---
title: "Pending period and keep firing for | Grafana Labs"
description: "Why the pending period and keep firing for settings exist, tied to Pending and Recovering on the alert lifecycle."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

## Pending period and keep firing for

[Alert lifecycle diagram with orange dashed highlights around the Pending and Recovering states](lifecycle-highlight.svg "Alert lifecycle diagram with orange dashed highlights around the Pending and Recovering states")

## The pending period prevents false positives

Temporary data spikes can briefly cross the threshold without indicating a real problem. That means you don’t need an alert to fire. The **pending period** requires the condition to persist across multiple checks before firing.

For example, a **5m** pending period with a **1m** evaluation interval means the condition must stay above your threshold for five consecutive checks before the alert fires.

Data often arrives a little late, so the newest data point can be incomplete when Grafana runs a check. Because the pending period waits for several checks in a row, one reading based on partial data won’t fire the alert on its own.

## Reduce alert fatigue through evaluation behavior

When a condition hovers near the threshold, the alert can fire and resolve repeatedly. **Keep firing for** holds the firing state briefly after the condition resolves, so you only receive a resolved notification when the problem is genuinely gone.