How to hide the Y-axis tick labels on a chart in Python Plotly?

Plotly is an open-source Python plotting library for creating interactive charts and visualizations. One common customization is hiding Y-axis tick labels to create cleaner charts or when the exact values are not needed.

In this tutorial, we will explore different methods to hide Y-axis tick labels using Plotly's graph_objects module and layout properties.

Method 1: Using showticklabels Property

The simplest approach is to set the showticklabels property to False in the Y-axis layout ?

import plotly.graph_objects as go

# Create a bar chart with hidden Y-axis tick labels
fig = go.Figure(
    data=[go.Bar(y=[10, 20, 30, 40])],
    layout={
        'yaxis': {'showticklabels': False}
    }
)

fig.update_layout(title="Hidden Y-axis Tick Labels")
fig.show()

Method 2: Using visible Property

You can also hide the entire Y-axis including tick labels by setting visible to False ?

import plotly.graph_objects as go

fig = go.Figure(
    data=[go.Bar(y=[10, 20, 30, 40])],
    layout={
        'yaxis': {'visible': False}
    }
)

fig.update_layout(title="Hidden Y-axis")
fig.show()

Complete Example with Customization

Here's a comprehensive example that hides Y-axis tick labels while keeping the axis line and customizing other properties ?

import plotly.graph_objects as go

fig = go.Figure(
    data=[go.Bar(y=[10, 20, 30, 40])],
    layout={
        'xaxis': {
            'title': 'Categories',
            'visible': True,
            'showticklabels': True
        },
        'yaxis': {
            'title': 'Values',
            'visible': True,
            'showticklabels': False
        },
        'margin': dict(
            l=50,  # left
            r=20,  # right
            t=50,  # top
            b=40   # bottom
        )
    }
)

fig.update_layout(
    title="Bar Chart with Hidden Y-axis Tick Labels",
    width=600,
    height=400
)

fig.show()

Comparison

Conclusion

Use showticklabels: False to hide Y-axis tick labels while keeping the axis visible. Use visible: False to hide the entire Y-axis for cleaner visualizations.