Microsoft to Retire Visio Data Visualizer Add-in for Excel in March 2026

In yet another Tech Community blogpost, Microsoft has confirmed that the Visio Data Visualizer add-in for Excel will be officially retired next year. The add-in will be removed from the Excel add-in store on December 8, 2025, with complete shutdown scheduled for March 2, 2026.

The add-in was first released to help users convert spreadsheet data into flowcharts and organizational diagrams without a Visio license It was amomg some of the favorite tools among Microsoft 365 users. However, after March 2026, the service powering the add-in will stop working, making all embedded diagrams in Excel inaccessible.

While users can still use the add-in to create or edit diagrams until the retirement date, Microsoft urges everyone to save their exisiting work before the planned retirement.

If you’re a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you should export diagrams as Visio (.vsdx) files. Doing that allows you to open diagrams in Visio for the web. Consumer users, meanwhile, should convert their visuals to static images and paste them into spreadsheets for safekeeping.

Microsoft further clarified that the underlying Excel data will remain untouched, even though diagrams will no longer load once the add-in is retired.

Moreover, the company also encouraged users who rely on diagram automation to explore Visio Plan 2, which provides similar data-linked capabilities through the desktop app.