Timeseries Panel Type

Timeseries Chart

A Timeseries chart is a plot chart that shows trends over time. For example, you can show the memory usage over time, the number of requests over time, etc.

Data Formats

Supported signals

Logs
Traces
Metrics

This panel type supports any time series data. The time series data can be from logs, traces, or metrics.

Examples

The following graph shows the requests per second (req/s) for a service over a period of time in line chart.

Time series chart for req/s over period of time — *Line chart for req/s over period of time.*

Configuration

Visualization

Time range (formerly "Panel Time Preference"): Override the global dashboard time range for this panel. Keep Global Time to follow the dashboard time picker, or choose a fixed time range.
Treat missing data as 0 (formerly "Fill Gaps"): Plot empty intervals as 0 instead of leaving a gap. Use it when no data means zero, for example with sparse counters. If a 10-minute query returns {t1: 12, t3: 21, t5: 42, t7:29}, the toggle turns it into {t1: 12, t2: 0, t3: 21, t4: 0, t5: 42, t6: 0, t7: 29, t8: 0, t9: 0, t10: 0}. The zeros lower averages.

Chart appearance

Chart appearance options are illustrated tile pickers. Each tile shows a small sketch of the result.

Line: Solid or Dashed.
How points connect: How the line joins one point to the next. Straight (formerly "Linear") draws straight segments between points, Smooth (formerly "Spline") draws a smoothed curve, and Step before / Step after draw a stepped line.
Area under the line: Fill the area beneath the line. Pick None for a plain line, a flat Solid fill, or a Gradient fill that fades out.
Show points: Draw a marker at each individual data point in addition to the line. Off by default.

Chart appearance section showing the Line, How points connect, and Area under the line tile pickers, the Show points toggle, and the When data is missing tiles — *Chart appearance, here set to a dashed Smooth line with a gradient fill.*

When data is missing

When data is missing (formerly "Disconnect values") sits at the bottom of Chart appearance. It decides how the line handles gaps in a series, meaning intervals that have no data point:

Connect the line (formerly "Never"): Connect the line across every gap so the series stays continuous. This is the default.
Break long gaps (formerly "Threshold"): Disconnect the line when a gap is longer than a duration you set. Outages and restarts then stay visible.

When you switch to Break long gaps, a Break when a gap is longer than input appears. Its starting value is the query's step interval, so it matches the resolution of the panel query. The input accepts durations in seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), and weeks (w), including compound values such as 1h30m. It validates as you type and shows an error inline.

A panel saved with Break long gaps on and no (or a zero) gap length fails validation. Older dashboards can fail this check on save or load. Open the affected time series panels, set Break when a gap is longer than to a positive duration (for example 5m), and save to migrate them.

Hover over a point to see its value in the tooltip. The tooltip header shows the timestamp of the point. For a point from today, the header shows only the time (for example, 14:32:05). For a point from an earlier day, it shows the full date and time.

Formatting & Units

Unit (formerly "Y Axis Unit"): The unit of the y-axis (for example, Milliseconds (ms), Bytes, Percent). The default is None.
Decimal places (formerly "Decimal precision"): Choose how many decimals to show from compact tiles: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or Full (the raw value, unrounded). A live Shows as preview beneath the tiles displays a sample value formatted at the selected precision (for example 1,234.56 at 2). The default is 2.

When you create a new panel, the Unit is pre-filled with the unit of the selected metric, so the axis matches how the metric was reported. If you choose a unit that is incompatible with the unit the metric was sent with, a warning icon appears on the unit selector. Hover the icon to see a tooltip explaining the mismatch and the unit the metric was sent with.

Axes

Range: Under Y axis, set the minimum and maximum in a single inline range field. Leave either side empty to let that bound auto-fit the data. This replaces the separate Soft min and Soft max fields. If you enter a minimum that is greater than the maximum, an error callout appears inline and the panel keeps the last valid range until you correct it.
Scale: Choose between Linear and Logarithmic scale for the y-axis.

Legend

Position: Pick where the legend sits from a tile picker: Below chart (formerly "Bottom") or Right of chart (formerly "Right").
Series colors (formerly "Legend Colors"): Customize colors for individual series in the legend. Until you run the query, this shows "Run the query to set a color for each series".
Search series: A search box and a Showing N of M series count appear above the legend. A Right of chart legend shows them when it has at least one series. A Below chart legend shows them only when the series need more than two rows. Type part of a series name to filter the list as you type. The count changes to match the results.

The default color palette for series no longer uses red, so red marks only thresholds and alerts. Colors that you set yourself do not change. A series that got red from the default palette now shows in a different color: olive, green, teal, blue, indigo, or purple. This change applies to existing dashboards in all panel types that show series. If you used a default color to find a series, set a color for it in Series colors.

Actions

Select Create alert to open the alert editor in a new tab, with this panel's query pre-filled.

Context Links

Add context links to enable click-through navigation from the panel to other dashboards, external URLs, or filtered views. See Interactivity for details.

Thresholds

Thresholds draw a dashed line across the chart at a value, so you can see when data crosses it. Each saved threshold appears as a summary row, for example Line at 500 ms, with its label below.

Select Add threshold to open the threshold editor. It is titled New threshold when you add one and Edit threshold when you change one. It offers:

Draw a line at: The value and unit of the line, side by side. The unit list matches the panel's units, and a mismatch with the panel unit shows a warning.
Color: Pick a swatch, or use the custom-color swatch at the end to enter any color.
Label (optional): Text that names the line, for example SLO breach.

Select Save to keep the threshold, or Cancel (formerly "Discard") to drop your edits.

Threshold edits stream into the panel preview as you type, so you see the effect on your data before you save. Thresholds carry over when you change the visualization type (for example, Time Series to Table). SigNoz keeps their color, value, and unit and maps them to the new type.

Time series panels pre-fill the threshold value and unit when you create an alert from the panel, but not the comparison operator, because time series thresholds are stored as value markers.

Get Help

If you need help with the steps in this topic, please reach out to us on SigNoz Community Slack. If you are a SigNoz Cloud user, please use in product chat support located at the bottom right corner of your SigNoz instance or contact us at cloud-support@signoz.io.