diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8e67f9b0052..85b9a1121c8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 * **Elasticsearch**: Support for dynamic daily indices for annotations, closes [#3061](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/3061)
 
 ### Bug Fixes
+* **cloudwatch**: fix for handling of period for long time ranges, fixes [#3086](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/3086)
 * **dashboard**: fix for collapse row by clicking on row title, fixes [#3065](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/3065)
 * **influxdb**: fix for relative time ranges `last x months` and `last x years`, fixes [#3067](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/3067)
 
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.js b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.js
index 6a99724123b..576fb9ffcdd 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.js
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.js
@@ -36,12 +36,12 @@ function (angular, _) {
         query.metricName = templateSrv.replace(target.metricName, options.scopedVars);
         query.dimensions = convertDimensionFormat(target.dimensions, options.scopedVars);
         query.statistics = target.statistics;
-        query.period = parseInt(target.period, 10);
 
         var range = end - start;
-        // CloudWatch limit datapoints up to 1440
+        query.period = parseInt(target.period, 10) || 60;
+
         if (range / query.period >= 1440) {
-          query.period = Math.floor(range / 1440 / 60) * 60;
+          query.period = Math.ceil(range / 1440 / 60) * 60;
         }
 
         queries.push(query);
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/partials/query.editor.html b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/partials/query.editor.html
index 80491a284f6..d05ffd8547f 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/partials/query.editor.html
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/partials/query.editor.html
@@ -80,9 +80,10 @@
 		</li>
 		<li class="tight-form-item query-keyword">
 			Period
+			<tip>Interval between points in seconds</tip>
 		</li>
 		<li>
-			<input type="text" class="input-mini tight-form-input" ng-model="target.period" spellcheck='false' placeholder="period" ng-model-onblur ng-change="refreshMetricData()" />
+			<input type="text" class="input-mini tight-form-input" ng-model="target.period" spellcheck='false' placeholder="auto" ng-model-onblur ng-change="refreshMetricData()" />
 		</li>
 
 	</ul>
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/query_ctrl.js b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/query_ctrl.js
index ccbc36f0912..3869a5ec715 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/query_ctrl.js
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/query_ctrl.js
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ function (angular, _) {
       target.metricName = target.metricName || '';
       target.statistics = target.statistics || ['Average'];
       target.dimensions = target.dimensions || {};
-      target.period = target.period || 60;
+      target.period = target.period || '';
       target.region = target.region || $scope.datasource.getDefaultRegion();
 
       $scope.aliasSyntax = '{{metric}} {{stat}} {{namespace}} {{region}} {{<dimension name>}}';