diff --git a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rule-editor/alert-rule-form/AlertRuleForm.tsx b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rule-editor/alert-rule-form/AlertRuleForm.tsx
index 57c385d856e..a22616ff227 100644
--- a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rule-editor/alert-rule-form/AlertRuleForm.tsx
+++ b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rule-editor/alert-rule-form/AlertRuleForm.tsx
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { css } from '@emotion/css';
 import { useCallback, useEffect, useMemo, useState } from 'react';
-import { FormProvider, SubmitErrorHandler, UseFormWatch, useForm } from 'react-hook-form';
+import { FormProvider, SubmitErrorHandler, useForm, UseFormWatch } from 'react-hook-form';
 import { useParams } from 'react-router-dom-v5-compat';
 
 import { GrafanaTheme2 } from '@grafana/data';
@@ -20,12 +20,13 @@ import {
   isGrafanaRulerRulePaused,
   isRecordingRuleByType,
 } from 'app/features/alerting/unified/utils/rules';
+import { isExpressionQuery } from 'app/features/expressions/guards';
 import { RuleGroupIdentifier, RuleIdentifier, RuleWithLocation } from 'app/types/unified-alerting';
 import { PostableRuleGrafanaRuleDTO, RulerRuleDTO } from 'app/types/unified-alerting-dto';
 
 import {
-  LogMessages,
   logInfo,
+  LogMessages,
   trackAlertRuleFormCancelled,
   trackAlertRuleFormError,
   trackAlertRuleFormSaved,
@@ -35,20 +36,21 @@ import { useDeleteRuleFromGroup } from '../../../hooks/ruleGroup/useDeleteRuleFr
 import { useAddRuleToRuleGroup, useUpdateRuleInRuleGroup } from '../../../hooks/ruleGroup/useUpsertRuleFromRuleGroup';
 import { useURLSearchParams } from '../../../hooks/useURLSearchParams';
 import { RuleFormType, RuleFormValues } from '../../../types/rule-form';
+import { DataSourceType } from '../../../utils/datasource';
 import {
   DEFAULT_GROUP_EVALUATION_INTERVAL,
-  MANUAL_ROUTING_KEY,
-  SIMPLIFIED_QUERY_EDITOR_KEY,
   formValuesFromExistingRule,
   formValuesToRulerGrafanaRuleDTO,
   formValuesToRulerRuleDTO,
   getDefaultFormValues,
   getDefaultQueries,
   ignoreHiddenQueries,
+  MANUAL_ROUTING_KEY,
   normalizeDefaultAnnotations,
+  SIMPLIFIED_QUERY_EDITOR_KEY,
 } from '../../../utils/rule-form';
-import { fromRulerRule, fromRulerRuleAndRuleGroupIdentifier, stringifyIdentifier } from '../../../utils/rule-id';
 import * as ruleId from '../../../utils/rule-id';
+import { fromRulerRule, fromRulerRuleAndRuleGroupIdentifier, stringifyIdentifier } from '../../../utils/rule-id';
 import { createRelativeUrl } from '../../../utils/url';
 import { GrafanaRuleExporter } from '../../export/GrafanaRuleExporter';
 import { AlertRuleNameAndMetric } from '../AlertRuleNameInput';
@@ -384,14 +386,16 @@ function formValuesFromQueryParams(ruleDefinition: string, type: RuleFormType):
     };
   }
 
-  return ignoreHiddenQueries({
-    ...getDefaultFormValues(),
-    ...ruleFromQueryParams,
-    annotations: normalizeDefaultAnnotations(ruleFromQueryParams.annotations ?? []),
-    queries: ruleFromQueryParams.queries ?? getDefaultQueries(),
-    type: type || RuleFormType.grafana,
-    evaluateEvery: DEFAULT_GROUP_EVALUATION_INTERVAL,
-  });
+  return setInstantOrRange(
+    ignoreHiddenQueries({
+      ...getDefaultFormValues(),
+      ...ruleFromQueryParams,
+      annotations: normalizeDefaultAnnotations(ruleFromQueryParams.annotations ?? []),
+      queries: ruleFromQueryParams.queries ?? getDefaultQueries(),
+      type: type || RuleFormType.grafana,
+      evaluateEvery: DEFAULT_GROUP_EVALUATION_INTERVAL,
+    })
+  );
 }
 
 function formValuesFromPrefill(rule: Partial<RuleFormValues>): RuleFormValues {
@@ -401,6 +405,31 @@ function formValuesFromPrefill(rule: Partial<RuleFormValues>): RuleFormValues {
   });
 }
 
+function setInstantOrRange(values: RuleFormValues): RuleFormValues {
+  return {
+    ...values,
+    queries: values.queries?.map((query) => {
+      if (isExpressionQuery(query.model)) {
+        return query;
+      }
+      // data query
+      const defaultToInstant =
+        query.model.datasource?.type === DataSourceType.Loki ||
+        query.model.datasource?.type === DataSourceType.Prometheus;
+      const isInstant =
+        'instant' in query.model && query.model.instant !== undefined ? query.model.instant : defaultToInstant;
+      return {
+        ...query,
+        model: {
+          ...query.model,
+          instant: isInstant,
+          range: !isInstant, // we cannot have both instant and range queries in alerting
+        },
+      };
+    }),
+  };
+}
+
 function storeInLocalStorageValues(values: RuleFormValues) {
   if (values.manualRouting) {
     localStorage.setItem(MANUAL_ROUTING_KEY, 'true');
diff --git a/public/app/types/unified-alerting-dto.ts b/public/app/types/unified-alerting-dto.ts
index 0c379f929b1..bf149896c12 100644
--- a/public/app/types/unified-alerting-dto.ts
+++ b/public/app/types/unified-alerting-dto.ts
@@ -201,6 +201,8 @@ export interface AlertDataQuery extends DataQuery {
   maxDataPoints?: number;
   intervalMs?: number;
   expression?: string;
+  instant?: boolean;
+  range?: boolean;
 }
 
 export interface AlertQuery<T = AlertDataQuery | ExpressionQuery> {