Configure notifications on Grafana Labs

Configure contact points

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:43:06 +0000

Configure contact points

Use contact points to specify where to receive alert notifications. Contact points contain the configuration for sending alert notifications, including destinations like email, Slack, IRM, webhooks, and their notification messages.

A contact point can have one or multiple destinations, known as contact point integrations. Alert notifications are sent to each integration within the chosen contact point.

On the Contact Points tab, you can:

Add, edit, and view contact points and integrations.
Search for name and type of contact points and integrations.
View how many notification policies each contact point is being used for and navigate directly to the linked notification policies.
View the status of notification deliveries.
Export individual contact points or all contact points in JSON, YAML, or Terraform format.
Delete contact points. Note that you cannot delete contact points that are in use by a notification policy. To proceed, either delete the notification policy or update it to use another contact point.

Note
Contact points are assigned to a specific Alertmanager and cannot be used by notification policies in other Alertmanagers.

Grafana Cloud Protected fields

For Grafana Cloud users, contact points may contain protected fields that require admin permissions to modify. Protected fields are sensitive configuration settings that affect where notifications are sent, such as:

Target URLs for integrations (webhooks, PagerDuty, Opsgenie, or other integrations.)
API endpoints
Other destination-related settings

These fields are protected to prevent unauthorized users from redirecting notifications to compromised servers, which could expose sensitive information such as authorization tokens, API keys, or alert data.

Users with edit permissions can modify most contact point settings and can add or remove integrations, but cannot change protected fields in existing integrations. Only users with admin permissions to the contact point can update protected fields.

The ability to modify protected fields is controlled by the RBAC action alert.notifications.receivers.protected:write. This role is granted by default to:

Users with the fixed “Alerting Admin” role
Users with admin permissions for the specific contact point

Supported contact point integrations

Each contact point integration has its own configuration options and setup process. The following list shows the contact point integrations supported by Grafana.

Alertmanager
AWS SNS
Cisco Webex Teams
DingDing
Discord
Email
Google Chat
Grafana IRM
Kafka REST Proxy
Jira
Line
Microsoft Teams
MQTT
Opsgenie
PagerDuty
Pushover
Sensu Go
Slack
Telegram
Threema Gateway
VictorOps
Webhook
WeCom

Some of the integrations above are not supported by Prometheus Alertmanager. For the list of supported integrations, refer to the Prometheus Alertmanager receiver settings.

Add a contact point

Complete the following steps to add a contact point.

In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.
Click Contact points.
From the Choose Alertmanager dropdown, select an Alertmanager. By default, Grafana Alertmanager is selected.
On the Contact Points tab, click + Add contact point.
Enter a descriptive name for the contact point.
From Integration, select a type and fill out mandatory fields. For example, if you choose email, enter the email addresses. Or if you choose Slack, enter the Slack channel and users who should be contacted.
Some contact point integrations, like email or Webhook, have optional settings. In Optional settings, specify additional settings for the selected contact point integration.
In Notification settings, optionally select Disable resolved message if you do not want to be notified when an alert resolves.
Save your changes.

Add another contact point integration

A contact point can have multiple integrations, or destinations for sending notifications.

To add another integration to a contact point, complete the following steps.

Add or edit an existing contact point.
Click Add contact point integration and repeat the same steps as Add a contact point.
- From Integration, select a type and fill out mandatory fields.
- In Optional settings, specify additional settings for the selected contact point integration.
Save your changes.

Customize notification messages

In contact points, you can also customize notification messages. For example, when setting up an email contact point integration, click Message or Subject to modify it.

By default, notification messages include common alert details, which are usually sufficient for most cases.

If necessary, you can customize the content and format of notification messages. You can create a custom notification template, which can then be applied to one or more contact points.

On the Notification templates tab, you can view, edit, copy or delete notification templates. Refer to manage notification templates for instructions on selecting or creating a template for a contact point.

Test a contact point

Testing a contact point is only available for Grafana Alertmanager. Complete the following steps to test a contact point.

