How to Add Standard Deviation Error Bars in Excel: 5 Methods

Insert a dataset that will be populated with the necessary components. We have taken a dataset of Year-wise Sales of XYZ Company.

Input a Dataset with Necessary Components to show standard deviation error bars in excel

=STDEV.S(C5:C10)

The above syntax finds the standard deviation of cell range C5:C10.

Calculate Standard Deviation with STDEV.S Function to show error bars in excel

Select cell B4 after removing the column header.
Navigate to the Insert tab >> choose Insert Column or Bar Chart >>pick Clustered Column.

Insert Bar Chart to show standard deviation error bars in excel

Select the plot area. Click on the ➕ (plus sign) which represents the Chart Elements. Check the Error Bar and choose Standard Deviation.

Plot Error Bars to Show Standard Deviation in excel

Get the chart with the standard deviation error bars.

Customize the error bars. Click on any error bar and apparently, Format Error Bars appear.
Choose the Custom command in the Error Amount option and select the Specify Value.

Customize Error Bars

The Custom Error Bars window appears. Put the Positive and Negative Error Value to 20.
Hit OK.

Custom Error Bars window

Get the standard deviation error bars like the image below.

Download Practice Workbook

Download the following practice workbook. It will help you to realize the topic more clearly.

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