Alert rule evaluation

The criteria determining when an alert rule fires are based on three settings:

• Evaluation group: how frequently the alert rule is evaluated.

• Pending period: how long the condition must be met to start firing.

• Keep firing for: how long the alert continues to fire after the condition is no longer met.

  {{< figure src="/media/docs/alerting/alert-rule-evaluation-2.png" max-width="750px" alt="Set the evaluation behavior of the alert rule in Grafana." caption="Set alert rule evaluation" >}}

These settings affect how alert instances progress through their lifecycle.

Alerting lifecycle

Each alert rule can generate one or more alert instances.

An alert instance can be in any of the following states, depending on the outcome of the alert rule evaluation:

State	Description
Normal	The state of an alert when no alerting conditions (threshold breach, no data, or error) are met.
Pending	The state of an alert when a condition (threshold breach, no data, or error) has been met, but the pending period has not yet elapsed.
Alerting	The state of an alert when the threshold has been breached after the pending period has elapsed.
Recovering	The state of a firing alert when the threshold is no longer breached, but the keep firing for period has not yet elapsed.
No Data<sup>*</sup>	The state of an alert when the query returns no data or all values are null after the pending period has elapsed. You can customize the behavior of the No Data state, which by default triggers a different alert.
Error<sup>*</sup>	The state of an alert when an error or timeout occurs while evaluating the alert rule after the pending period has elapsed. You can customize the behavior of the Error state, which by default triggers a different alert.

{{< figure src="/media/docs/alerting/alert-rule-evaluation-full-statediagram_v3.svg" caption="The lifecycle diagram of alert instances" alt="A diagram of the distinct alert instance states and transitions." max-width="750px" >}}

If an alert rule changes (except for updates to annotations, the evaluation interval, or other internal fields), its alert instances reset to the Normal state, and update accordingly during the next evaluation.

{{< admonition type="note" >}}

The No Data and Error states are supported only for Grafana-managed alert rules. Refer to No Data and Error states to customize their default behavior for triggering a dedicated alert.

{{< /admonition >}}

Notification routing

Alert instances are routed for notifications in two scenarios:

1. When they transition to the Alerting state.
2. When they transition to Normal state and marked as Resolved, either from the Alerting or Recovering state.

Evaluation group

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Every alert rule and recording rule is assigned to an evaluation group. Each evaluation group contains an evaluation interval that determines how frequently the rule is checked. For instance, the evaluation may occur every 10s, 30s, 1m, 10m, etc.

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Rules can be evaluated concurrently or sequentially. For details, see How rules are evaluated within a group.

Pending period

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You can set a Pending period to prevent unnecessary notifications caused by temporary issues.

When an alerting condition is met, the alert instance enters the Pending state. It remains in this state while any alerting condition is met during the configured pending period. After the pending period has elapsed, the alert transitions to the state corresponding to the last evaluation.

This ensures the condition breach is stable before the alert transitions to the Alerting state and routed for notification.

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• Normal -> Pending -> Alerting^*

You can also set the Pending period to zero to skip the Pending state entirely and transition immediately to the Alerting, No Data, or Error state.

Keep firing for

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You can set a Keep firing for period to avoid repeated firing-resolving-firing notifications caused by flapping conditions.

When the alert condition is no longer met during the Alerting state, the alert instance enters the Recovering state.

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• Alerting → Recovering → Normal (Resolved)^*
• After the Keep firing for period elapses, the alert transitions to the Normal state and is marked as Resolved.
• If the alert condition is met again, the alert transitions back to the Alerting state, and no new notifications are sent.

You can also set the Keep firing for period to zero to skip the Recovering state entirely.

Evaluation example

Keep in mind:

• One alert rule can generate multiple alert instances—one for each series or dimension produced by the rule's query. Alert instances from the same alert rule may be in different states.
• Only alert instances in the Alerting and Normal (Resolved) state are routed for notifications.

Consider an alert rule with an evaluation interval set at every 30 seconds and a pending period of 90 seconds. The evaluation occurs as follows:

Time	Condition	Alert instance state	Pending counter
00:30 (first evaluation)	Not met	Normal	-
01:00 (second evaluation)	Breached	Pending	0s
01:30 (third evaluation)	Breached	Pending	30s
02:00 (fourth evaluation)	Breached	Pending	60s
02:30 (fifth evaluation)	Breached	Alerting 📩	90s

With a keep firing for period of 0 seconds, the alert instance transitions immediately from Alerting to Normal, and marked as Resolved:

Time	Condition	Alert instance state	Pending counter
03:00 (sixth evaluation)	Not met	Normal <sup>Resolved</sup> 📩	120s
03:30 (seventh evaluation)	Not met	Normal	150s

{{< figure src="/media/docs/alerting/alert-evaluation2.svg" alt="A diagram of alert state transitions of an alert example." max-width="750px" >}}