Chartkick.js

Create beautiful charts with one line of JavaScript

See it in action

Supports Chart.js, Google Charts, and Highcharts

Also available for React, Vue.js, Ruby, Python, Elixir, and Clojure

For maps, check out Mapkick.js

Quick Start

Run

npm install chartkick chart.js

And add

import Chartkick from "chartkick"
import "chartkick/chart.js"

This sets up Chartkick with Chart.js. For other charting libraries, see detailed instructions.

Charts

Create a div for the chart

<div id="chart" style="height: 300px;"></div>

Line chart

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", {"2025-01-01": 11, "2025-01-02": 6})

Pie chart

new Chartkick.PieChart("chart", [["Blueberry", 44], ["Strawberry", 23]])

Column chart

new Chartkick.ColumnChart("chart", [["Sun", 32], ["Mon", 46], ["Tue", 28]])

Bar chart

new Chartkick.BarChart("chart", [["Work", 32], ["Play", 1492]])

Area chart

new Chartkick.AreaChart("chart", {"2025-01-01": 11, "2025-01-02": 6})

Scatter chart

new Chartkick.ScatterChart("chart", [[174.0, 80.0], [176.5, 82.3], [180.3, 73.6]])

Geo chart - Google Charts

new Chartkick.GeoChart("chart", [["United States", 44], ["Germany", 23], ["Brazil", 22]])

Timeline - Google Charts

new Chartkick.Timeline("chart", [["Washington", "1789-04-29", "1797-03-03"], ["Adams", "1797-03-03", "1801-03-03"]])

Multiple series

data = [
  {name: "Workout", data: {"2025-01-01": 3, "2025-01-02": 4}},
  {name: "Call parents", data: {"2025-01-01": 5, "2025-01-02": 3}}
]
new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data)

Multiple series stacked and grouped - Chart.js or Highcharts

data = [
  {name: "Apple", data: {"Tuesday": 3, "Friday": 4}, stack: "fruit"},
  {name: "Pear", data: {"Tuesday": 1, "Friday": 8}, stack: "fruit"},
  {name: "Carrot", data: {"Tuesday": 3, "Friday": 4}, stack: "vegetable"},
  {name: "Beet", data: {"Tuesday": 1, "Friday": 8}, stack: "vegetable"}
]
new Chartkick.BarChart("chart", data, {stacked: true})

Data

Data can be an array, object, callback, or URL.

Array

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", [["2025-01-01", 2], ["2025-01-02", 3]])

Object

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", {"2025-01-01": 2, "2025-01-02": 3})

Callback

function fetchData(success, fail) {
  success({"2025-01-01": 2, "2025-01-02": 3})
  // or fail("Data not available")
}

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", fetchData)

URL

Make your pages load super fast and stop worrying about timeouts. Give each chart its own endpoint.

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", "/stocks")

Options

Min and max for y-axis

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {min: 1000, max: 5000})

min defaults to 0 for charts with non-negative values. Use null to let the charting library decide.

Min and max for x-axis - Chart.js

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {xmin: "2025-01-01", xmax: "2025-02-01"})

Colors

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {colors: ["#b00", "#666"]})

Stacked columns or bars

new Chartkick.ColumnChart("chart", data, {stacked: true})

You can also set stacked to percent or relative for Google Charts and percent for Highcharts

Discrete axis

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {discrete: true})

Label (for single series)

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {label: "Value"})

Axis titles

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {xtitle: "Time", ytitle: "Population"})

Straight lines between points instead of a curve

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {curve: false})

Hide points

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {points: false})

Show or hide legend

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {legend: true})

Specify legend position

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {legend: "bottom"})

Donut chart

new Chartkick.PieChart("chart", data, {donut: true})

Prefix, useful for currency - Chart.js, Highcharts

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {prefix: "$"})

Suffix, useful for percentages - Chart.js, Highcharts

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {suffix: "%"})

Set a thousands separator - Chart.js, Highcharts

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {thousands: ","})

Set a decimal separator - Chart.js, Highcharts

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {decimal: ","})

Set significant digits - Chart.js, Highcharts

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {precision: 3})

Set rounding - Chart.js, Highcharts

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {round: 2})

Show insignificant zeros, useful for currency - Chart.js, Highcharts

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {round: 2, zeros: true})

Friendly byte sizes - Chart.js

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {bytes: true})

Specify the message when the chart is loading

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {loading: "Loading..."})

Specify the message when data is empty

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {empty: "No data"})

Refresh data from a remote source every n seconds

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", url, {refresh: 60})

You can pass options directly to the charting library with:

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {library: {backgroundColor: "pink"}})

See the documentation for Chart.js, Google Charts, and Highcharts for more info.

