Dashboard Visualizations
This page documents the visualization types available in dashboard widgets and the configuration options for each one.
For the overall dashboard workflow (creating widgets, variables, saving, and permissions), see Creating Dashboards.
Visualization types at a glance
Time series
Trends and rates over time
Table
Grouped or row-level tabular results
Stat
One or more KPI numbers
Top list
Ranked values as horizontal bars
Pie
Share of total across a small number of categories
Treemap
Hierarchical share of total across many categories
Data
Raw log, trace, or event rows (list-style)
In the Widget Builder, switch visualization type using the top left selection. The preview updates immediately; configuration panels below the type change accordingly.
Which visualizations each data type supports
Not every data type supports every visualization.
Data type
Time series
Table
Stat
Top list
Pie
Treemap
Data
Metrics
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
—
Logs
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Traces
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Events
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Entities
—
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
—
Issues
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
—
RUM
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
—
APM
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
—
Ingestion
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
—
Cloud Costs
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
—
Two exclusions are worth explaining:
Entities has no time series. Entity data describes infrastructure objects as they are now, not as a series over time.
Data is available on Logs, Traces and Events in Builder mode only. Switching such a query to the raw editor makes the Data visualization unavailable.
Multiple queries in one widget
Some visualizations let you add query B, C, … or a formula query in the same widget.
Time series
✓
✓
Table
✓
✓
Stat
✓
✓
Top list
✓
✓
Pie
✓
✓
Treemap
✓
✓
Data
—
—
When a widget has more than one query (or a formula), results are shown in a combined view. For example, multiple series on one chart or merged table columns.
Data widgets always use a single query.
A widget holds at most 10 queries, and at most one formula. Add Query is disabled once you reach ten; Add Formula is disabled once a formula exists.
Mixing data sources in one widget
Each query in a widget carries its own data source, selected from the data-source control on the query row. One widget can therefore plot a metric alongside a log-derived count, or a trace aggregate beside an APM measurement, as long as every query can draw the widget's visualization type.
A formula is the exception: it has no data source control of its own, because it has no data source. A formula computes over the queries it references, so it follows them — including when one of them is switched to a different source.
Naming and hiding queries
Alias
Renames the query in the legend and in the combined view, instead of showing the raw expression
Hide query
Keeps the query in the widget but leaves it out of the rendered result — how you keep a query a formula references without also plotting it. Hide query is only suppored in Data Explore.
Formulas let you combine queries with arithmetic (for example (A / B) * 100 for a ratio). See Formulas in the Query Builder guide for supported operators and examples.
Comparing to a previous period
Metrics and APM queries support a time offset, which shifts a query back by a fixed duration (for example 1d, 1w) without changing the dashboard's time range. Add an offset to a query to overlay it against its own past — for example, plotting today's request rate next to the same metric from exactly one week ago on the same chart.
Each query in a widget can have its own offset, so you can compare more than one prior period at a time.
Cross-cutting configuration options
These settings apply across several visualization types.
Rollup interval (bucket size)
For time-bucketed queries, the rollup interval controls how data is grouped in time (for example 1m, 5m, 1h). It appears on the query row when the data type supports it.
The effective interval may be adjusted automatically to respect a minimum bucket size. Three data types set one, and the clamp is silent — you may see an interval you didn't pick:
APM
30 seconds
Ingestion
10 minutes
Cloud Costs
1 day
Data unit
Numeric formatting lives in one panel in the widget builder, which is named for what the visualization actually has:
Everything else
Value Formatting
One Data Unit for the widget's values, plus Precision on a stat
Whichever panel applies, the unit drives every rendering of the value: labels, axis ticks, legend stats and stat tiles. The units themselves are the same in both:
General
Number, Percentage, Raw
Time
Nanoseconds through Minutes
Data size
Bytes, Bytes/sec, KB/s
Other
mCPU, Dollars, Req/s
Custom
Type a free-text label, for a value none of the built-in units describe
For tables with multiple numeric columns, a separate Data unit overrides panel sets a unit per column, overriding the widget's Data Unit for that column alone. Only stats columns can be given a unit.