In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.
Click Contact points to view a list of existing contact points.
On the Contact Points tab, find the contact point you want to test, then click Edit. You can also create a new contact point if needed.
Click Test to open the contact point testing dialog box.
Choose whether to send a predefined test notification or choose custom to add your own custom annotations and labels to include in the notification.
Click Send test notification to fire the alert.

Enable notifications for a contact point

After creating a contact point, you can enable it to receive alert notifications using one of the following methods:

Assign it to alert rules – Select the contact point in the notifications options for Grafana-managed alert rules to directly associate it with specific alerts.
Assign it to notification policies – Add the contact point to one or more notification policies, which manage the alert notifications you want the contact point to receive.

Configure notification policies

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:43:06 +0000

Configure notification policies

Notification policies determine how alerts are routed to contact points.

Policies have a tree structure. Each policy can have one or more child policies and a set of label matchers.

Each alert (or alert instance) is evaluated by the default policy and subsequently by each child policy. Alerts are routed to the appropriate notification policy by matching alert labels with the policy’s label matchers. For further details, refer to label matching and routing in notification policies.

When an alert instance is assigned to a notification policy, the notification policy is responsible for:

Grouping similar alerts to minimize the number of notifications.
Controlling when notifications are sent using the timing options.
Determining the contact points that receive the alert notification.

Note
The default notification policy and its child policies are assigned to a specific Alertmanager, and they cannot use contact points or mute timings from other Alertmanagers.

Edit the default notification policy

In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.
Click Notification policies.
From the Choose Alertmanager dropdown, select an external Alertmanager. By default, the Grafana Alertmanager is selected.
In the Default policy section, click … -> Edit.
In Default contact point, update the contact point for where to send notifications when alert rules do not match any specific policy.
In Group by, choose labels to group alerts. If multiple alerts match this policy, they are grouped by the selected labels, and notifications are sent per group. For more details on using this option, refer to Group notifications.
In Timing options, set the timing options to configure when notifications are sent.
- Group wait: the time to wait before sending the first notification for a new group of alerts. Default is 30 seconds.
- Group interval: the time to wait before sending a notification about changes in the alert group. Default is 5 minutes.
- Repeat interval: the time to wait before sending a notification if the group has not changed since the last notification. Default is 4 hours.
Click Save to save your changes.

Add a child policy

You can create a child policy under a default policy or under an existing child policy.

If you want to choose where to position your policy, see the section on Add a sibling policy.

In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.
Click Notification policies.
From the Choose Alertmanager dropdown, select an Alertmanager. By default, the Grafana Alertmanager is selected.
Click +New child policy from the default policy or an existing child policy.
In the Matching labels section of the child policy, add one or more matching label rules to narrow down a specific case from the parent policy.

For instance, a child policy of the default policy handles team=security alerts, or a child policy handles only the severity=critical alerts of a parent policy.
In the Contact point dropdown, select the contact point to send notifications. If left empty, the contact point of the parent policy is inherited.
Optionally, enable Continue matching subsequent sibling nodes to continue matching sibling policies even after the alert matched the current policy. If enabled, multiple policies can handle the same alert.
Optionally, enable Override grouping to set different grouping than the parent policy. If disabled, the grouping of the parent policy is inherited.
Optionally, enable Override general timings to set different timing options than the parent policy. If disabled, the timing options of the parent policy are inherited.
Click Save policy to save your changes.

Add a sibling policy

In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.
Click Notification policies.
Find the child policy you want to create a sibling for.
Click Add new policy -> New sibling above or New sibling below.

It’s important to determine which policy receives the alert first and to set the correct order of sibling and child policies.

Policies are evaluated from top to bottom. If a matching policy is found, the system continues to evaluate its child policies in the order they are displayed. For more details, refer to notification policies routing.
Follow the instructions from step 5 onward in adding a child policy.

Search for policies

Grafana allows you to search within the tree of policies by the following:

Label matchers
Contact Points

To search by contact point simply select a contact point from the Search by contact point dropdown. The policies that use that contact point are highlighted in the user interface.

