Blog: Optimizing promql queries

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website/content/en/blog/2025/optimizing-promql-queries.md

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+---
+date: 2025-04-29
+title: "Optimizing PromQL queries: A deep dive"
+linkTitle: Optimizing PromQL queries
+tags: [ "blog", "cortex", "query", "optimization" ]
+categories: [ "blog" ]
+projects: [ "cortex" ]
+description: >
+  This guide explains how Cortex evaluates PromQL queries, details how time series data is stored and retrieved, and offers strategies to write performant queries—particularly in high-cardinality environments.
+author: Harry John ([@harry671003](https://github.com/harry671003))
+---
+
+
+## Introduction
+
+This guide explains how Cortex evaluates PromQL queries, details how time series data is stored and retrieved, and offers strategies to write performant queries — particularly in high-cardinality environments.
+
+Note: If you are new to PromQL, it is recommended to start with the [Querying basics documentation](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/).
+
+## Prometheus Concepts
+
+### Data Model
+
+Prometheus employs a straightforward data model:
+
+* Each time series is uniquely identified by a metric name and a set of label-value pairs.
+* Each sample includes:
+    * A millisecond precision timestamp
+    * A 64 bit floating point value.
+
+### Label Matchers
+
+Label matchers define the selection criteria for time series within the TSDB. Consider the following PromQL expression:
+
+```
+http_requests_total{cluster="prod", job="envoy"}
+```
+
+the label matchers are:
+
+*  `__name__="http_requests_total"`
+* `cluster="prod"`
+* `job="envoy"`
+
+
+Prometheus supports four types of label matchers:
+
+|Type	|Syntax	|Example	|
+|---	|---	|---	|
+|Equal	|label="value"	|job="envoy"	|
+|Not Equal	|label!="value"	|job!="prometheus"	|
+|Regex Equal	|label=~"regex"	|job=~"env.*"	|
+|Regex Not Equal	|label!~"regex"	|status!~"4.."	|
+
+## Time Series Storage in Cortex
+
+Cortex uses Prometheus's Time Series Database (TSDB) for storing time series data. The Prometheus TSDB is time partitioned into blocks. Each TSDB block is made up of the following files:
+
+* `ID` - ID of the block ([ULID](https://github.com/ulid/spec))
+* `meta.json` - Contains the metadata of the block
+* `index` - A binary file that contains the index
+* `chunks` - Directory containing the chunk segment files.
+
+More details: [TSDB format docs](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/blob/5630a3906ace8f2ecd16e7af7fb184e4f4dd853d/tsdb/docs/format/README.md)
+
+### Index File
+
+The `index` file contains two key mappings for query processing:
+
+* **Postings Offset Table and Postings**: Maps label-value pairs to Series IDs
+* **Series Section**: Maps series IDs to label sets and chunk references
+
+#### Example
+
+Given the following time series:
+
+```
+http_requests_total{cluster="prod", job="envoy", status="200"} -> SeriesID(1)
+http_requests_total{cluster="prod", job="envoy", status="400"} -> SeriesID(2)
+http_requests_total{cluster="prod", job="envoy", status="500"} -> SeriesID(3)
+http_requests_total{cluster="prod", job="prometheus", status="200"} -> SeriesID(4)
+```
+
+The index file would store mappings such as:
+
+```
+__name__=http_requests_total → [1, 2, 3, 4]
+cluster=prod                 → [1, 2, 3, 4]
+job=envoy                    → [1, 2, 3]
+job=prometheus               → [4]
+status=200                   → [1, 4]
+status=400                   → [2]
+status=500                   → [3]
+```
+
+### Chunks
+
+Each chunk segment file can store up to **512MB** of data. Each chunk in the segment file typically holds up to **120 samples**.
