How To Add Error Bars In Excel (Custom Error Bars)

In this video tutorial I am going to show you how to add error bars in Excel. Specifically, I will show you how to add standard deviation error bars to a bar graph.
There are many types of error bars you can add to graphs in Excel. In this example, I will use the standard devation, however, you can also use the standard error or confidence intervals. I have included links below on how to calculate these in Excel.
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HOW TO CALCULATE STANDARD ERROR IN EXCEL
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[@mackthemark9105]

Mr. Bradburn, may the rains fall soft upon your fields. May you bask in the sun and never get a burn; may your parents be liberal in their affection; may your children grow up to recognize the beautiful man that you are. Go forth this day with the knowledge that lives, or at the very least occasional Thursday evenings, are changed. God bless you. If you are not a religious man; you rock. You also rock if you're a religious man, to be clear. You get what I mean.

[@jayceel251]

Man you must've really needed those error bars

[@iglide]

@@jayceel251 he really did

[@maximontes5590]

This video is just perfect. Had been struggling for days trying to set the right deviation values on my graph. You Mr. simply saved my a$$. Infinite thanks!

[@jackwhitehead8177]

Dude, this is awesome. So straightforward. I'm a heavy procrastinator; you're here in my moment of panic and I could follow everything you said easily.

[@MadieMeysenburg]

Thank you so much! This was by far the most simple tutorial I have seen regarding error bars, and it makes much more sense! I need these in my graph for my IB Biology Extended Essay, so this video saved my life!

[@StevenBradburn]

Thanks for the feedback

[@23rbarrett]

What a pleasure to encounter such a well organized and explained video! Followed your steps, et voila, the graph I need with error bars, thank you. In return, I offer this quote, from a distinguished colleague: "If I see a graph without error bars, I assume they are the width of the page." :)

[@StevenBradburn]

Many thanks for your kind feedback :)

[@edgypancreas1839]

Perfect Video, straight to the point and clear. Thank you, brother!

[@konnerbaker3301]

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. Full send on the Like.

[@highwilllee2685]

Thanks for this tutorial. With my daughter we are looking a graph with error bars. Finally we find it in your helpful tutorial with "Custom" error bars.

[@ivystar6955]

You've just saved my life from the agony of endless research on how to custom error bars on Excel, I'll never be able to thank you enough ! Have a nice day (:

[@sowsan1034]

KINNGGGG THANK YOU!!!! I was so stuck on this

[@robbuckland5953]

Excellent, you included a step many have missed in copying and repeating the positive and negative error values into the custom option.
Thanks for this.....

[@skyzrpeterson517]

I’ve trying to do this for hours. You’re a savior

[@leahkimerer2446]

This is exactly what I needed! Thank you!

[@emilymccann1842]

This was so helpful. Couldn't have worked it out without this video!! Thank you :))

[@linganileonjdube8160]

Thank you so much, you've just helped me with my last chapter of quantitative data for my MSc.

[@kymclennan7805]

Absolute legend. The website tutorials don't explain it as clear as you so thanks mate!!

[@StevenBradburn]

No problem 👍

[@FlashDon]

I’ve been trying to do this for about a day.. this tutorial was worth it. Thank you sir!

[@StevenBradburn]

👍

[@a.t.3192]

Oh god figuring this out was killing me in excel. Thanks so much for the excellent tutorial.

[@jacksonrottier]

Let’s gooo!!! Thank you so much for the help. Very clear and very helpful.

[@halofreak6166]

Awesome! thank you so much for saving so much time, very quick and concise!

[@cogwheelLearning]

Hey, really nice video! Your flow is excellent

[@needle_edible]

thank you so much!!! you saved my bachelor's thesis

[@TheVrashal]

This Tutorial was really helpful in creating cluster graph for my conference paper. Thank You from a Ph.D. Scholar.

[@shauryagoyal8770]

THIS IS AMAZING THANK YOU SO MUCH
SAVED MY LIFE IN LESS THAN 4 MINUTES

[@breakingthefourthwall4945]

Thanks for the no bs vid man!

[@taylag1225]

Honestly couldn’t thank you enough for this!

[@StevenBradburn]

Very welcome

[@tobyp2958]

This saved me from so much confusion thanks!

