Very little is required to get started. At the bare minimum, a Google account (free) and some experience working with HTML is expected. For advanced topics, knowledge of the basic programming concepts as well as some JavaScript experience is ideal.

The Google Visualization API does not require software to be installed on your computer. It is possible to perform all the development through an HTML5/SVG-capable web browser. However, for developers already familiar with common development environments such as Eclipse, it is also possible to develop for the Visualization API from these applications.