Grafana includes built-in support for Prometheus. This topic explains options, variables, querying, and other options specific to the Prometheus data source. Refer to [Add a data source]({{< relref "add-a-data-source.md" >}}) for instructions on how to add a data source to Grafana. Only users with the organization admin role can add data sources.
Run Prometheus on your own hardware or use [Grafana Cloud](https://grafana.com/products/cloud/features/#cloud-dashboards-grafana). The free forever plan includes Grafana, 10K Prometheus series, 50 GB logs and more. [Create a free account to get started](https://grafana.com/auth/sign-up/create-user?pg=doc-grafana-&plcmt=in-text).
To access Prometheus settings, hover your mouse over the **Configuration** (gear) icon, then click **Data Sources**, and then click the Prometheus data source.
| `Access` | Server (default) = URL needs to be accessible from the Grafana backend/server, Browser = URL needs to be accessible from the browser. **Note**: Browser (direct) access is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. |
| `Basic Auth` | Enable basic authentication to the Prometheus data source. |
| `User` | User name for basic authentication. |
| `Password` | Password for basic authentication. |
| `Scrape interval` | Set this to the typical scrape and evaluation interval configured in Prometheus. Defaults to 15s. |
| `HTTP method` | Use either POST or GET HTTP method to query your data source. POST is the recommended and pre-selected method as it allows bigger queries. Change this to GET if you have a Prometheus version older than 2.1 or if POST requests are restricted in your network. |
| `Disable metrics lookup` | Checking this option will disable the metrics chooser and metric/label support in the query field's autocomplete. This helps if you have performance issues with bigger Prometheus instances. |
| `Custom Query Parameters` | Add custom parameters to the Prometheus query URL. For example `timeout`, `partial_response`, `dedup`, or `max_source_resolution`. Multiple parameters should be concatenated together with an '&'. |
| `Label name` | Add the name of the field in the label object. |
| `URL` | If the link is external, then enter the full link URL. You can interpolate the value from the field with `${__value.raw }` macro. |
| `Internal link` | Select if the link is internal or external. In the case of an internal link, a data source selector allows you to select the target data source. Supports tracing data sources only. |
| `Query expression` | Prometheus query expression. For more information, refer to the [Prometheus documentation](http://prometheus.io/docs/querying/basics/). |
| `Legend format` | Controls the name of the time series, using name or pattern. For example, `{{hostname}}` is replaced by the label value for the label `hostname`. |
| `Step` | Use 'Minimum' or 'Maximum' step mode to set the lower or upper bounds respectively on the interval between data points. For example, set "minimum 1h" to hint that measurements are not frequent (taken hourly). Use the 'Exact' step mode to set a precise interval between data points. `$__interval` and `$__rate_interval` are supported. |
| `Resolution` | `1/1` sets both the `$__interval` variable and the [`step` parameter of Prometheus range queries](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#range-queries) such that each pixel corresponds to one data point. For better performance, you can pick lower resolutions. `1/2` only retrieves a data point for every other pixel, and `1/10` retrieves one data point per 10 pixels. Both _Min time interval_ and _Step_ limit the final value of `$__interval` and `step`. |
| `Metric lookup` | Search for metric names in this input field. |
| `Format as` | You can switch between `Table``Time series` or `Heatmap` options. The `Table` option works only in the Table panel. `Heatmap` displays metrics of the Histogram type on a Heatmap panel. Under the hood, it converts cumulative histograms to regular ones and sorts series by the bucket bound. |
| `Instant` | Perform an "instant" query to return only the latest value that Prometheus has scraped for the requested time series. Instant queries can return results much faster than normal range queries. Use them to look up label sets. |
| `Min time interval` | This value multiplied by the denominator from the _Resolution_ setting sets a lower limit to both the `$__interval` variable and the [`step` parameter of Prometheus range queries](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#range-queries). Defaults to _Scrape interval_ as specified in the data source options. |
| `Exemplars` | Run and show exemplars in the graph. |
> **Note:** Grafana modifies the request dates for queries to align them with the dynamically calculated step. This ensures consistent display of metrics data, but it can result in a small gap of data at the right edge of a graph.