High series count warning
Time series, table, top list, and pie widgets may return many series or groups. When the result count exceeds the default display limit (1,000 series), a warning appears above the preview.
Show all
Renders more series (up to a hard cap of 5,000)
Performance note
Showing all series can slow rendering on dense queries
Stat widgets do not offer this toggle; they display up to 50 stat tiles and truncate beyond that.
Time series
Use when: You need to see how a metric or aggregated signal changes over the dashboard time range.
Chart display type
Under Additional Styling → Display:
Line
Separate line per series (default for most data types)
Bar
Time buckets as stacked bars
Area
Stacked area chart
Missing buckets
When a time bucket has no data point, you can choose how gaps are rendered:
Nulls (default)
Breaks the line / leaves the bucket empty
Zeros
Treats missing buckets as zero
Color palette
Under Additional Styling → Color:
Classic
Default product palette
Smart
Semantic coloring (status-aware where applicable)
Red / Green / Blue / Orange / Gray / Purple
Fixed theme palettes
Color applies across series in the chart (eight-color rotation for time series).
Legend
Under Legend → Mode:
Compact
Inline legend chips below the chart
Table
Tabular legend with optional stat columns
None
Legend hidden
When Table mode is selected, choose which stat columns appear:
Avg
Average over the visible time range
Min
Minimum value
Max
Maximum value
Sum
Sum over the range
Value
Latest / instant value
Y-axis controls
The Y-Axes panel holds one group per axis the chart is drawing. Left Axis is always present; Right Axis appears only once a query has been moved onto it.
Unit
The axis' data unit — each axis is formatted independently
Scale
Linear (default) or Logarithmic
Min
Fixed lower bound (leave empty for auto)
Max
Fixed upper bound (leave empty for auto)
Always Include Zero
Forces the axis to include zero when compatible with min/max and scale
Show label
Shows or hides the axis label
Log scale cannot include zero. If min is above zero or max is below zero, Always Include Zero is disabled.
Plotting against a second Y-axis
Series in wildly different ranges — a request rate in the thousands and an error percentage under 5 — flatten each other on a single axis. Move one of them to the right axis instead:
On the query you want to move, open its Advanced settings.
Set its Y-axis to Right.
A Right Axis group then appears in the Y-Axes panel, with its own unit, scale and bounds. Each axis is scaled from the queries plotted against it alone, so pinning one side's bounds leaves the other untouched.
Axis assignment is per query, so a widget can put several queries on each side. Moving the last query off the right axis hides the Right Axis group again.
Thresholds
Add reference lines or bands to mark meaningful values on the chart — for example an error rate ceiling or an SLO target.
A threshold is either a line at a single value or a range band between two:
Value
Line
Where the threshold line/band is drawn on the Y-axis
Min/ Max
Range
The bounds of the band. Leave one empty for a one-sided band
Label
Both
Optional text shown next to the threshold
Severity
Both
Error, Warning, OK, or Info — controls color
Style
Both
Solid or Dashed line
Each threshold also has its own visibility toggle, so you can switch one off without deleting it, and a separate toggle for whether its label is shown.
Add up to 10 thresholds per widget from the Thresholds tab in the widget builder.
Interaction on the dashboard
Zoom on the time axis refines the dashboard time range (when chart zoom is enabled on the dashboard view).
Hover over a series will show the value at a specific point along with indication for the step size.
Table
Use when: You need sortable columns, grouped aggregates, or row-level detail in a grid.
Configuration in the widget builder
Data unit
Value Formatting panel
Default formatting for numeric value columns
Per-column units
Data unit overrides panel
Available when multiple numeric columns are detected
Rollup interval
Query row
For time-bucketed SQL/metrics table queries
Combined tables
When multiple queries feed one table widget, columns from each query are merged into a single grid. Per-column units can be set for numeric columns from each query.
