Visualize CSV data online: ask a question, get a chart

Most people who work with spreadsheets do not want to learn a formula language or configure a chart wizard just to see a trend. They want to open a file, ask "what were my top products last month?", and get a clean chart. AskCSV does that: open a CSV or Excel file, ask in plain English, and read the answer.

Why ask instead of configure

Traditional charting asks you to make the decisions before you see anything: pick the columns, choose the aggregation, pick the chart type, fix the axis. AskCSV flips the order. You describe what you want to see, and the tool works out the calculation and a sensible visualization for it. If the first chart is not what you pictured, you say so in words — "now break it down by product" — and it changes.

Chart types AskCSV produces

The chart is chosen to fit the shape of the result. If the tool picks a bar chart and you wanted a line, ask for a line.

How the chart is built

This is the part that separates a chart from a drawing:

1. Your question becomes a read-only SQL query over your file.
2. The query runs with DuckDB in your browser, over the whole file rather than a sample.
3. The chart is generated from the returned rows, in code. A bar labeled "North" is the aggregated value the query produced for North.
4. Totals, counts, shares, and trends are computed deterministically, not written by a language model.
5. The SQL is shown with the chart, so you can see exactly what was calculated.

AskCSV keeps what the AI sees to a minimum: the AI provider (OpenAI) gets only your question, the file's name and row count, the names and types of the columns you chose to share, up to 10 sample rows, up to 100 rows of each query result plus summary figures, and the earlier messages in the chat — never the file itself. It writes the explanation; it does not produce the numbers.

How it works

1. Open AskCSV at / in any browser — nothing to install.
2. Open a CSV or Excel file, or try the sample.
3. Ask a question in plain English, like "show monthly sales by region" or "which customers spent the most?"
4. Get a chart and an answer, with the query behind it.
5. Refine by asking again. "Now break it down by product," or "switch to a line chart."

What people ask for

• Trends over time: "Plot revenue by month," "how did signups change week over week?"
• Rankings and comparisons: "Top 10 products by units sold," "compare sales across regions."
• Breakdowns: "What share of orders came from each channel?"
• Distributions and anomalies: "Show the distribution of order amounts," "which transactions are unusually large?"
• Headline numbers: "What's total revenue, and what's the average order value?"

Files, limits, and data handling

Credits cover only AI answers, charged for the tokens the AI reads and writes. Files and chats stay in this browser, not on AskCSV servers: guest credits expire 7 days after they are issued, and everything stays until you delete it or clear the site's data. AskCSV analyzes opened files only — it does not connect to your database — and the privacy policy lists the sub-processors involved.

Try it with your own CSV

If you have a CSV export sitting in your downloads folder, open the app, open it, and ask for the chart you have in mind. The first chart comes with its SQL, so you can confirm the numbers before you use them.