[@markmcfadden7428]

Your example was bang on, thanks

[@user-bh3cc4kr1d]

Great. You made it so easy.

[@user-bo6fu9mx5t]

thank you so much!! It is a great video. It helped a lot

[@awppenheimer]

I keep coming back to this video every few months cos I keep forgetting how to do standard deviation lol. pretty helpful tho so thanks

[@laurahorvath9258]

You saved my life!!!! thank you so much

[@fragra7186]

thanks man you helped me a lot, much appreciated

[@nasermohammadzadeh9848]

Thanks Steven. Very useful

[@Cobamernani456]

Thank you so much! Absolute life saver, quick and easy. Thanks for getting to the point so quickly!

[@StevenBradburn]

Very welcome!

[@dozytoast416]

This was helpful, thank you.

[@georgiaheaven5615]

Thank you for your help on this!

[@zainsaeed147]

I am advised to add error bars to my graph in research article. The video really helped me to make these using excel. May i know that once we add these bars to graph then do we need to make changes in the discussion part as well ??
Also do we need to mention that error bars are based on STDEV or STDEV. P or STDEV. S

[@scottdiver690]

Great vid thank you. A big help

[@oussboudjelthia4869]

You made my life so much easier thank you sooooo much

[@StevenBradburn]

Very welcome

[@michaelwang1730]

Thank you so much, it worked!

[@_patience1001]

Thank you very much, this is very helpful and interesting

[@konstantinosdivanis4213]

thank you,excellent video

[@thediabetescoach9912]

Amazing thank you!!

[@karleffertz]

Thank you so much - that was very clear and concise.

[@StevenBradburn]

Thanks Karl

[@neg_bm]

Thank you this was very helpful :)

[@Cullen592]

This video is so clutch!

[@ruturajdeorukhkar8006]

Hi, thanks for the wonderful video ! I can’t find the error bar option when I press plus button. Any suggestions or remedies?

[@shunkaizhao3304]

God's work! Thank you!

[@VIShesh_Agrawal_happy]

Thanks sir for guiding us

[@MmeOtaku]

Thank you so much !

[@hamidkiangaikani]

Awesome! Thanks man

[@sylvangibbs3330]

finnally someone i can understand

[@lhhiep]

thank you for your useful video

[@chantelleflynn9984]

Another full send on a like here, thank god you do these videos

[@StevenBradburn]

Thanks again!

[@michellelin1944]

Amazing this video was so useful! Thank you so much for the help :)

[@StevenBradburn]

Very welcome Michelle

[@alicerosew]

Hi, do you have a video to show how to do this for 95% confidence intervals (i.e. upper and lower confidence intervals)?

[@dukedex5043]

Hi, if you have error numbers of data from a machine you used to analyse chemicals, can you use that error number in the excel error bar instead, or is the error bar only used for standard deviations that is calculated in excel? The machine I use calculated parts per million of a chemical, with an error number saying it could be this much more or less of parts per million. I hope that makes sense.

[@quentinbld7705]

Best video ever ty

[@kagamer21]

Hey Doc. B, what is the deal with line graphs in excel-- where when you try to add an error bar it makes a cross and not just a vertical line for the error bars?

[@matthewstilling4207]

This was a good video.

[@vincyvarghese2426]

U made my day

[@mastermind2971]

Thank you!

[@sametnohutcu5556]

thank you so much.

[@parimojesh1051]

Very informative

[@laurensong8]

Thanks so much! :)

[@wakeg40]

dude thank you!

[@machonambahwe5081]

Thanks alot. It very helpful.

[@StevenBradburn]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Tiger-789]

Thanks a lot!

[@chrisduarte7055]

Thanks!

[@elii1139]

Thanks a lot

[@connerwatson1902]

god bless you sir, I may now pass Bio 161

[@liamdonnelly1816]

Thank you ^^

[@ikramulhaq7883]

thanks 👍

[@tunmisevictoria4464]

I love this

[@khanofficial2249]

Nice to see your helpful videos, kindly make videos about Rstudio some diversity indices.

