Query data directly

When clicking filters isn’t specific enough, Explore is the page for working with your data directly. You pick a data source, which is a connection to a place that already holds your data, and write a query. You don’t need to build a dashboard first.

Why it matters

Not every question about your data is worth a permanent page. Explore gives you a place to answer the one-offs. You run a query, look at the result, adjust it, and run it again until you see what you need. If a query turns out to be worth keeping, you can build a dashboard around it later. For now, it’s enough to know the page exists.

See for yourself

The guide below shows you where Explore lives, the data source picker, and a query that comes back as a chart. It runs on Grafana Play, where Explore opens with a working query, so you don’t need an account.