Last checked and updated on 01 Jun 2026
What Is New in Grafana 9.2
| Category | Highlights |
|---|---|
| New Features | Panel Help menu (beta), Canvas panel (beta), Google Analytics 4 support, Public dashboards (experimental), INNER JOIN transformation, Simplified Loki variable UI, Teams without admins, RBAC groups & Terraform role_assignment, New Prometheus streaming parser |
| Improvements | Revamped Google Cloud Monitoring UI, Secure field handling in app plugins, Match-parameter support in Prometheus labels API, Loki template variable UI, SAML role mapping enhancements, OAuth admin mapping |
| Breaking Changes | External Alertmanager URL config deprecated, Grafana Alerting rules now default to Error state on execution failure, Public dashboard role defaults changed |
| Deprecations | External Alertmanager configuration via URL will be removed in a future release |
How does Grafana 9.2 make creating and sharing dashboards easier?
Grafana 9.2 adds a public-dashboard experiment and a beta Panel Help menu that streamline collaboration.
- Public dashboards - Enable the feature flag or request support to publish dashboards without authentication. New expression support and usage insights let you monitor view counts and query errors.
- Panel Help menu (beta) - One-click "Send panel to Grafana Labs support" bundles query responses and panel settings, cutting the back-and-forth with support.
- Canvas panel (beta) - Build free-form visualizations by placing images, text, and conditional icons directly on a canvas, useful for custom status boards.
In practice, teams can now hand off a dashboard link to external stakeholders while still tracking how often it's accessed, and developers get a reproducible payload when they raise a support ticket.
What are the key alerting and Alertmanager updates in Grafana 9.2?
Grafana 9.2 upgrades the built-in Alertmanager to Prometheus Alertmanager v0.24 and changes default error handling for alert rules.
- Alertmanager v0.24 - All editions now run on the latest upstream release, improving compatibility with newer Prometheus features.
- External Alertmanager as a data source - The old URL-based configuration is deprecated; add the Alertmanager via the Grafana data-source UI (Configuration → Data Sources → Alertmanager).
- Alert rule default state - Execution errors or timeouts now set the rule to Error instead of Alerting. Existing rules keep their previous behavior; you can override the default in the rule editor.
Watch out for the new default if you rely on "Alerting" to trigger downstream actions; update any automation that assumes a timeout means an active alert.
How has role-based access control (RBAC) and authentication been enhanced?
Grafana 9.2 introduces RBAC groups, a Terraform role_assignment resource, and several SAML/OAuth improvements.
- RBAC groups - Organize custom roles into logical collections for easier navigation and bulk assignment.
- Terraform support - Use
grafana_role_assignmentto provision fixed and custom roles for users, teams, or service accounts. - SAML mapping - Use "*" to map a SAML organization to all Grafana orgs, and optionally skip organization-role sync with
skip_org_role_sync = true. - OAuth admin mapping - Set
allow_assign_grafana_admin = truein GitHub, GitLab, AzureAD, Okta, or generic OAuth configs to grant Server Admin rights based on group membership. - Team admin flexibility - Teams can now be created without any admin users, simplifying sync from external identity providers.
This matters if you manage permissions as code; you can now version-control role assignments and keep large orgs tidy.
What UI and data-source enhancements are included in Grafana 9.2?
Grafana 9.2 refreshes several data-source UIs and adds new transformation capabilities.
- Google Cloud Monitoring UI - Updated to match the latest Grafana design, with logical grouping of query builder items.
- INNER JOIN transformation - The Join transformation now supports INNER JOINs, enabling SQL-style data merging directly in the UI.
- Loki template variables - Simplified UI with dropdowns for query type, label, and stream selector, removing manual templating syntax.
- App plugin secure fields - Plugin developers can now flag fields as secure, automatically encrypting them in the database.
- Prometheus streaming parser - Enable
prometheusStreamingJSONParser = trueto use a memory-efficient streaming JSON client; NaN values are preserved.
Most teams will notice faster query building and lower memory pressure when pulling high-cardinality metrics from Prometheus.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I enable Google Analytics 4 tracking in Grafana 9.2?
Set the measurement ID in the grafana.ini file under [analytics] analytics.ga4_measurement_id = G-XXXXXXXXXX.
Can I still use the old external Alertmanager URL configuration?
No, the URL method is deprecated and will be removed; you must add the Alertmanager as a data source via the Configuration UI.
What default state do alert rules use when they fail to execute?
They now default to the Error state instead of Alerting.
Is the Canvas panel ready for production use?
It is currently in beta, so it is recommended for testing and non-critical dashboards.
How do I assign a custom role to a service account using Terraform?
Use the grafana_role_assignment resource with the service_account_id and role_name arguments.
Do public dashboards require a special license?
Public dashboards are experimental and available in Open Source, Enterprise, and Cloud, but must be enabled via a feature flag or support request.