How to make a cumulative chart from a Notion database

What a cumulative chart shows

A regular bar or line chart answers “how many this week”. A cumulative chart answers “how many so far”: each point is the total of every period up to and including it. Two uses come up most.

• Progress toward a target: tasks completed, articles published, money raised. A line climbing toward the target is easier to read than a row of weekly bars.
• A burn-up chart: work finished, plotted over time and read against the total scope of a project. The distance between the line and the scope is the work left.

With counts, or with sums of positive numbers, the line never falls. A flat stretch means nothing was added in those periods, which is worth seeing too.

The cumulative option in Notion’s own chart

Notion’s chart has a cumulative option, and its chart help page says when it appears:

“You'll see this option if your chart is showing Count or Sum and your X axis property is sorted in ascending order.”

In practice that means two conditions and one precondition:

1. The chart’s values are a Count or a Sum. A running average or a running maximum does not get the option.
2. The X axis property is sorted ascending. On a date axis, that is oldest first.
3. The chart has an X axis to sort. Notion’s help page says: “The X and Y axis configurations are only available for bar and line charts.” So look for the option on a bar or line chart.

Two limits apply to every Notion chart, cumulative or not:

• Notion’s Free plan includes 1 chart: “If you're on a Free plan, you can create one chart, and if you're on a paid plan, you can create unlimited charts.”
• The number of points has a ceiling: “Charts can only display up to 200 groups and 50 subgroups at a time (for example, 200 days on the X-axis).” A daily running total over a whole year has more days than that.

If your chart fits these conditions and you are on a paid Notion plan or this is the only chart you need, Notion’s own option is enough and you do not need anything else. A running count of tasks closed per week is a good example.

Build a cumulative chart in ChartOmodo

ChartOmodo is a Notion integration. It reads the database through Notion’s API, draws the chart, and you paste the chart into a Notion page as an embed block. The running total is a toggle named Cumulative in the chart builder, on the Starter plan and up.

1. Create an account, open Data sources and connect Notion. On Notion’s screen, share only the database you want to chart.
2. Open the database in the builder and choose Bar, Line or Area. These are the types that show the Cumulative toggle.
3. Set X-axis (category) to a date property, such as the day a task was completed, and pick a period under Date grouping. Date grouping offers week / month on every plan; day / quarter / year from Pro.
4. Set Y-axis (value) to what you are adding up. Use Count to add one per row, or Sum for a number property such as story points or an amount.
5. Below Aggregation, turn on Cumulative. Leave Sort by on Unsorted: a date-grouped axis already runs from oldest to newest.
6. Copy the embed link, type /embed in your Notion page and paste the link.

Details that change the line

• Empty periods stay flat. With date grouping on, a week with no rows still gets its own point, so the line holds level through it instead of cutting a diagonal between the weeks on either side.
• One running total per group. Split by, from the Starter plan, draws one line per value of another property, for example one per assignee, up to 3 series on Starter with the smaller ones grouped as Other, and each line keeps its own running total.
• Count unique is left out. A running total of distinct counts would count the same value again in every period it appears in, so the toggle switches off with Count unique. Average, Min and Max are allowed, but a running total of them rarely means anything. Stick to Count or Sum.
• Show only cuts before the total starts. If you set Show only to keep the latest periods, the running total starts at the first period shown, not at the first row in the database.
• Long timelines keep their total. A chart draws at most 200 points. On a longer timeline ChartOmodo shows the latest 200, and the running total still includes every period before them.

A burn-up chart from a task database

You need a task database with a Status property and a date property for the day each task was finished. In the builder:

1. X-axis (category): the completion date, with Date grouping set to Week.
2. Y-axis (value): Count, or Sum of an estimate property such as story points.
3. A filter on Status, Equals, Done, so open tasks stay out of the total.
4. Cumulative: on.

The line now shows work finished to date. To read it as a burn-up, put the total scope next to it: a KPI chart that counts every task in the database, or a Number chart in Notion. When the line reaches that number, the work is done.

A burndown chart runs the other way. It starts at the total scope and falls as work is finished. The Cumulative toggle adds; it does not subtract from a starting number, so ChartOmodo does not draw a burndown directly. The burn-up shows the same progress from the other side.

Notion’s chart or ChartOmodo?

• Stay with Notion’s chart when the values are a Count or a Sum, the X axis can be sorted ascending, the range fits under its point limit, and you are on a paid Notion plan or this is the only chart you need.
• Use ChartOmodo when Notion’s Free plan has already used its 1 chart (you get 5 charts here), or when you want the details above: one line per group, empty periods kept flat, a total that survives a long timeline. Notion’s help page does not say how its chart handles those cases, so try yours there first.

A ChartOmodo chart refreshes on its own. It re-reads the database on a timer set by your plan, sooner when Notion reports an edit, and the embed has a Refresh data button. Plans are on the pricing page, and every documented limit of Notion’s charts is in Notion chart limits and what to do about each.