diff --git a/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/influxdb.go b/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/influxdb.go
index bef00d1d120..a774e48df89 100644
--- a/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/influxdb.go
+++ b/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/influxdb.go
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana-plugin-sdk-go/backend"
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana-plugin-sdk-go/backend/datasource"
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana-plugin-sdk-go/backend/instancemgmt"
-	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/components/simplejson"
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/infra/httpclient"
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/infra/log"
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/plugins/backendplugin"
@@ -150,17 +149,17 @@ func (s *Service) QueryData(ctx context.Context, req *backend.QueryDataRequest)
 }
 
 func (s *Service) getQuery(dsInfo *models.DatasourceInfo, query *backend.QueryDataRequest) (*Query, error) {
-	if len(query.Queries) == 0 {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("query request contains no queries")
-	}
+	queryCount := len(query.Queries)
 
 	// The model supports multiple queries, but right now this is only used from
 	// alerting so we only needed to support batch executing 1 query at a time.
-	model, err := simplejson.NewJson(query.Queries[0].JSON)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("couldn't unmarshal query")
+	if queryCount != 1 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("query request should contain exactly 1 query, it contains: %d", queryCount)
 	}
-	return s.QueryParser.Parse(model, dsInfo)
+
+	q := query.Queries[0]
+
+	return s.QueryParser.Parse(q)
 }
 
 func (s *Service) createRequest(ctx context.Context, dsInfo *models.DatasourceInfo, query string) (*http.Request, error) {
diff --git a/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/model_parser.go b/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/model_parser.go
index 2a0f0f9f4b7..36a91870ec8 100644
--- a/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/model_parser.go
+++ b/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/model_parser.go
@@ -1,17 +1,21 @@
 package influxdb
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
 	"strconv"
-	"time"
 
+	"github.com/grafana/grafana-plugin-sdk-go/backend"
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/components/simplejson"
-	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/tsdb"
-	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/models"
 )
 
 type InfluxdbQueryParser struct{}
 
-func (qp *InfluxdbQueryParser) Parse(model *simplejson.Json, dsInfo *models.DatasourceInfo) (*Query, error) {
+func (qp *InfluxdbQueryParser) Parse(query backend.DataQuery) (*Query, error) {
+	model, err := simplejson.NewJson(query.JSON)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("couldn't unmarshal query")
+	}
+
 	policy := model.Get("policy").MustString("default")
 	rawQuery := model.Get("query").MustString("")
 	useRawQuery := model.Get("rawQuery").MustBool(false)
@@ -40,13 +44,6 @@ func (qp *InfluxdbQueryParser) Parse(model *simplejson.Json, dsInfo *models.Data
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	queryInterval := model.Get("interval").MustString("")
-	intervalMS := model.Get("intervalMs").MustInt(0)
-	parsedInterval, err := tsdb.GetIntervalFrom(dsInfo.TimeInterval, queryInterval, int64(intervalMS), time.Millisecond*1)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
-
 	return &Query{
 		Measurement:  measurement,
 		Policy:       policy,
@@ -55,7 +52,7 @@ func (qp *InfluxdbQueryParser) Parse(model *simplejson.Json, dsInfo *models.Data
 		Tags:         tags,
 		Selects:      selects,
 		RawQuery:     rawQuery,
-		Interval:     parsedInterval,
+		Interval:     query.Interval,
 		Alias:        alias,
 		UseRawQuery:  useRawQuery,
 		Tz:           tz,
diff --git a/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/model_parser_test.go b/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/model_parser_test.go
index e49e2181777..c2b63a6cada 100644
--- a/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/model_parser_test.go
+++ b/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/model_parser_test.go
@@ -4,14 +4,12 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
-	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/components/simplejson"
-	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/models"
+	"github.com/grafana/grafana-plugin-sdk-go/backend"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 )
 
 func TestInfluxdbQueryParser_Parse(t *testing.T) {
 	parser := &InfluxdbQueryParser{}
-	dsInfo := &models.DatasourceInfo{}
 
 	t.Run("can parse influxdb json model", func(t *testing.T) {
 		json := `
@@ -103,11 +101,13 @@ func TestInfluxdbQueryParser_Parse(t *testing.T) {
         ]
       }
       `
-		dsInfo.TimeInterval = ">20s"
-		modelJSON, err := simplejson.NewJson([]byte(json))
-		require.NoError(t, err)
 
-		res, err := parser.Parse(modelJSON, dsInfo)
+		query := backend.DataQuery{
+			JSON:     []byte(json),
+			Interval: time.Second * 20,
+		}
+
+		res, err := parser.Parse(query)
 		require.NoError(t, err)
 		require.Len(t, res.GroupBy, 3)
 		require.Len(t, res.Selects, 3)
@@ -162,10 +162,12 @@ func TestInfluxdbQueryParser_Parse(t *testing.T) {
       }
       `
 
-		modelJSON, err := simplejson.NewJson([]byte(json))
-		require.NoError(t, err)
+		query := backend.DataQuery{
+			JSON:     []byte(json),
+			Interval: time.Second * 10,
+		}
 
-		res, err := parser.Parse(modelJSON, dsInfo)
+		res, err := parser.Parse(query)
 		require.NoError(t, err)
 		require.Equal(t, "RawDummyQuery", res.RawQuery)
 		require.Len(t, res.GroupBy, 2)
diff --git a/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/query.go b/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/query.go
index 523461f6874..435c0878f38 100644
--- a/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/query.go
+++ b/pkg/tsdb/influxdb/query.go
@@ -29,16 +29,13 @@ func (query *Query) Build(queryContext *backend.QueryDataRequest) (string, error
 		res += query.renderTz()
 	}
 
-	calculator := tsdb.NewCalculator(tsdb.CalculatorOptions{})
-	i, err := calculator.Calculate(queryContext.Queries[0].TimeRange, query.Interval, tsdb.Min)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
+	intervalText := tsdb.FormatDuration(query.Interval)
+	intervalMs := int64(query.Interval / time.Millisecond)
 
 	res = strings.ReplaceAll(res, "$timeFilter", query.renderTimeFilter(queryContext))
-	res = strings.ReplaceAll(res, "$interval", i.Text)
-	res = strings.ReplaceAll(res, "$__interval_ms", strconv.FormatInt(i.Milliseconds(), 10))
-	res = strings.ReplaceAll(res, "$__interval", i.Text)
+	res = strings.ReplaceAll(res, "$interval", intervalText)
+	res = strings.ReplaceAll(res, "$__interval_ms", strconv.FormatInt(intervalMs, 10))
+	res = strings.ReplaceAll(res, "$__interval", intervalText)
 
 	return res, nil
 }