To customize datasets in Chart.js, use:

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {dataset: {borderWidth: 10}})

You can pass this option to individual series as well.

Global Options

To set options for all of your charts, use:

Chartkick.options = {
  colors: ["#b00", "#666"]
}

Multiple Series

You can pass a few options with a series:

• name
• data
• color
• dataset - Chart.js only
• points - Chart.js only
• curve - Chart.js only

Code

If you want to use the charting library directly, get the code with:

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {code: true})

The code will be logged to the JavaScript console.

Note: JavaScript functions cannot be logged, so it may not be identical.

Download Charts

Chart.js only

Give users the ability to download charts. It all happens in the browser - no server-side code needed.

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {download: true})

Set the filename

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {download: {filename: "boom"}})

Note: Safari will open the image in a new window instead of downloading.

Set the background color

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {download: {background: "#fff"}})

Installation

Chart.js

Run

npm install chartkick chart.js

And add

import Chartkick from "chartkick"
import "chartkick/chart.js"

Google Charts

Run

npm install chartkick

And add

import Chartkick from "chartkick"

And include on the page

<script src="https://www.gstatic.com/charts/loader.js"></script>

To specify a language or Google Maps API key, use:

Chartkick.configure({language: "de", mapsApiKey: "..."})

before your charts.

Highcharts

Run

npm install chartkick highcharts

And add

import Chartkick from "chartkick"
import "chartkick/highcharts"

No Package Manager

Download chartkick.js directly.

For Chart.js (works with 4+), download it and the date-fns adapter bundle and use:

<script src="/path/to/chart.js"></script>
<script src="/path/to/chartjs-adapter-date-fns.bundle.js"></script>
<script src="chartkick.js"></script>

For Google Charts, use:

<script src="https://www.gstatic.com/charts/loader.js"></script>
<script src="chartkick.js"></script>

For Highcharts (works with 2.1+), download it and use:

<script src="/path/to/highcharts.js"></script>
<script src="chartkick.js"></script>

Multiple Libraries

If more than one charting library is loaded, choose between them with:

new Chartkick.LineChart("chart", data, {adapter: "google"}) // or highcharts or chartjs

API

Access a chart with:

var chart = Chartkick.charts["chart-id"]

Get the underlying chart object with:

chart.getChartObject()

You can also use:

chart.getElement()
chart.getData()
chart.getOptions()
chart.getAdapter()

Update the data with:

chart.updateData(newData)

You can also specify new options:

chart.setOptions(newOptions)
// or
chart.updateData(newData, newOptions)

Refresh the data from a remote source:

chart.refreshData()

Redraw the chart with:

chart.redraw()

Loop over charts with:

Chartkick.eachChart(function (chart) {
  // do something
})

Custom Adapters

Note: This feature is experimental.

Add your own custom adapter with:

var CustomAdapter = {
  name: "custom",
  renderLineChart: function (chart) {
    chart.getElement().innerHTML = "Hi"
  }
}

Chartkick.adapters.unshift(CustomAdapter)

Examples

To run the files in the examples directory, you’ll need a web server. Run:

npm install -g serve
serve

and visit http://localhost:5000/examples/

History

View the changelog

Contributing

Everyone is encouraged to help improve this project. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Report bugs
• Fix bugs and submit pull requests
• Write, clarify, or fix documentation
• Suggest or add new features

To get started with development:

git clone https://github.com/ankane/chartkick.js.git
cd chartkick.js
npm install
npm run build

# start web server
npm install -g serve
serve