+
+## Query Execution in Cortex
+
+To optimize PromQL queries effectively, it is essential to understand how queries are executed within Cortex. Consider the following example:
+
+```
+sum(rate(http_requests_total{cluster="prod", job="envoy"}[5m]))
+```
+
+### Block Selection
+
+Cortex first identifies the TSDB blocks that fall within the query’s time range. This process is very fast in Cortex and will not add a huge overhead on query execution.
+
+### Series Selection
+
+Next, Cortex uses the inverted index to retrieve the set of matching series IDs for each label matcher. For example:
+
+```
+__name__="http_requests_total" → [1, 2, 3, 4]
+cluster="prod"                 → [1, 2, 3, 4]
+job="envoy"                    → [1, 2, 3]
+```
+
+The intersection of these sets yields:
+
+```
+http_requests_total{cluster=“prod”, job=“envoy”, status=“200”}
+http_requests_total{cluster=“prod”, job=“envoy”, status=“400”}
+http_requests_total{cluster=“prod”, job=“envoy”, status=“500”}
+```
+
+### Sample Selection
+
+The mapping from series to chunks is used to identify the relevant chunks from the chunk segment files. These chunks are decoded to retrieve the underlying time series samples.
+
+### PromQL evaluation
+
+Using the retrieved series and samples, the PromQL engine evaluates the query. There are two modes of running queries:
+
+* **Instant queries** – Evaluated at a single timestamp
+* **Range queries** – Evaluated at regular intervals over a defined time range
+
+## Common Causes of Slow Queries and Optimization Techniques
+
+Several factors influence the latency and resource usage of PromQL queries. This section highlights the key contributors and practical strategies for improving performance.
+
+### Query Cardinality
+
+High cardinality increases the number of time series that must be scanned and evaluated.
+
+#### Recommendations
+
+* Eliminate unnecessary labels from metrics.
+* Use selective label matchers to reduce the number of series returned.
+
+### Number of samples processed
+
+The number of samples fetched impacts both memory usage and CPU time for decoding and processing.
+
+#### Recommendations
+
+Until downsampling is implemented, reducing the scrape interval can help lower the amount of samples to be processed. But this comes at the cost of reduced resolution.
+
+### Number of evaluation steps
+
+The number of evaluation steps for a range query is computed as:
+
+```
+num of steps = 1 + (end - start) / step
+```
+
+**Example:** A 24-hour query with a 1-minute step results in 1,441 evaluation steps.
+
+#### Recommendations
+
+Grafana can automatically set the step size based on the time range. If a query is slow, manually increasing the step parameter can reduce computational overhead.
+
+### Time range of the query
+
+Wider time ranges amplify the effects of cardinality, sample volume, and evaluation steps.
+
+#### Recommendations
+
+* Use shorter time ranges (e.g., 1h) in dashboards.
+* Default to instant queries during metric exploration to reduce load.
+
+### Query Complexity
+
+Subqueries, nested expressions, and advanced functions may lead to substantial CPU consumption.
+
+#### Recommendations
+
+* Simplify complex expressions where feasible.
+
+### Regular Expressions
+
+While Prometheus has optimized regex matching, such queries remain CPU-intensive.
+
+#### Recommendations
+
+* Avoid regex matchers in high-frequency queries.
+* Where possible, use equality matchers instead.
+
+### Query Result Size
+
+Queries returning large datasets (>100MB) can incur significant serialization and network transfer costs.
+
+#### Example
+
+```
+pod_container_info #No aggregation
+sum by (pod) (rate(container_cpu_seconds_total[1m])) # High cardinality result
+```
+
+#### Recommendations
+
+* Scoping the query using additional label matchers reduces result size and improves performance.
+
+## Summary
+
+The key optimization techniques are:
+
+* Use selective label matchers to limit cardinality.
+* Increase the step value in long-range queries.
+* Simplify complex or nested PromQL expressions.
+* Avoid regex matchers unless strictly necessary.
+* Favor instant queries for interactive use cases.
+* Scope queries to minimize the result size.
+