How to Plot an Equation in Google Sheets

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Often you may want to plot an equation or a function in Google Sheets.

Fortunately this is easy to do with built-in formulas.

This tutorial provides several examples of how to plot equations/functions in Google Sheets.

Example 1: Plot a Linear Equation

Suppose you’d like to plot the following equation:

y = 2x + 5

The following image shows how to create the y-values for this linear equation in Google Sheets, using the range of 1 to 10 for the x-values:

Next, highlight the values in the range A2:B11. Then click on the Insert tab. Then click Chart:

The following plot will automatically appear:

We can see that the plot follows a straight line since the equation that we used was linear.

Example 2: Plot a Quadratic Equation

Suppose you’d like to plot the following equation:

y = 3x²

The following image shows how to create the y-values for this equation in Google Sheets, using the range of 1 to 10 for the x-values:

Next, highlight the values in the range A2:B11. Then click on the Insert tab. Then click Chart.

The following plot will automatically appear:

We can see that the plot follows a curved line since the equation that we used was quadratic.

Example 3: Plot a Reciprocal Equation

Suppose you’d like to plot the following equation:

y = 1/x

The following image shows how to create the y-values for this equation in Google Sheets, using the range of 1 to 10 for the x-values:

Next, highlight the values in the range A2:B11. Then click on the Insert tab. Then click Chart.

The following plot will automatically appear:

We can see that the plot follows a curved line downwards since this represents the equation y = 1/x.

Example 4: Plot a Sine Equation

Suppose you’d like to plot the following equation:

y = sin(x)

The following image shows how to create the y-values for this equation in Google Sheets, using the range of 1 to 10 for the x-values:

Next, highlight the values in the range A2:B11. Then click on the Insert tab. Then click Chart.

The following plot will automatically appear:

You can use a similar technique to plot any function or equation in Google Sheets.

Simply choose a range of x-values to use in one column, then use an equation in a separate column to define the y-values based on the x-values.