Configure Time Interval for Time-axis Widgets
Balance detail and performance in time-based visualizations
Custom Dashboards visualize data from logs, metrics, spans, and DataPrime queries. To render time-based data efficiently, time-axis widgets group results into time buckets (time intervals).
The time interval defines the size of those buckets and how many data points the chart renders.
Smaller intervals create more buckets and show more detail.
Larger intervals create fewer buckets and show fewer data points.
Time interval settings also affect how queries are executed and how interval variables are calculated.
Optimize chart granularity and aggregation
Time-axis widgets group data into fixed interval time buckets, such as 10 seconds, 1 minute, or 1 hour. Each bucket aggregates the data points within that window.
The size of the bucket determines the chart’s granularity:
- Smaller interval = More detail, more data points, higher precision
- Larger interval = Fewer data points, reduced visual density
Granularity depends on:
- The selected time range
- Max data points (system or user-defined)
- Min interval (system or user-defined)
- The minimum interval supported by the data source
For example, viewing 1 hour of data may allow 1-minute buckets, while viewing 30 days requires larger buckets to avoid rendering thousands of points.
Understanding this relationship helps you choose whether to let the system determine the interval automatically or set it explicitly.
What you need
- Permission to edit dashboards
- A time-axis widget, such as line chart, area chart, time-based bar chart, or heat map
Configure the time interval
Configure the interval settings in the Time Bucket panel in the widget settings.
To configure the interval for a time-axis widget:
- Open the widget in edit mode.
- In Time Bucket, choose Auto or Manual.
- Adjust Max data points or Min interval if needed.
- Review Effective interval to confirm the effective value used in the query.
Choose Auto mode for adaptive resolution
In Auto mode, the system determines the interval automatically based on the selected time range and available chart width.
Use Auto when you want the system to select an appropriate interval automatically.
Auto mode calculates the interval based on the selected time range and available widget width.
Max data points reflects how many points the widget can render at the current size. Because of this, the effective interval can change when the time range or widget width changes.
As you change the time range or resize the widget, the interval adjusts automatically to maintain a readable and performant chart.
Use Auto mode when:
- Building general-purpose dashboards
- Sharing dashboards with different screen sizes
- You do not need strict control over bucket size
Set interval with Manual mode for controlled granularity
In Manual mode, you select a specific interval value from the available options.
Use Manual when you want to request a specific interval, such as 10 seconds, 1 minute, or 1 hour.
Manual mode allows you to request a specific interval from supported values.
Manual mode is not affected by widget width, and it does not bypass Coralogix system limits.
2 limits apply:
- Max data points prevents rendering too many points.
- Min interval prevents grouping data below supported limits.
If the selected time range would exceed the Max data points or fall below the Min interval, the system increases the interval automatically (it never decreases it).
When this happens, Effective interval shows the effective value used in the query.
Use Manual mode when:
- Investigating short spikes
- Aligning interval with external systems
- Comparing dashboards using consistent bucket sizes
Refine chart density with Max data points
Expand Limits (advanced) to configure Max data points and Min interval.
Max data points defines the maximum number of points the widget will fetch and render.
In Auto mode, the default value adapts to widget width. Wider widgets allow more points.
Reducing Max data points:
- Increases interval size
- Reduces visual density
- Improves performance for large time ranges
Increasing Max data points allows finer granularity but may impact performance.
Set a safe lower bound with Min interval
Min interval defines the smallest allowed bucket size.
If the effective interval would be smaller than the Min interval, the system uses the Min interval instead.
Min interval protects against:
- Excessive backend load
- Unsupported aggregation sizes
- Misleading or duplicated data points
For metrics, very small intervals can produce unreliable results. Min interval ensures queries align with data availability and system capabilities.
Minimum interval for Prometheus metrics
For Prometheus-based metrics queries, the minimum supported interval is 15 seconds.
Using a smaller interval can produce duplicated series, so Coralogix enforces 15 seconds as the practical minimum.
Confirm the applied interval with Effective interval
Effective interval shows the interval actually used by the query after applying system limits.
Effective interval shows the interval actually used to query and render the widget after:
- Applying Max data points
- Enforcing Min interval
- Rounding to supported interval values
Effective interval updates when you:
- Change the time range
- Resize the widget
- Modify Max data points or Min interval
If Manual mode requests a value that cannot be applied, Effective interval reflects the adjusted value.
How interval calculation works
In Auto mode, the interval is calculated from the selected time range and Max data points, and it is affected by widget width. The effective interval is constrained by the Min interval.
In Manual mode, the selected interval is used unless it would exceed Max data points or fall below Min interval. In such cases, the system increases the interval to comply with limits.
Use interval variables in queries
Time interval settings directly affect global interval variables used in queries.
${__interval}
Returns the effective interval used by the widget. This value reflects Auto or Manual mode after constraints are applied.
${__rate_interval}
Calculated based on ${__interval} and scrape interval rules. Used primarily in PromQL rate calculations.
$p.timeRange.suggestedInterval
Returns the effective interval used by DataPrime queries.
This variable uses Auto interval behavior, targeting:
- Up to 1000 data points
- A minimum interval of 15 seconds
- Interval adjustment based on widget width
For more information, see:
To learn more about global dashboard variables, see the Global variables section in Create and Manage Variables.
Dynamic widget: groupby timestamp uses Auto interval
When you use the groupby timestamp Lucene function in a Dynamic widget, Coralogix uses Auto interval behavior under the hood.
This includes:
- Maximum 1000 data points
- A minimum interval of 15 seconds
- Interval calculation based on widget width
Use cases
Investigate a short spike
Select Manual mode and choose a smaller interval. If you expand the time range, verify Effective interval to confirm the effective value.
Analyze long-term trends
Increase interval size manually or use Auto mode. Larger intervals smooth short-term noise and improve clarity.
Troubleshooting
If the interval appears larger than expected, check:
- Time range
- Max data points
- Min interval
Effective interval always shows the effective value.
Known behaviors and limits
Frequent Search queries may reach limits
Time-axis widgets that render very large numbers of points may return an error for Frequent Search queries.
If this happens, reduce the query size by:
- Shortening the time range
- Reducing series cardinality
- Increasing the interval
Hover highlight may be delayed for large datasets
For large datasets, Coralogix may delay series hover highlighting to reduce UI load and prevent performance issues.
Dynamic widget series rendering limit
Dynamic widgets currently render up to 2000 series.
If the query returns more than 2000 series, the widget may display partial results (missing lines).
Limitations
- Interval values may be adjusted to supported values.
- Manual mode does not override Coralogix’s guardrails.
- Very long time ranges result in larger intervals.
- Non–time-axis widgets use fixed defaults for Max data points.