Google Sheets data source

The Google Sheets data source lets you visualize your Google spreadsheets in Grafana. It uses the Google Sheets API to read data that you can view in dashboard panels or Explore.

Watch the following video to learn more about the plugin:

Give it a try using Grafana Play

With Grafana Play, you can explore and see how it works, learning from practical examples to accelerate your development. This feature can be seen on Google Sheets data source demo.

Try it

Supported features

Feature	Supported	Notes
Query data	Yes	Query spreadsheets by ID and range; cache by (spreadsheet + range).
Annotations	Yes	Use a sheet as an annotation source (time, text, tags).
Template variables	Yes	Query variables from a sheet; use variables in Spreadsheet ID or Range.
Explore	Yes	Ad-hoc queries without building a dashboard.
Alerting	Yes	Create alert rules from Google Sheets queries.

Requirements

Before you start, ensure you have:

Grafana 11.6.0 or newer (plugin requirement)
A Google account to use Google Sheets
One of these Grafana editions: Grafana OSS, Grafana Cloud, or self-managed Grafana Enterprise with an activated license

Get started

The following documents help you get started:

Configure the data source – Set up authentication and connect to Google Sheets.
Query editor – Query spreadsheet data and build panels.
Template variables – Create dynamic dashboards with variables.
Alerting – Create alert rules from Google Sheets queries.
Troubleshooting – Solve common configuration and query errors.

Install the plugin if you haven’t already. Try the Quick start below to build a sample dashboard in a few steps.

Quick start: create a sample dashboard

You can try the data source using a public demonstration spreadsheet.

Configure the data source (API key is enough for this public sheet).
Go to Dashboards → New → New Dashboard → Add visualization.
Select the Google Sheets data source.
In the query editor, paste the spreadsheet ID: 1TZlZX67Y0s4CvRro_3pCYqRCKuXer81oFp_xcsjPpe8. You can leave Range empty to use the first sheet, or set a range (e.g. Sheet1!A1:E100).
Run the query. Grafana will detect time series data and suggest a time series panel; you can switch to other visualizations (e.g. bar gauge, table) from the panel.

The embedded Grafana Play dashboard at the top of this page shows a full example you can open and edit.

Key capabilities

With JWT (service account) authentication: choose spreadsheets from a drop-down list of sheets shared with the service account
Paste a Google Sheets URL (including Get link to this range) and the editor extracts spreadsheet ID and range automatically
Use template variables in Spreadsheet ID or Range for dynamic dashboards
Cache responses by (spreadsheet ID + range) with configurable Cache Time; apply the dashboard time range with Use Time Filter

Additional features

After you configure the data source, you can:

Add annotations to overlay events on panels
Set up alerting to create alert rules from your queries
Use template variables in queries
Use Explore for ad-hoc queries without building a dashboard
Apply transformations to query results

Quota

The Google Sheets API uses per-minute quotas that refill every minute. For limits and usage, refer to the Google Sheets API usage limits.

Known limitations

Read-only: The data source only reads from spreadsheets; it does not write or edit data.
GCE authentication: GCE Default Service Account is only supported when Grafana runs on a Google Compute Engine VM. It is not supported in Grafana Cloud or other hosted environments.
API key: With API key authentication, spreadsheets must be publicly viewable (e.g. “Anyone with the link”). The Select Spreadsheet ID drop-down is only available when using JWT (service account) authentication.
Provisioning: Provisioning the data source using a local private key file (privateKeyPath) is not supported in hosted environments such as Grafana Cloud.

Plugin updates

Ensure your plugin version is up to date so you have access to all current features and improvements. Navigate to Administration > Plugins and data > Plugins to check for updates.