To search by label matchers simply enter a valid matcher in the Search by matchers input field. Multiple matchers can be combined with a comma (,).

It is important to note that all matched policies are exact matches. Grafana supports regular expressions for creating label matchers. It does not support regular expression or partial matching in the search for policies.

Mute timings

Mute timings are not inherited from a parent notification policy, and they have to be configured on each level. For instructions, refer to Configure mute timings.

Example

An example of an alert configuration.

Create a “default” contact point for slack notifications, and set it on the default policy.
Edit the default policy grouping to group alerts by cluster, namespace and severity so that you get a notification per alert rule and specific Kubernetes cluster and namespace.
Create specific route for alerts coming from the development cluster with an appropriate contact point.
Create a specific route for alerts with “critical” severity with a more invasive contact point integration, like pager duty notification.
Create specific routes for particular teams that handle their own on-call rotations.

Configure mute timings and active time intervals

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:43:06 +0000

Configure mute timings and active time intervals

Mute timings and active time intervals let you determine how your alert notifications are handled during designated periods of time. After you create a time interval, you can apply it as either a mute timing or active time interval for your notification policies.

A mute timing is a recurring interval that stops notifications for one or multiple notification policies during a specified period. It suppresses notifications but does not interrupt alert evaluation.

Use mute timings to temporarily pause notifications for a specific recurring period, such as a regular maintenance window or weekends.

Active time intervals provide the opposite functionality, where alerts handled by a notification policy are suppressed unless the notification happens at a time that matches the time interval. Use active time intervals for periods where you want to reduce alert noise. Mute timings take precedence over active time intervals when they overlap.

Note
Mute timings and active time intervals are assigned to a specific Alertmanager and only suppress notifications for alerts managed by that Alertmanager.

Mute timings and active time intervals vs silences

Mute timings and active time intervals and silences are distinct methods to suppress notifications. They do not prevent alert rules from being evaluated or stop alert instances from appearing in the user interface; they only prevent notifications from being created.

The following table highlights the key differences between mute timings and silences.

	Mute timing	Silence
Setup	Created and then added to notification policies	Matches alerts using labels to determine whether to silence them
Period	Uses time interval definitions that can repeat periodically	Has a fixed start and end time

Add time intervals

In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM, and then Alerting.
Click Notification policies and then the Time intervals tab.
From the Alertmanager dropdown, select an external Alertmanager. By default, the Grafana Alertmanager is selected.
Click + Add time interval.
Fill out the form to create a time interval to match against for your mute timing or active time interval.
Save your changes.

Assign a time interval to a notification policy

In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM, and then Alerting.
Click Notification policies and make sure you are on the Notification Policies tab.
Find the notification policy you would like to add the time intervals to and click … -> Edit.
From either the Mute timings or Active time intervals dropdowns, choose the time intervals you would like to add to the policy.
Save your changes.

Time intervals

A time interval is a specific duration during which alerts are suppressed. The duration typically consists of a specific time range and the days of the week, month, or year.

A mute timing or active time interval can contain multiple time intervals.

Supported time interval options are:

Time range: The time inclusive of the start and exclusive of the end time (in UTC if no location has been selected, otherwise local time).
Location: Depending on the location you select, the time range is displayed in local time.
Days of the week: The day or range of days of the week. Example: monday:thursday.
Days of the month: The date 1-31 of a month. Negative values can also be used to represent days that begin at the end of the month. For example: -1 for the last day of the month.
Months: The months of the year in either numerical or the full calendar month. For example: 1, may:august.
Years: The year or years for the interval. For example: 2021:2024.

All fields are lists; to match the field, at least one list element must be satisfied. Fields also support ranges using : (e.g., monday:thursday).

If a field is left blank, any moment of time matches the field. For an instant of time to match a complete time interval, all fields must match.

If you want to specify an exact duration, specify all the options.

