How to Make Box Plot

Box plots are useful when you need to compare distributions across treatments, cohorts, time points, or experimental conditions.

Prepare your data

Use one column for group labels and one column for numeric values. Add optional columns for cohort, replicate, treatment dose, or batch if you want grouped panels.

Build the plot

Show the median, interquartile range, whiskers, and outliers. For small sample sizes, add jittered points so reviewers can see the actual observations.

Add annotations

Use direct axis labels, sample sizes, and significance brackets only where they clarify the result. Avoid filling the figure with stars that are not explained.

Common mistakes

Do not use box plots when every group has only two or three values. In that case, a dot plot or paired plot is usually more honest.

Try it in SciFigure AI

Open the Box Plot Generator, upload your table, and describe the comparison you want to highlight.