2, H$1+6>=$B2). For a daily grid it’s =AND(H$1>=$B2, H$1<=$D2); add WEEKDAY(H$1,2)<6 inside the AND to leave weekends unshaded.
4. Pick a fill colour and apply. The dollar signs pin the row of dates and the start and end columns, so the rule reads the right cells as it runs across the grid.
5. Add more rules if you want them: a second colour where an owner column says “Client”, or a highlight on the current week using TODAY().

Free Excel Gantt chart template

If you’d rather not build it yourself, download our Gantt chart template for Excel (.xlsx). It uses the grid method and is pre-filled with a twelve-row website project so you can see how it behaves before you clear it out. What’s in it:

• Columns for phase, task, owner, start, working days and end, with the end date calculated by WORKDAY.
• A project start date at the top. Start dates chain from the row above, so changing that one date moves the whole plan. Type over any start to fix it.
• A Holidays sheet. End dates skip whatever you list there.
• A 16-week grid shaded by conditional formatting, with client-owned tasks in a second colour and milestones (0 working days) shown as a diamond.
• Frozen headers and task columns, and a landscape one-page print setup.

It opens in Excel, and in Google Sheets and LibreOffice too. For the Sheets-specific methods, see how to make a Gantt chart in Google Sheets. Microsoft also publishes Gantt templates for Excel; search for “Gantt” under File > New.

Where an Excel Gantt chart starts to hurt

An Excel Gantt chart is fine for a plan you build once and look at alone. The trouble starts when the plan changes or other people need to see it.

• Moving tasks. You can’t drag a bar. Every change is an edit to a date or a duration, and if you’ve chained dates with formulas, one change can move twenty rows in ways that aren’t obvious until you look at the chart.
• Sharing. Clients and stakeholders get an attachment, which is out of date the moment you change something, or edit access to a workbook they can break. Neither is a view-only plan that stays current.
• Printing to one page. Fit-to-page on a wide grid shrinks the text until it’s unreadable, and page breaks split bars. Getting a clean one-page PDF usually means adjusting column widths by hand.
• Versions. “Plan_v3_FINAL_revised.xlsx” is a version history, technically. When a client asks what moved since last month, you’re comparing two files by eye.
• Working days on the chart. WORKDAY fixes the dates, but the chart itself still draws weekends as if work happens on them, and holidays don’t show at all.

None of these are reasons to avoid Excel for a one-off plan. They’re reasons to move once a plan is shared and changing every week.

If you’re weighing up tools more broadly, how to make a Gantt chart compares spreadsheets with the other options. If cost is what keeps you in Excel, the free Gantt chart maker page sets out what the free plan covers (one person, up to five charts) and what it doesn’t.