diff --git a/pkg/services/ngalert/ngalert.go b/pkg/services/ngalert/ngalert.go
index 3b2f0844fa5..98a7cf204c6 100644
--- a/pkg/services/ngalert/ngalert.go
+++ b/pkg/services/ngalert/ngalert.go
@@ -313,8 +313,7 @@ func subscribeToFolderChanges(logger log.Logger, bus bus.Bus, dbStore api.RuleSt
 
 // Run starts the scheduler and Alertmanager.
 func (ng *AlertNG) Run(ctx context.Context) error {
-	ng.Log.Debug("Starting")
-	ng.stateManager.Warm(ctx, ng.store)
+	ng.Log.Debug("Starting", "execute_alerts", ng.Cfg.UnifiedAlerting.ExecuteAlerts)
 
 	children, subCtx := errgroup.WithContext(ctx)
 
@@ -330,6 +329,17 @@ func (ng *AlertNG) Run(ctx context.Context) error {
 	})
 
 	if ng.Cfg.UnifiedAlerting.ExecuteAlerts {
+		// Only Warm() the state manager if we are actually executing alerts.
+		// Doing so when we are not executing alerts is wasteful and could lead
+		// to misleading rule status queries, as the status returned will be
+		// always based on the state loaded from the database at startup, and
+		// not the most recent evaluation state.
+		//
+		// Also note that this runs synchronously to ensure state is loaded
+		// before rule evaluation begins, hence we use ctx and not subCtx.
+		//
+		ng.stateManager.Warm(ctx, ng.store)
+
 		children.Go(func() error {
 			return ng.schedule.Run(subCtx)
 		})