Query with data sources on Grafana Labs

How data source queries work

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:47:49 -0500

How data source queries work

Note
Three of these data sources ship with Grafana; Google Cloud Logging is installed from the plugin catalog. They’re not part of the Cloud Provider Observability product. This section covers them because they’re another way to see your cloud data in Grafana.

The query flow

Configure cloud provider credentials in Grafana.
Your data stays in CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, or Cloud Monitoring.
Grafana queries the cloud API when a panel loads or an alert rule evaluates, unless query caching is enabled.
Nothing is copied or stored again.

When to choose this approach

A data source fits when:

You want to avoid Grafana Cloud ingestion and storage cost
You’re comfortable with each cloud’s query editor (visual builders and, for GCP, PromQL are available)
You want to keep setup simple

If you want prebuilt dashboards and alerts for all three providers, or one query language across clouds, store the data with Cloud Provider Observability as described in Two options. Storing the data means dashboards and alerts query Grafana Cloud instead of the provider API; scrape jobs still call the provider API on a schedule.

AWS CloudWatch data source

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:47:49 -0500

AWS CloudWatch data source

Provide IAM credentials: access keys, an assumed role, or, in Grafana Cloud, Grafana Assume Role, which uses an IAM role that trusts Grafana’s AWS account. Once connected, you can query both metrics and logs. Build a dashboard that shows EC2 CPU, Lambda invocations, and RDS connections together, all pulling live from CloudWatch. Cross-account observability uses CloudWatch’s monitoring-account feature; alternatively, configure one data source per account.

What you get

Metrics and logs in one source
Cross-account and cross-region
Metric math and statistics
Template variables
Logs Insights queries

Considerations

CloudWatch API costs per query
CloudWatch query language
API latency affects dashboards
Rate limits with many panels
Alert evaluation calls the API. A query that times out returns an error
Private resources are reached from Grafana Cloud with Private data source connect

Documentation

View the CloudWatch data source documentation.

Azure Monitor data source

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:47:49 -0500

Azure Monitor data source

One plugin gives you Azure metrics, Log Analytics workspaces, Application Insights, and Azure Resource Graph. In Grafana Cloud, authenticate with a Microsoft Entra ID app registration (a service principal). Managed identity and workload identity are only for Grafana you host in Azure. Logs use KQL (Kusto Query Language); a logs query builder is also available. Multi-subscription support lets you build dashboards that span your Azure estate.

What you get

Metrics and Log Analytics in one plugin
Application Insights integration
Resource graph for discovery
Multi-subscription support
Template variables

Considerations

KQL, or the logs query builder, for log queries
Azure API latency
Alert evaluation calls the API

Documentation

View the Azure Monitor data source documentation.

GCP Cloud Monitoring data source

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:47:49 -0500

GCP Cloud Monitoring data source

Authenticate with a service account JSON key, the VM’s service account when Grafana runs on Compute Engine, or (Grafana Cloud only) Workload Identity Federation with your OIDC provider. The plugin supports PromQL, Monitoring Query Language (MQL), and a visual query builder. For multi-project setups, grant your service account permissions across the projects and query them all from one Grafana instance.

What you get

All GCP service metrics
PromQL, MQL, and visual builder query modes
Alignment and aggregation
Template variables
Label filtering

Considerations

API latency
Per-project authentication, typically
Alert evaluation calls the API

Documentation

View the Cloud Monitoring data source documentation.

GCP Cloud Logging data source

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:47:49 -0500

GCP Cloud Logging data source

Authenticate with a service account JSON key, the VM’s service account when Grafana runs on Compute Engine, or (Grafana Cloud only) Workload Identity Federation with your OIDC provider. You write queries in Cloud Logging’s query language. GCP uses two separate data sources. Configure Cloud Monitoring for metrics and Cloud Logging for logs. The same service account can serve both if you grant it the Monitoring Viewer, Logs Viewer, and Logs View Accessor roles and enable the Cloud Resource Manager API.

What you get

GCP service logs
Filter by project and bucket
Template variables
Logs-to-traces

Considerations

Cloud Logging query syntax
API latency
Separate from metrics data source
Per-project authentication, typically
No alerting on this data source; use log-based metrics with the Cloud Monitoring data source

Query with data sources on Grafana Labs

How data source queries work

How data source queries work

The query flow

When to choose this approach

AWS CloudWatch data source

AWS CloudWatch data source

What you get

Considerations

Documentation

Azure Monitor data source

Azure Monitor data source

What you get

Considerations

Documentation

GCP Cloud Monitoring data source

GCP Cloud Monitoring data source

What you get

Considerations

Documentation

GCP Cloud Logging data source

GCP Cloud Logging data source

What you get

Considerations

Documentation

Data source resources

Resources

Documentation

Community