Plotly Subplots and Facets

Two ways to create multi-plot layouts

1. Facets (Plotly Express): easiest for grid layouts — one line of code repeats the same chart across a category, split into a grid of small panels (“small multiples”).
2. Subplots (plotly.subplots): full control — you place arbitrary, even different, chart types into any grid cell yourself.

Facets are for “show me this one chart, once per group.” Subplots are for “let me hand-place several different charts into one figure” (this is exactly what the dashboard page does).

Facets with Plotly Express

Facet example

import plotly.express as px
 
df = px.data.tips()
 
fig = px.scatter(
    df,
    x="total_bill",
    y="tip",
    color="sex",
    facet_col="day",
    title="Tips by day (facets)",
)
fig.show()

facet_col="day" splits the data by the day column and draws one scatter panel per unique day, all sharing the same axis scale — so panels are directly comparable side by side.

sketch Small multiples: same chart, repeated per group p5.js Pause Restart

Faceting draws one identical mini-chart per category, all on the same scale, side by side.

Manual subplots

Subplots

import plotly.graph_objects as go
from plotly.subplots import make_subplots
 
fig = make_subplots(rows=1, cols=2, subplot_titles=["A", "B"])
 
fig.add_trace(go.Scatter(x=[1, 2, 3], y=[1, 4, 9], mode="lines", name="line"), row=1, col=1)
fig.add_trace(go.Bar(x=["x", "y", "z"], y=[5, 2, 6], name="bar"), row=1, col=2)
 
fig.update_layout(title_text="Two plots in one figure")
fig.show()

Unlike facets, the two panels here don’t have to share a scale, an x-axis meaning, or even a chart type — make_subplots just gives you a grid of independent plotting areas.

Tips

• Use facets when you’re comparing the same chart across categories on a shared scale.
• Use subplots when mixing chart types, or when panels genuinely measure different things.
• Too many facet panels (more than ~6-8) get cramped — consider filtering to the most important categories first.

Analyst’s tip

Small multiples (facets) are one of the most underrated chart choices: because every panel shares the same axes and scale, the panel-to-panel differences become the story, and there’s no legend to decode — the category label is right above each panel. Reach for facets before reaching for one crowded chart with 6 overlapping colors.

diagram Choosing facets vs subplots mermaid

  flowchart TD
  A["Need multiple panels"] --> B{"Same chart type,
split by a category?"}
  B -- "Yes" --> C["px.scatter(..., facet_col=...)
shared scale, one line of code"]
  B -- "No, different chart types
or independent scales" --> D["make_subplots(rows, cols)
+ fig.add_trace(row=, col=)"]

Facets repeat one chart per category on a shared scale; subplots hand-place arbitrary charts into a grid.

Next

Continue to: Animations in Plotly to show change over time or category using frames.

🧪 Try It Yourself

Exercise 1 – Facet by Category

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Exercise 2 – Build a Subplot Grid

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Exercise 3 – Mix Chart Types in One Figure

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