A free, animated arc flow diagram you can read here or embed on any website, from Scrollchart.
Arc Flow Diagram
An arc flow diagram places all nodes along a single horizontal baseline and draws curved arcs above them to indicate connections. The height of each arc is determined by the distance between the two nodes it connects: a short-span arc stays low, while a long-span arc must rise higher to avoid crossing the baseline. Arc stroke thickness encodes the magnitude of the flow between those two nodes.
The layout is well suited for datasets where directionality matters less than the sheer strength of pairwise relationships: migration between cities, volume of trade between countries, citation links between papers, or message volume between accounts. Because all arcs live above the baseline, a dense network becomes readable in a way that a full node-link graph often is not.
Editorial pages where a quick visual replaces a wall of text
Content-marketing posts that need a clean, branded illustration
Source & accuracy
This arc flow diagram is an editorial illustration built to represent the concept accurately. Where it shows figures, they are typical or representative values chosen to make the relationship clear, not a single underlying dataset. The diagram and its explainer are reviewed and maintained centrally, and updated over time as understanding improves.
Arcs as a space-efficient flow encoding
An arc flow diagram places source and target nodes along a horizontal axis and connects them with curved arcs above. The arc's thickness represents flow volume or weight. Because arcs curve above the baseline rather than routing left-right, they save horizontal space compared to a Sankey diagram, making arc flows useful for long node lists or when the axis carries meaning (time, distance, hierarchy).
Comparing to Sankey and chord diagrams
A Sankey diagram routes flows through intermediate stages and works best for processes with distinct phases. A chord diagram arranges nodes in a circle, emphasizing symmetrical relationships. Arc flows work when sources and destinations both sit on the same axis (supply nodes across the top, demand nodes across the bottom, or a single axis for temporal flow). They are common in migration maps and network traffic visualizations.
Embed this diagram
Add this animated arc flow diagram to your own site. Copy one line of HTML, or use the embed builder for theme and sizing options.
Reference
What this is
A free, embeddable, animated arc flow diagram for any website.
Who uses it
Data journalists, Researchers & academics, Content marketers, News organizations.
How to embed
Copy one line of HTML. No signup. No watermark. Works in WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, Substack, plain HTML.
File size
iframe embed, ~80 KB gzipped (loads on demand, does not block your page paint).
License
Free forever. Editorial explainer text included; updated centrally over time.
Copy the universal HTML snippet, the WordPress shortcode, or an iframe fallback -
see the WordPress plugin page for details. Any format keeps
the same Core Web Vitals profile and the same explainer text.
By embedding, you acknowledge the diagram and explainer text are served from scrollchart.com and may be updated from time to time to reflect new research or to link to relevant sources within the explainer.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I get a free animated "Arc Flow Diagram" for my website?
Scrollchart provides "Arc Flow Diagram" as a free, embeddable animated diagram you can add to any website with one line of HTML. No signup is required and there is no watermark. The diagram and its explainer text are served from scrollchart.com, so the embed stays current without any maintenance on your end.
How do I embed a arc flow diagram in a blog post or article?
Paste the one-line HTML snippet from the Scrollchart diagram page into your post editor. It works in WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, and plain HTML with no plugin required. The animated diagram and its explainer text load from scrollchart.com and render directly in your page DOM.