Example

If you wanted to create a time interval for the first Monday of the month, for March, June, September, and December, between the hours of 12:00 and 24:00 UTC your time interval specification would be:

Time range:
- Start time: 12:00
- End time: 24:00
Days of the week: monday
Months: 3, 6, 9, 12
Days of the month: 1:7

Configure silences

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:43:06 +0000

Configure silences

Silences stop notifications from being created for a specified time window but do not interrupt alert evaluation. Use them to temporarily prevent alert notifications, such as during incident response or a maintenance window.

Note
Silences are assigned to a specific Alertmanager and only suppress notifications for alerts managed by that Alertmanager.

Mute timings and active time intervals vs silences

The following table highlights the key differences between mute timings and silences.

	Mute timing	Silence
Setup	Created and then added to notification policies	Matches alerts using labels to determine whether to silence them
Period	Uses time interval definitions that can repeat periodically	Has a fixed start and end time

Add silences

To add a silence, complete the following steps.

In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.
Click Silences.
From the Alertmanager dropdown, select an external Alertmanager to create and manage silences for the external data source. Otherwise, keep the default option of Grafana.
Click Create silence to open the Create silence page.
In Silence start and end, select the start and end date to indicate when the silence should go into effect and expire.
Optionally, in Duration, specify how long the silence is enforced. This automatically updates the end time in the Silence start and end field.

In the Label and Value fields, enter one or more Matching Labels to determine which alerts the silence applies to.

Use labels and label matchers to link alert rules to notification policies and silences. This allows for a flexible way to manage your alert instances, specify which policy should handle them, and which alerts to silence.

A label matchers consists of 3 distinct parts, the label, the value and the operator.

The Label field is the name of the label to match. It must exactly match the label name.
The Value field matches against the corresponding value for the specified Label name. How it matches depends on the Operator value.

The Operator field is the operator to match against the label value. The available operators are:

Operator	Description
`=`	Select labels that are exactly equal to the value.
`!=`	Select labels that are not equal to the value.
`=~`	Select labels that regex-match the value.
`!~`	Select labels that do not regex-match the value.

Note
If you are using multiple label matchers, they are combined using the AND logical operator. This means that all matchers must match in order to link a rule to a policy.

Label matching example

If you define the following set of labels for your alert:

{ foo=bar, baz=qux, id=12 }

then:

A label matcher defined as foo=bar matches this alert rule.
A label matcher defined as foo!=bar does not match this alert rule.
A label matcher defined as id=~[0-9]+ matches this alert rule.
A label matcher defined as baz!~[0-9]+ matches this alert rule.
Two label matchers defined as foo=bar and id=~[0-9]+ match this alert rule.

Exclude labels

You can also write label matchers to exclude labels.

Here is an example that shows how to exclude the label Team. You can choose between any of the values below to exclude labels.

Label	Operator	Value
`team`	`=`	`""`
`team`	`!~`	`.+`
`team`	`=~`	`^$`

Any matching alerts (in the firing state only) display under Affected alert instances.

In Comment, add details about the silence.
Click Submit.

Edit silences

To edit a silence, complete the following steps.

In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.
Click Silences to view the list of existing silences.
Find the silence you want to edit, then click Edit (pen icon).
Make the desired changes, then click Submit to save your changes.

Remove silences

To remove a silence, complete the following steps.

In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.
Click Silences to view the list of existing silences.
Select the silence you want to end, then click Unsilence.

Note
Clicking Unsilence ends the silence immediately, which is the only way to end a silence before its configured end time. Silences cannot be permanently deleted manually.

Silence duration and retention

Duration limits

There is no maximum duration for a silence. You can create a silence for any length of time. However, administrators can configure the following limits:

alertmanager_max_silences_count: Maximum number of active and pending silences per tenant (default: 0, no limit), expired silences are also counted.
alertmanager_max_silence_size_bytes: Maximum size of a silence in bytes (default: 0, no limit).

Expired silence retention

Expired silences are automatically deleted after 5 days. This retention period is not configurable. The cleanup process runs automatically every 15 minutes to remove expired silences that are older than the retention period.

