Examples · Big number

Big number examples

Sometimes the most honest chart is no chart at all: one number, set large, with its context in the title — the KPI card of every dashboard, as a chart type. It’s also the engine’s only type that accepts negative values, because a net change has every right to be below zero.

When to use it

  • The one figure a dashboard is really about — uptime, revenue, NPS
  • Pairing with charts: the headline number up top, the trend below
  • Status pages and reports where a single value carries the message

Not the right shape?

Anything with structure — the moment you want comparison or trend, you want an actual chart next to it.

Real-world examples

Revenue, currency-formatted

The currency format prints the whole figure, grouped — '$482,700' — and the card shrinks the type to fit rather than hide a digit.

Open in maker with this data

View the spec 
{
  "type": "number",
  "theme": "ink",
  "title": "Quarterly revenue",
  "source": "Finance, unaudited",
  "options": {
    "format": "currency:USD"
  },
  "data": {
    "labels": [
      "Revenue"
    ],
    "series": [
      {
        "name": "Revenue",
        "values": [
          482700
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

A change that went negative

The number type is the engine’s only signed type: week-over-week deltas, temperature anomalies and net flows keep their minus sign.

Open in maker with this data

View the spec 
{
  "type": "number",
  "theme": "neon",
  "title": "Signups, week over week",
  "source": "Growth dashboard",
  "options": {
    "format": "percent"
  },
  "data": {
    "labels": [
      "Change"
    ],
    "series": [
      {
        "name": "Change",
        "values": [
          -3.4
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}
Open this chart in a maker Chart maker from scratch

Questions people ask

Why is a single number a chart type?

Because dashboards are full of them, and they deserve the same theming, formatting and morphing as everything else. A big number here accepts the same spec shape, follows the same themes, and can morph into a column chart the moment the data grows structure.

Can the value be negative?

Yes — and it’s the only type here that allows it. Bars, lines and the rest reject negative data with a structured error, but a lone figure like a net change is signed by nature, so the number type keeps the sign.

Big number or KPI card?

Two names for the same idea — a single value chart with its label and context. Dashboard tools call the widget a KPI card; here it’s a first-class chart type, so it takes the same themes and formats as everything else and can morph into a column chart when the data grows structure.