Sankey chart
Visualize flows between categories, from sources through to targets
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Sankey diagrams visualize flows between categories — how values move from a source to a target, weighted by a metric. They're ideal for understanding movement, distribution, or conversion across stages.
Sankey charts are useful when:
- You want to show how values flow between categories (e.g., marketing channels → conversions)
- You're visualizing multi-step processes or funnels
- You need to understand distribution across interconnected stages
- You have cyclical flows that loop back (e.g., retargeting → conversion → retargeting)
Data requirements
Sankey charts require three columns in your data:
| Column type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Source dimension | Where the flow originates | channel, referrer, stage_from |
| Target dimension | Where the flow goes | conversion_type, destination, stage_to |
| Weight metric | The size of the flow | count, revenue, users |
Each row in your data represents a flow from one node to another, with the weight determining the thickness of the connection.
Creating a Sankey chart
- Run a query with your source dimension, target dimension, and weight metric
- Select Sankey from the chart type picker
- In the configuration panel, assign:
- Source — the dimension representing flow origins
- Target — the dimension representing flow destinations
- Value — the metric determining flow size
Features
Multi-step flows
Sankey charts automatically handle nodes that appear as both sources and targets, creating multi-level visualizations. For example, if "Email" appears as a target from "Ad Click" and as a source to "Purchase", the chart will show the full flow path.
Cyclical flows
Unlike traditional Sankey implementations, Qyra supports cyclical data where flows can loop back. For example, in a retargeting funnel:
- Awareness → Consideration
- Consideration → Conversion
- Conversion → Retargeting
- Retargeting → Conversion (loop)
The chart handles these cycles by creating step-suffixed node instances (e.g., "Conversion - Step 2").
Node layout
The Node layout option controls how a label that appears at more than one depth is rendered. For funnels where a single stage is reached from several preceding steps, the default can make one real stage look like several different nodes, so you can choose between three layouts:
- Multi-step (default) — Each occurrence of a label at a different depth is rendered as a separate node, including cycles, which become "Step N" instances as described above. This preserves the full journey.
- Merged — Collapses nodes that share a label into a single node, so all flows in and out of that label converge on one node while the multi-step journey is preserved. Available for acyclic flows only; when your data contains a loop the option is disabled and the chart falls back to multi-step.
- Direct — Shows only direct source → target flows in two columns, with no multi-step chaining. A label that is both a source and a target appears once on each side. This works for any data, including cyclical flows.
Display options
- Orientation — Display flows horizontally (left to right) or vertically (top to bottom)
- Node alignment — Align nodes to the left, right, or justify across the chart
- Node layout — Choose how nodes are arranged: Multi-step (depth-based journeys, the default), Merged (one node per label, acyclic flows only), or Direct (two-column source → target only)