docs-mintlify/docs/explore-analyze/charts/configuration/small-multiples.mdx
Small multiples repeat one chart once per value of a dimension, laying the copies out in a grid. Instead of a single plot with a dozen overlapping series, you get a dozen small panels that can be read and compared at a glance.
It is a setting on an existing chart, not a chart type of its own: a bar, line, area, or scatter chart stays that chart and simply gets drawn per panel.
The Small multiples section appears in the Fields tab for bar, line, area, and scatter charts.
Pick a dimension in Split by and the chart is replaced by one panel per value of that dimension. Clearing the picker returns the chart to a single plot.
Only dimensions are offered. Splitting by a measure is not supported — a measure has no discrete values to make panels from.
These options appear once a Split by dimension is chosen.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Grid | Columns × rows, up to 5 × 4. Both are preselected from the number of distinct values in the split dimension, so a four-value dimension opens as a 2 × 2 grid. |
| Axis scales | Whether every panel is drawn against the same scale (Shared) or each scales to its own data (Independent). |
| Sort panels by | Orders the panels by the dimension's own values (Value) or by a measure (Measure). |
| Sort order | Ascending or Descending. |
Every panel is labeled with its own X and Y axes either way. What the setting changes is the scale those axes are drawn against.
Shared is the default, and it is usually what makes small multiples worth using: every panel is drawn against the same scale, so the panels are directly comparable and a taller bar really does mean a bigger number.
Switch to Independent when the question is about the shape of each series rather than its magnitude — "what does each warehouse's weekly pattern look like", where one high-volume warehouse would otherwise flatten every other panel to a straight line.
The grid bounds the render: a chart split into 3 × 2 draws at most six panels, so a high-cardinality dimension can never produce hundreds of unreadable ones. The largest grid is 5 × 4, or twenty panels.
When a dimension has more values than the grid has tiles, the chart draws the first ones in the current sort order. The underlying query is unaffected, so no data is lost — a bigger grid simply shows more of it.
Sorting interacts with this: with Sort panels by set to a measure and a descending order, the grid keeps the top panels by that measure, which is usually more useful than the first ones alphabetically.
Chart settings apply to all panels at once — axis titles and formats, colors and palettes, data labels, reference lines, and tooltips are configured once and take effect in every panel. A reference line is drawn once inside each panel, against that panel's own scale when the scales are independent.
Data labels and reference lines have to be switched on after the split, not before — see the limitations below.
A legend is shared across the grid rather than repeated per panel. Clicking a legend entry hides that series in every panel.