---
title: "Correlations | Grafana documentation"
description: "Correlations You can create interactive links for Explore visualizations by setting up Correlations. These links can either run queries or generate external URLs related to presented data."
---

# Correlations

You can create interactive links for Explore visualizations by setting up Correlations. These links can either run queries or generate external URLs related to presented data.

A correlation defines how data in one [data source](../../datasources/) is used to query data in another data source or to generate an external URL. Some examples:

- an application name returned in a logs data source can be used to query metrics related to that application in a metrics data source, or
- a user name returned by an SQL data source can be used to query logs related to that particular user in a logs data source
- a customer ID in a logs data source can link to a different platform that has a profile on that customer.

[Explore](../../explore/) takes user-defined correlations to display links inside the visualizations. If a correlation links to a query, you can click on that link to run the related query and see results in [Explore Split View](../../explore/#split-and-compare). If a correlation links to an external URL, you can click on the link to open the URL in a new tab in your browser.

Explore visualizations that currently support showing links based on correlations:

- [Logs Panel](use-correlations-in-visualizations/#correlations-in-logs-panel)
- [Table](use-correlations-in-visualizations/#correlations-in-table)

You can configure correlations using [provisioning](../provisioning/), the **Administration > Plugins and data > Correlations** page in Grafana or directly in [Explore](../../explore/correlations-editor-in-explore/).

## Example of how links work in Explore once set up

[Correlations links in Explore](/static/img/docs/correlations/correlations-in-explore-10-0.gif)

See also:

- [Correlation](/docs/grafana/next/administration/correlations/correlation-configuration/)
- [Permissions](/docs/grafana/next/administration/correlations/correlation-permissions/)
- [Add permissions to create new correlations](/docs/grafana/next/administration/correlations/add-permissions-to-create-new-correlations/)
- [Create a new correlation](/docs/grafana/next/administration/correlations/create-a-new-correlation/)
- [Use variables and transformations in a correlation](/docs/grafana/next/administration/correlations/use-variables-and-transformations/)
- [Use correlations in visualizations](/docs/grafana/next/administration/correlations/use-correlations-in-visualizations/)