This is a free guitar chord finder and diagram generator. Give it a shape, as a string code or by clicking the grid, and it draws a clean chord diagram you can download as a PNG or an SVG. Barres, finger numbers, colors, a left handed mode and any window on the neck up to the twenty-fourth fret. No account, nothing to install. It sits alongside the rest of our free guitar tools.
How to use the chord finder
Two ways in, and they work on the same diagram. Either type the shape as a code and press Apply, or click the grid and watch the code fill itself in. Everything after that is dressing: the barre, the finger numbers, the colors, the window on the neck.
1. Name the diagram
Type the chord name in "Diagram name". It is printed above the grid and it becomes the file name when you download. You can also double-click the name on the diagram itself to edit it in place.
2. Type the shape as a code
Enter the fingering in "String code (E-A-D-G-B-e)", low string first. X mutes a string, 0 or O leaves it open, a digit is a fret. So X02220 is an A major. Press "Apply" and the diagram redraws.
3. Or click the grid instead
Click an empty square to drop a dot on that string and fret. Drag a dot to move it. Double-click it to clear it. Click the strip between the name and the nut to cycle that string through open, muted and nothing.
4. Set the window on the neck
"Starting fret" goes from the first fret to the twenty-fourth, and "Visible frets" from three to twelve. "Auto range" reads your shape and picks both for you, which is the quick way to draw a chord high up the neck.
5. Add a barre
Give the fret in "Barre fret", pick the two ends in "From string to string", then press "Add a barre". It appears in the list below, where "Remove" takes it back out. A barre has to cover two strings or more.
6. Number and color the fingers
Click a dot to open its panel: "Finger number" takes 1, 2, 3, 4 or T for the thumb, and a palette or a hex field sets its color. "Reset color" puts it back. A barre opens the same panel, so it can carry a number and a color too.
7. Dress the diagram
Background and text colors each have a picker, a palette and a hex field. "Transparent background" drops the fill for a diagram you will paste onto something else. "Left handed mode" flips the grid while the name stays the right way round. The title has its own font, size and N / B / I style.
8. Download it
Press "Export PNG" for an image, "Export SVG" for a vector you can still edit, or "Export JSON" to keep the diagram as data. "Load JSON" brings a saved one back, exactly as you left it.
X02220 is a muted sixth string, an open fifth, then the second
fret three times, and an open first string. Get that order the wrong way round
and you will draw a chord nobody plays.
Reading the diagram
A chord diagram is a photograph of the neck held upright in front of you. Once you can read one, you can read every chord book ever printed.
The strings
The vertical lines are the strings. The thickest, the low E, is on the left, and the thin high E is on the right. Turn on left handed mode and that order flips.
The frets
The horizontal lines are the frets, and the thick one at the top is the nut. When the diagram starts higher up the neck, the starting fret is printed beside the grid instead.
The dots and the numbers
A dot is a finger pressing that string at that fret. The number inside it says which finger: 1 is the index, 2 the middle, 3 the ring, 4 the little finger, and T the thumb over the top.
O and X above the nut
O means play that string open, with no finger on it. X means do not play it at all, so your strumming hand skips it or your thumb mutes it. A string with neither mark is simply left out of the diagram.
The barre
One bar across several strings on the same fret means one finger, almost always the index, lying flat across them. That is what makes a chord movable: slide the whole shape up a fret and you have the next chord. Our barre chords guide has the two movable shapes and every position they take.
Where the notes are
A diagram shows you where to put your fingers, not what you are playing. If you want the note names under those dots, use the interactive fretboard.
Chord qualities explained
One thing to be straight about: this tool has no chord dictionary. It does not hold a list of qualities and hand you the shape for Bbm7. You give the shape, it draws it. So the qualities below are general music, not a menu inside the page, and the codes are examples to type into the field rather than entries you can browse.
