Gantt chart maker
Lay out tasks as bars on a shared calendar, spot the overlaps, and drag anything that slips. Free, private, and exportable to PowerPoint.
Why one task decides your finish date
In any plan some tasks can wait for others and some can't. The chain of dependent tasks with no slack is the critical path: add a day anywhere on it and the launch moves by a day. Tasks off the path have float — they can slip without anyone outside the team noticing.
The model on the right is a small website project. Copy can be written while design and build happen, but content can't be loaded until both the pages and the copy exist. Drag the durations and watch which bars turn red.
This is the idea behind the Critical Path Method, developed at DuPont and Remington Rand in the late 1950s, and it is why experienced project managers watch a handful of tasks closely instead of all of them equally.
Project length: 28 working days
Critical path: A → B → D → E → F
Critical: any delay pushes the finish date. Has slack: can slip by the pale amount without moving the finish.
Try it: stretch Write copy from 5 to 15 days. The finish date doesn't move, because copywriting runs in parallel with Design and Build, which take 18 days together. Push it past 18 and copy becomes the critical path. Now reset and add one day to Design: the whole project slips a day.
How to make a Gantt chart
- List the work. Write every task as a verb phrase ("Build pages", not "Pages"). Aim for tasks between two days and two weeks long.
- Estimate durations. Type a start and end for each task. Use day dates (
2027-03-15) for projects shorter than a year. - Order by start. Use Sort by date, or drag rows by their colour grip to group related work.
- Add milestones. A task with no end date becomes a diamond: sign-offs, deadlines, launches.
- Colour by owner or phase. Categories become the legend.
- Share it. Export PowerPoint for the status meeting, PDF for the client, JSON to hand the file to a colleague.
Planning a product rather than a project? The product roadmap maker groups bars into team lanes instead of one row per task. More ready-made plans are in the Gantt chart template and sprint plan template.
Gantt chart questions
What is a Gantt chart?
A Gantt chart is a bar chart of a schedule: each task is a row, and its bar runs from the task’s start date to its finish date along a time axis. It is named after Henry Gantt, who popularised the format in the 1910s for planning factory work.
Is this Gantt chart maker free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no trial and no limit on tasks. Your chart is saved in your browser and can be exported as PNG, SVG, PDF, PowerPoint or JSON.
How do I add a milestone?
Add an event and leave its End date empty. In the Gantt view it is drawn as a diamond on its own row, which is the usual symbol for a milestone.
Does it calculate dependencies?
The editor draws your bars exactly where you put them and does not auto-schedule. The interactive explainer on this page shows how dependencies and the critical path decide a finish date, so you can apply the same reasoning when you lay out your bars.
What is the difference between a timeline and a Gantt chart?
A timeline places events along one axis and is best for telling a story. A Gantt chart gives every task its own row so durations and overlaps are visible, which is what you need to run a project. TimelineForge can switch the same data between both.