Rule-specific silences

Rule-specific silences are silences that apply only to a specific alert rule. They’re created when you silence an alert rule directly using the Silence notifications action in the UI.

As opposed to general silences, rule-specific silence access is tied directly to the alert rule they act on. They can be created manually by including the specific label matcher: __alert_rule_uid__=<alert rule UID>.

URL link to a silence form

Default notification messages often include a link to silence alerts.

In custom notification templates, you can use .Alert.SilenceURL to redirect users to the UI where they can silence the given alert.

If .Alert.SilenceURL doesn’t fit your specific use case, you can also create a custom silence link for your custom templates.

Inhibition rules

Inhibition rules are supported in the Prometheus Alertmanager. You can configure a Prometheus Alertmanager to handle the notification of alerts and suppress notifications via inhibition rules.

Inhibition rules are not currently supported in the Grafana Alertmanager. For tracking the progress of this feature request, follow this GitHub issue.

Template notifications

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:43:06 +0000

Template notifications

You can use notification templates to change the title, message, and format of notifications.

Grafana provides a default template for notification titles (default.title) and one default template for notification messages (default.message). Both templates display common alert details.

You can also create a notification template to customize the content and format of your notification messages. For example:

Personalize the subject of an email or the title of a message.
Modify text within notifications, like selecting or omitting certain labels, annotations, and links.
Format text with bold and italic styles, and add or remove line breaks.

However, there are limitations. You cannot:

Modify Visual Appearance: Add HTML or CSS to email notifications for visual changes. Alter the design of notifications in messaging services like Slack or Microsoft Teams, such as adding custom blocks or adaptive cards.
Manage Media and Data: Customize the data structure or format passed to the templates, like adding new JSON fields or sending XML data for webhooks. Modify HTTP headers in webhooks beyond those defined in the configuration, or adjust the number, size, or placement of images.

Here’s an example that displays the summary and description annotations for each alert in the notification:

{{ define "custom.alerts" -}}
{{ len .Alerts }} alert(s)
{{ range .Alerts -}}
  {{ template "alert.summary_and_description" . -}}
{{ end -}}
{{ end -}}
{{ define "alert.summary_and_description" }}
  Summary: {{.Annotations.summary}}
  Status: {{ .Status }}
  Description: {{.Annotations.description}}
{{ end -}}

The notification message would look like this:

2 alert(s)

  Summary: The database server db1 has exceeded 75% of available disk space.
  Status: firing
  Description: This alert fires when a database server is at risk of running out of disk space. You should take measures to increase the maximum available disk space as soon as possible to avoid possible corruption.

  Summary: The web server web1 has been responding to 5% of HTTP requests with 5xx errors for the last 5 minutes.
  Status: resolved
  Description: This alert fires when a web server responds with more 5xx errors than is expected. This could be an issue with the web server or a backend service.

Note
Avoid adding extra information about alert instances in notification templates, as this information will only be visible in the notification message.

Instead, you should use annotations or labels to add information directly to the alert, ensuring it’s also visible in the alert state and alert history within Grafana. You can then print the new alert annotation or label in notification templates.

Select a notification template for a contact point

Notification templates are not tied to specific contact point integrations, such as email or Slack, and the same template can be shared across multiple contact points.

The notification template is assigned to the contact point to determine the notification message sent to contact point integrations.

By default, Grafana provides default templates, such as {{define "default.title"}} and {{define "default.message"}}, to format notification messages.

Grafana Cloud AI-generated templates

Grafana Cloud users can use built-in AI tool to generate templates in the appropriate alerting template language for you.

To use AI to create your template, follow these steps:

Go to Alerting -> Contact points.
Click the Notification Templates tab then, click the + Add notification template group button.
Name your template.
In the Template group section, click the Generate with AI button.
Supply the AI tool with a prompt or select from one of the example prompts and edit that if necessary.
Click Save.

More information

For further details on how to write notification templates, refer to:

Tip
For a practical example of templating, refer to our Getting Started with Templating tutorial.