A quality is just which notes you stack on the root. A major chord takes the root, the third above it and the fifth. Flatten the third and the same chord turns minor. Add a seventh on top and you get the family that blues, soul and jazz live in. Replace the third instead of adding to it and the chord stops choosing between happy and sad, which is what sus chords are for. Raise or lower the fifth and the chord becomes unstable, which is the point of diminished and augmented: they push the ear somewhere else.
| Quality | Chord | String code to type | What the quality is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Major | C | X32010 | Root, major third, fifth. The plain, settled sound. |
| Minor | Am | X02210 | Lower that third by a half step and the chord turns sad. |
| Dominant 7 | A7 | X02020 | A major chord plus a minor seventh. Restless, and the engine of blues. |
| Major 7 | Cmaj7 | X32000 | A major chord plus a major seventh. Soft, hazy, very ballad. |
| Minor 7 | Am7 | X02010 | A minor chord plus a minor seventh. Warmer and less heavy than a plain minor. |
| Sus4 and sus2 | Dsus4 | XX0233 | The third is replaced, by a fourth or a second. Neither happy nor sad, so it hangs. |
| Add9 | Cadd9 | X32030 | A major chord with a ninth added on top, and the third left in place. Bright and open. |
| Diminished | Ddim | XX0131 | Minor third and flattened fifth. Tense, and usually a passing chord. |
| Augmented | Aaug | X03221 | Major third and raised fifth. Unstable on purpose, used to push somewhere else. |
Copy a code into the string code field, press Apply, and the diagram appears. The chord in the second column is what that code actually spells, counted note by note: X32010 gives C, E, G, C and E, which is a C major. Change one digit and you have a different chord, which is the whole point of typing it rather than picking it from a menu.
Export your diagrams
Three formats come out of the page, and they are for three different jobs. Each download is named after the chord name you typed.
PNG
A flat image, rendered at three times the size shown on screen, so it stays sharp when you print it or drop it into a worksheet. Turn on the transparent background first if you want the diagram to sit on a colored page.
SVG
A vector file. It scales to any size without going soft, and it opens in Illustrator, Figma, Inkscape or Canva, where every line and dot is still a separate object you can recolor.
JSON
The diagram as data, not as a picture. Load it back later and the shape, the barres, the finger numbers, the colors and the window on the neck all return. This is how you keep a library of your own voicings.
A practical habit: build the shape, export the JSON once, then export the PNG whenever you need a new size or a different background. Rebuilding a fingering from memory three weeks later is the part that wastes time.
Tune up before you check a voicing against your ear, with the online guitar tuner. And if you are drawing these chords in order to play something, pick the something first: our easy guitar songs for beginners list says which chords each one needs.
Two pages answer the questions this one cannot. If you can hear a chord but not name it, give the audio to what chord is this and it will name it for you, then come back here to keep the shape. And if you have the chords but not the order, guitar chord progressions builds and plays one in any key.
Frequently asked questions
Does the tool look the chord up for me?
X02220 or by clicking the grid, and the tool draws it cleanly. If you want shapes that are already filled in, the guitar chord chart has the common ones as ready diagrams.How do I draw a barre chord?
133211 with a barre on the first fret from the sixth string to the first.Can I draw chords high up the neck?
10 12 12 11 10 10, because a single character cannot hold two digits. Auto range will then set the window for you.Is there a left handed mode?
Is it free, and do I need an account?
Who made this
Guitar Social Club is the work of Yohann Abbou, a guitar teacher in Paris. He teaches adults, which shapes everything here: people with jobs, limited practice time and a clear idea of the songs they want to play.
His teaching runs on a scale of eight levels, L1 to L8. The point of a scale is honesty: it lets a song be called easy only when it really is easy for the player in front of you. That is the same reason this page tells you plainly that the tool has no chord dictionary, instead of letting you hunt for a menu that was never there.
The rest of our free guitar tools work the same way: in the browser, no account, built because a student needed it. More about who writes these pages and how they are checked is on our about page.