diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/backendResultTransformer.test.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/backendResultTransformer.test.ts
index b323bfb4c34..29df5d1d6ab 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/backendResultTransformer.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/backendResultTransformer.test.ts
@@ -64,8 +64,8 @@ const inputFrame: DataFrame = {
   length: 5,
 };
 
-describe('loki backendResultTransformer', () => {
-  it('processes a logs-dataframe correctly', () => {
+describe('backendResultTransformer', () => {
+  it('processes a logs dataframe correctly', () => {
     const response: DataQueryResponse = { data: [cloneDeep(inputFrame)] };
 
     const expectedFrame = cloneDeep(inputFrame);
@@ -232,4 +232,24 @@ describe('loki backendResultTransformer', () => {
     );
     expect(result.error?.message).toBe('parse error at line 1, col 2: invalid char escape');
   });
+
+  it('resolves search words from queries with template variables', () => {
+    const dataFrame = cloneDeep(inputFrame);
+    dataFrame.meta = {
+      executedQueryString: 'Expr: {service_name="tns-app"} |~ "(?i)template" |= "variable"',
+    };
+    const result = transformBackendResult(
+      { data: [dataFrame] },
+      [
+        {
+          refId: 'A',
+          expr: `{service_name="tns-app"} |~ "(?i)$search"`,
+        },
+      ],
+      []
+    );
+
+    expect(result.data[0].meta.searchWords).toContain('(?i)template');
+    expect(result.data[0].meta.searchWords).toContain('variable');
+  });
 });
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/backendResultTransformer.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/backendResultTransformer.ts
index 2a720cf0d7b..1cc91c4c621 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/backendResultTransformer.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/backendResultTransformer.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import { DataQueryResponse, DataFrame, isDataFrame, FieldType, QueryResultMeta,
 
 import { getDerivedFields } from './getDerivedFields';
 import { makeTableFrames } from './makeTableFrames';
-import { getHighlighterExpressionsFromQuery } from './queryUtils';
+import { getExpressionFromExecutedQuery, getHighlighterExpressionsFromQuery } from './queryUtils';
 import { dataFrameHasLokiError } from './responseUtils';
 import { DerivedFieldConfig, LokiQuery, LokiQueryType } from './types';
 
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ function processStreamFrame(
   const meta: QueryResultMeta = {
     preferredVisualisationType: 'logs',
     limit: query?.maxLines,
-    searchWords: query !== undefined ? getHighlighterExpressionsFromQuery(query.expr) : undefined,
+    searchWords: query ? getHighlighterExpressionsFromQuery(query.expr) : undefined,
     custom,
   };
 
@@ -145,7 +145,17 @@ export function transformBackendResult(
     return d;
   });
 
-  const queryMap = new Map(queries.map((query) => [query.refId, query]));
+  const queryMap = new Map(
+    queries.map((query) => {
+      const executedExpr = response.data.find((data) => data.refId === query.refId)?.meta.executedQueryString;
+      const executedQuery = {
+        ...query,
+        expr: executedExpr ? getExpressionFromExecutedQuery(executedExpr) : query.expr,
+      };
+
+      return [query.refId, executedQuery];
+    })
+  );
 
   const { streamsFrames, metricInstantFrames, metricRangeFrames } = groupFrames(dataFrames, queryMap);
 
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/queryUtils.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/queryUtils.ts
index 45bb0870104..368f1819620 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/queryUtils.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/queryUtils.ts
@@ -31,10 +31,10 @@ import { LokiQuery, LokiQueryType } from './types';
 
 /**
  * Returns search terms from a LogQL query.
- * E.g., `{} |= foo |=bar != baz` returns `['foo', 'bar']`.
+ * E.g., `{} |= "foo" |= "bar" != "baz"` returns `['foo', 'bar']`.
  */
 export function getHighlighterExpressionsFromQuery(input = ''): string[] {
-  const results = [];
+  const results: string[] = [];
 
   const filters = getNodesFromQuery(input, [LineFilter]);
 
@@ -76,6 +76,10 @@ export function getHighlighterExpressionsFromQuery(input = ''): string[] {
   return results;
 }
 
+export function getExpressionFromExecutedQuery(executedQueryString: string) {
+  return executedQueryString.replace('Expr: ', '');
+}
+
 export function getStringsFromLineFilter(filter: SyntaxNode): SyntaxNode[] {
   const nodes: SyntaxNode[] = [];
   let node: SyntaxNode | null = filter;