Conditional formatting
Tables take conditional formatting rules the same way stats do, with one addition: each rule names the column it applies to.
Apply to
The column the rule colors. Columns are listed by their current display name
Rule
A comparison and value (or range) to match against
Color
green, yellow or red, applied either to the text or the background
Rules are evaluated in order and the first match wins. A rule targets a column by identity (its query and field), not by name, so renaming a column keeps its rule attached.
Exporting table data
Use Export in the widget menu to download the widget's current rows as a CSV file. Available on Table and Data widgets.
Interaction on the dashboard
Hovering over a specific line will show the option to drill down further either in Explore, for aggregated drill down, or to the relevant data type page (e.g. Logs), to see the actual rows.
Stat
Use when: You want a large numeric KPI - one number per series or group.
Configuration
Data unit
Controls value unit of measurement
Decimals
Fraction digits shown on the value, from 0 to 4. Defaults to 2
Rollup interval
For time-aggregated stats
Behavior
Each series or group renders as a stat tile in a responsive grid.
Up to 50 stats are shown; additional series are truncated.
With multiple queries or a formula, stats from all queries appear in the combined stat grid.
Conditional formatting
Color a stat tile based on its value instead of using a single fixed color. Define one or more rules, each with a comparison (>, ≥, <, ≤, =, or a range) and a color; the first matching rule wins.
Rule
A comparison and value (or range) to match against
Color
One of six values: green, yellow or red, each applied either to the text or to the background
Add up to 10 rules per widget from the Conditional Formatting tab in the widget builder.
Top list
Use when: You want a ranked horizontal bar chart (for example “top 10 namespaces by log volume”).
Configuration
Data unit
Value Formatting panel
Value axis formatting
Color
Additional Styling
Single-bar palette (one color theme for all bars)
Rollup interval
Query row
When the query is time-bucketed
Behavior
Bars are ranked by the query’s sort/limit.
Works with multiple queries in combined view (each query contributes bars).
Supports the high-series warning and Show all toggle (same limits as time series).
Pie
Use when: You want proportional breakdowns across a small number of categories.
Configuration
Data unit
Value Formatting panel
Slice value formatting
Color
Additional Styling
Multi-slice palette (same options as time series)
Rollup interval
Query row
When applicable
Behavior
Best suited to a limited number of slices (use query limit to keep the chart readable).
Supports multiple queries in combined view.
Supports the high-series warning and Show all toggle.
Treemap
Use when: You want a share-of-total breakdown across many categories, where a pie would become unreadable.
A treemap renders the instant result of its queries as rectangles sized by value. Where a pie flattens everything into one ring, additional group-by dimensions become nested parent groups, so a treemap can show two levels of breakdown at once — for example namespaces containing workloads.
Configuration
Data unit
Value Formatting panel
Value formatting
Color
Additional Styling
Classic or Smart only — the fixed theme palettes don't apply
Behavior
Available for every data type.
At most 20 rectangles are drawn side by side at any one level. Beyond that, the smallest are rolled up into a single Other rectangle carrying their combined value.
Combined view
A treemap with more than one query doesn't merge their results into one ranking — that would compare values that may not share a unit or a meaning. Instead each query becomes its own top-level rectangle, labelled with that query's alias, and that query's group-by breakdown nests inside it. Sizing within an area reflects that query alone.
A single-query treemap has no such wrapper: its group-by breakdown sits at the top level, as before. A query that errors or returns no rows is left out without restructuring the areas around it.
A formula behaves like any other query here, occupying its own area.
Data
Use when: You want a scrollable list of raw records - similar to the Logs, Traces, or Events explorers - embedded in a dashboard tile.
Availability
Data types
Logs, Traces, or Events only
Query mode
Builder mode only (not the raw SQL/editor mode)
Query count
Single query per widget
Configuration
Column selectors
Choose which fields appear (builder query row)
Filters
Standard gcQL / filter builder for the signal type
Limit
Controls page size; scroll or load more for additional rows
Last updated