Instant query results are made up only of one data point per series but can be shown in the graph panel with the help of [series overrides]({{< relref "../visualizations/graph-panel.md#series-overrides" >}}).
| `Query expression` | Prometheus query expression, check out the [Prometheus documentation](http://prometheus.io/docs/querying/basics/). |
| `Step` | [`Step` parameter of Prometheus range queries](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#range-queries). Time units can be used here, for example: 5s, 1m, 3h, 1d, 1y. Default unit if no unit specified is `s` (seconds). |
| `Query type` | `Range`, `Instant`, or `Both`. When running **Range query**, the result of the query is displayed in graph and table. Instant query returns only the latest value that Prometheus has scraped for the requested time series and it is displayed in the table. When **Both** is selected, both instant query and range query is run. Result of range query is displayed in graph and the result of instant query is displayed in the table. |
{{<figuresrc="/static/img/docs/v8/prometheus_metrics_browser.png"class="docs-image--no-shadow"max-width="800px"caption="Screenshot of the metrics browser for Prometheus">}}
> **Note:** If you do not remember a metric name to start with, you can also select a few labels first, to narrow down the list and then find relevant label values.
All lists in the metrics browser have a search field above them to quickly filter for metrics or labels that match a certain string. The values section only has one search field. Its filtering applies to all labels to help you find values across labels once they have been selected, for example, among your labels `app`, `job`, `job_name` only one might with the value you are looking for.
Once you are satisfied with your query, click "Use query" to run the query. The button "Use as rate query" adds a `rate(...)[$__interval]` around your query to help write queries for counter metrics.
The "Validate selector" button will check with Prometheus how many time series are available for that selector.
The metrics browser has a hard limit of 10,000 labels (keys) and 50,000 label values (including metric names). If your Prometheus instance returns more results, the browser will continue functioning. However, the result sets will be cut off above those maximum limits.
For details of what _metric names_, _label names_ and _label values_ are please refer to the [Prometheus documentation](http://prometheus.io/docs/concepts/data_model/#metric-names-and-labels).
You can use some global built-in variables in query variables, for example, `$__interval`, `$__interval_ms`, `$__range`, `$__range_s` and `$__range_ms`. See [Global built-in variables]({{< relref "../variables/variable-types/global-variables.md" >}}) for more information. They are convenient to use in conjunction with the `query_result` function when you need to filter variable queries since the `label_values` function doesn't support queries.
Make sure to set the variable's `refresh` trigger to be `On Time Range Change` to get the correct instances when changing the time range on the dashboard.
`$__rate_interval` is the recommended interval to use in the `rate` and `increase` functions. It will "just work" in most cases, avoiding most of the pitfalls that can occur when using a fixed interval or `$__interval`.
Details: `$__rate_interval` is defined as max(`$__interval` + _Scrape interval_, 4 \* _Scrape interval_), where _Scrape interval_ is the Min step setting (AKA query*interval, a setting per PromQL query) if any is set. Otherwise, the Scrape interval setting in the Prometheus data source is used. (The Min interval setting in the panel is modified by the resolution setting and therefore doesn't have any effect on \_Scrape interval*.) [This article](https://grafana.com/blog/2020/09/28/new-in-grafana-7.2-__rate_interval-for-prometheus-rate-queries-that-just-work/) contains additional details.
Why two ways? The first syntax is easier to read and write but does not allow you to use a variable in the middle of a word. When the _Multi-value_ or _Include all value_
Prometheus supports the special [ad hoc filters]({{< relref "../variables/variable-types/add-ad-hoc-filters.md" >}}) variable type. It allows you to specify any number of label/value filters on the fly. These filters are automatically
- A Prometheus query for pending and firing alerts (for details see [Inspecting alerts during runtime](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/alerting_rules/#inspecting-alerts-during-runtime))
Grafana exposes metrics for Prometheus on the `/metrics` endpoint. We also bundle a dashboard within Grafana so you can get started viewing your metrics faster. You can import the bundled dashboard by going to the data source edit page and click the dashboard tab. There you can find a dashboard for Grafana and one for Prometheus. Import and start viewing all the metrics!
The Prometheus data source works with other projects that implement the [Prometheus query API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/) including:
You can configure data sources using config files with Grafana's provisioning system. Read more about how it works and all the settings you can set for data sources on the [provisioning docs page]({{< relref "../administration/provisioning/#datasources" >}}).
The Prometheus data source works with Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus. If you are using an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy to control access to your Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus domain, then you must use AWS Signature Version 4 (AWS SigV4) to sign all requests to that domain. For more details on AWS SigV4, refer to the [AWS documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/signature-version-4.html).
To connect the Prometheus data source to Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus using SigV4 authentication, refer to the AWS guide to [Set up Grafana open source or Grafana Enterprise for use with AMP](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prometheus/latest/userguide/AMP-onboard-query-standalone-grafana.html).
If you are running Grafana in an Amazon EKS cluster, follow the AWS guide to [Query using Grafana running in an Amazon EKS cluster](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prometheus/latest/userguide/AMP-onboard-query-grafana-7.3.html).