[@diadahang7982]

For excel 2020,
1. Create a bar graph
2. Add Error Bars - Standard Deviation (don't look for more option, its not there)
3. Double click on the error bar - 'format error bars' will pop up from the right hand side
4. See the error amount, it will most likely be on standard deviation - change it custom
5. Click 'Specify Value'
6. Fill the value with your error bars - click OK
AND YOU ARE GOOD TO GO :)
GOODLUCK, TAKE DEEP BREATH AND CARE ON. REST IF YOU NEED TO!

[@StevenBradburn]

Thanks for the advice :)

[@thenewstyle8704]

Fucking life saver...

[@rhabdomere]

This saved my day! And I hate this stupid change from Microsoft: I don't understand why these f..king folks would keep changing it...It's meaningless and gives users a lot of trouble!

[@misssensei4040]

Thank you so much 🙏🏾

[@funmilayoafolabi5333]

I can't find the chart element option on my excel sheet.

[@KhaLed-pb4pu]

what about the box and whisker plot? error bars does not appear in the "add chart element".

[@banushasathi3526]

Thank you

[@charlottechambers3388]

love you king

[@MA-yt4xf]

Thanks for this!! I have a question - I created a bar graph representing the fold change of my gene of interest (treatment group fold change divided by control group fold change). I have 2 standard deviations - one for the treatment group and control group. Should I divide the treatment SD / control SD as well for my error bars? Or should I add the two SDs together?
Data:
Treatment fold change average = 5.9
SD of fold changes (3 samples) = 3.14
Control fold change average = 1.01
SD of fold changes (3 samples) = 0.23
Treated/control fold change = 5.83
Error bars = ??

[@saharkhalil5483]

Iam also looking for this from past 5 days 😢still got no answer

[@MA-yt4xf]

@@saharkhalil5483 i didnt her the answer either, so I ditched the error bars all together

[@saharkhalil5483]

@@MA-yt4xf iam really got sick due this stress 🥹🥲

[@mariamyassine8733]

I love you legend

[@SaucyTuRkLeBiRd]

Ah my data isnt plotted in excel. What formula do I need to just enter the numerical values manually (at 3:20). Thanks!

[@carterweeg5851]

THANK YOU BABY

[@NikhilRatnaNeuro]

It helps to generate the bars but questions remain. why are same values entered in positive and negative error boxes? where is it accounting for the specificity of the data series of each bar?
how can it be done without using custom option?

[@dew_77]

tysm

[@willemdafoe5499]

Does this not double the standard deviation?

[@user-qe1uo8wh1i]

What if in each point i have more than one bar ?

[@user-cx1jv2vp2t]

thank uuuu 💏

[@marlasinger8274]

god bless bro

[@iskanderdoom6247]

Do u have an idea how format errorbar difference for X and Y lines in VBA?
With chrt.SeriesCollection (numb_series) .ErrorBars
.EndStyle xlNoCap
.Format.Line.Visible msoTrue
.Format.Line. Weight 15
.Format.Line. ForeColor.RGB RGB (255, 100, 0)
.Format.Line. Transparency 0
End With
I don't understand how made lines for X and Y different color, weight.

[@willsteiner2529]

thanks

[@StevenBradburn]

No problem

[@ivy3723]

How do you change the 1 and 2? I need to add the variable name but i can’t find how

[@StevenBradburn]

Hi Ida,
1. Right-click on the graph and go to Select Data
2. Then click on Edit on the right side (Axis Labels)
3. Add in the labels; separate each entry with a comma

[@yiagsit3770]

When i click on my plus icon near the graphic, there's no error bar option. Also i can't click on error bars on design bar. Someone help pleasee

[@candythoms3995]

How can I add an error bar only on one bar?

[@SchoolBoyKosi]

My issue is that I don't have that plus sign at the top right corner of my graph so it doesnt allow me to customize my error bars. I calculated my standard error and everything but I cant implement the values into my graph.

[@SchoolBoyKosi]

nevermind i just had to download the excel app! You can't do what I was trying to do on chrome for Macbooks apparently.

[@Robert-pq3sb]

How do you get horizontal error bars???

[@misscahayachenta]

I follow till last step... Then my error bar not display at all...

[@blakepickering6914]

THANK THE LORD DR. BRADBURN