grafana/docs/sources/alerting/manage-notifications/create-silence.md

---
aliases:
  - ../silences/create-silence/
  - ../silences/edit-silence/
  - ../silences/linking-to-silence-form/
  - ../silences/remove-silence/
  - ../unified-alerting/silences/
description: Add silence alert notification
keywords:
  - grafana
  - alerting
  - silence
  - mute
title: Manage silences
weight: 450
---

# Manage silences

Silences stop notifications from getting created and last for only a specified window of time.

## Add silences

To add a silence, complete the following steps.

1. In the Grafana menu, click the **Alerting** (bell) icon to open the Alerting page listing existing alerts.
2. On the Alerting page, click **Silences** to open the page listing existing silences.
3. From Alertmanager drop-down, select an external Alertmanager to create and manage silences for the external data source. Otherwise, keep the default option of Grafana.
4. Click **New Silence** to open the Create silence page.
5. In **Silence start and end**, select the start and end date to indicate when the silence should go into effect and expire.
6. Optionally, in **Duration**, specify how long the silence is enforced. This automatically updates the end time in the **Silence start and end** field.
7. In the **Name** and **Value** fields, enter one or more _Matching Labels_. Matchers determine which rules the silence will apply to.
8. In **Comment**, add details about the silence.
9. In **Creator**, enter the name of the silence owner or keep the default owner.
10. Click **Create**.

## Edit silences

To edit a silence, complete the following steps.

1. In the Grafana menu, click the **Alerting** (bell) icon to open the Alerting page listing existing alerts.
2. Click **Silences** to view the list of existing silences.
3. Find the silence you want to edit, then click **Edit** (pen icon).
4. Make the desired changes, then click **Submit** to save your changes.

## Create a URL to link to a silence form

When linking to a silence form, provide the default matching labels and comment via `matcher` and `comment` query parameters. The `matcher` parameter should be in the following format `[label][operator][value]` where the `operator` parameter can be one of the following: `=` (equals, not regex), `!=` (not equals, not regex), `=~` (equals, regex), `!~` (not equals, regex).
The URL can contain many query parameters with the key `matcher`.
For example, to link to silence form with matching labels `severity=critical` & `cluster!~europe-.*` and comment `Silence critical EU alerts`, create a URL `https://mygrafana/alerting/silence/new?matcher=severity%3Dcritical&matcher=cluster!~europe-*&comment=Silence%20critical%20EU%20alert`.

To link to a new silence page for an external Alertmanager, add a `alertmanager` query parameter with the Alertmanager data source name.

## Remove silences

To remove a silence, complete the following steps.

1. In the Grafana menu, click the **Alerting** (bell) icon to open the Alerting page listing existing alerts.
1. Click **Silences** to view the list of existing silences.
1. Select the silence you want to end, then click **Unsilence**.

> **Note:** You cannot remove a silence manually. Silences that have ended are retained and listed for five days.