Slide 9 of 11

Infinity

Infinity: Query any API or file

ℹ Install separately: Infinity is a plugin maintained by Grafana Labs that you install separately. It’s not included with Grafana by default.

Keep it current: On Grafana Cloud, plugins update automatically. On self-managed Grafana, check Plugins periodically so you don’t miss new features or fixes.

What it’s for: External data including REST APIs, JSON, CSV files, XML, and GraphQL endpoints.

Good to know

  • Queries REST APIs and files, parsing JSON, CSV, XML, and GraphQL responses
  • Supports multiple authentication methods for connecting to secured APIs
  • Installed as a plugin, with no separate collector to deploy
  • Because it queries external APIs, results depend on those APIs’ availability and rate limits, and you often shape the response yourself.

Best for

  • Third-party APIs (GitHub, Jira, etc.)
  • CSV/JSON data files
  • Custom internal APIs
  • Data not in traditional databases

Example Uses: GitHub stats, weather data, IoT platforms, internal service APIs

Set it up

Open this learning path in your Grafana Cloud stack for a fully interactive experience, or read through it to understand the process first. This path builds a dashboard from JSON data.

Learning path

Visualize JSON data

Welcome to the Grafana learning path that provides the best practice for creating a dashboard that visualizes JSON data using the Infinity data source.

15 min
Beginner
Docs & blog posts

Open in Grafana Cloud

Complete this learning path directly in your Grafana Cloud stack with an interactive learning experience.

Open in Grafana Cloud
View on website

Working with CSV files instead? Follow the Infinity CSV learning path.

Infinity: Query CSV data

Script

Infinity is the Swiss Army knife of data sources. It connects to almost anything.

One important note upfront: unlike Prometheus, Loki, and the other data sources we’ve covered, Infinity isn’t built into Grafana. It’s a plugin maintained by Grafana Labs that you install separately.

But after it’s installed, the flexibility is incredible. Got a REST API that returns JSON? Infinity can query it. CSV file somewhere accessible via URL? Infinity handles it. XML feed? GraphQL endpoint? Internal microservice? Infinity works with all of them.

Pull GitHub stats into your dashboards. Visualize data from IoT platforms. Query internal APIs that don’t have dedicated Grafana data sources. Combine external data with your metrics and logs.

The plugin supports multiple authentication methods, so you can connect to secured APIs.

And you install it as a plugin, with no separate collector to deploy. If you have data somewhere that doesn’t fit the usual data source categories, Infinity is probably your answer.

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