diff --git a/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.test.ts b/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.test.ts
index 587a62baa81..113e97c8dee 100644
--- a/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.test.ts
@@ -644,86 +644,47 @@ describe('explore links utils', () => {
   });
 
   describe('getVariableUsageInfo', () => {
-    it('returns true when query contains variables and all variables are used', () => {
-      const dataLink = {
+    function makeDataLinkWithQuery(query: string): DataLink {
+      return {
         url: '',
         title: '',
         internal: {
           datasourceUid: 'uid',
           datasourceName: 'dsName',
-          query: { query: 'test ${testVal}' },
+          query: { query },
         },
       };
+    }
+
+    function allVariablesDefinedInQuery(query: string) {
       const scopedVars = {
         testVal: { text: '', value: 'val1' },
       };
-      const dataLinkRtnVal = getVariableUsageInfo(dataLink, scopedVars).allVariablesDefined;
+      return getVariableUsageInfo(makeDataLinkWithQuery(query), scopedVars).allVariablesDefined;
+    }
 
-      expect(dataLinkRtnVal).toBe(true);
+    it('returns true when query contains variables and all variables are used', () => {
+      expect(allVariablesDefinedInQuery('test ${testVal}')).toBe(true);
+    });
+
+    it('ignores global variables', () => {
+      expect(allVariablesDefinedInQuery('test ${__rate_interval} $__from $__to')).toBe(true);
     });
 
     it('returns false when query contains variables and no variables are used', () => {
-      const dataLink = {
-        url: '',
-        title: '',
-        internal: {
-          datasourceUid: 'uid',
-          datasourceName: 'dsName',
-          query: { query: 'test ${diffVar}' },
-        },
-      };
-      const scopedVars = {
-        testVal: { text: '', value: 'val1' },
-      };
-      const dataLinkRtnVal = getVariableUsageInfo(dataLink, scopedVars).allVariablesDefined;
-
-      expect(dataLinkRtnVal).toBe(false);
+      expect(allVariablesDefinedInQuery('test ${diffVar}')).toBe(false);
     });
 
     it('returns false when query contains variables and some variables are used', () => {
-      const dataLink = {
-        url: '',
-        title: '',
-        internal: {
-          datasourceUid: 'uid',
-          datasourceName: 'dsName',
-          query: { query: 'test ${testVal} ${diffVar}' },
-        },
-      };
-      const scopedVars = {
-        testVal: { text: '', value: 'val1' },
-      };
-      const dataLinkRtnVal = getVariableUsageInfo(dataLink, scopedVars).allVariablesDefined;
-      expect(dataLinkRtnVal).toBe(false);
+      expect(allVariablesDefinedInQuery('test ${testVal} ${diffVar}')).toBe(false);
     });
 
     it('returns true when query contains no variables', () => {
-      const dataLink = {
-        url: '',
-        title: '',
-        internal: {
-          datasourceUid: 'uid',
-          datasourceName: 'dsName',
-          query: { query: 'test' },
-        },
-      };
-      const scopedVars = {
-        testVal: { text: '', value: 'val1' },
-      };
-      const dataLinkRtnVal = getVariableUsageInfo(dataLink, scopedVars).allVariablesDefined;
-      expect(dataLinkRtnVal).toBe(true);
+      expect(allVariablesDefinedInQuery('test')).toBe(true);
     });
 
     it('returns deduplicated list of variables', () => {
-      const dataLink = {
-        url: '',
-        title: '',
-        internal: {
-          datasourceUid: 'uid',
-          datasourceName: 'dsName',
-          query: { query: 'test ${test} ${foo} ${test:raw} $test' },
-        },
-      };
+      const dataLink = makeDataLinkWithQuery('test ${test} ${foo} ${test:raw} $test');
       const scopedVars = {
         testVal: { text: '', value: 'val1' },
       };
diff --git a/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.ts b/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.ts
index b1572c5064d..c308b882484 100644
--- a/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.ts
@@ -233,6 +233,23 @@ export function useLinks(range: TimeRange, splitOpenFn?: SplitOpen) {
   );
 }
 
+// See https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/dashboards/variables/add-template-variables/#global-variables
+const builtInVariables = [
+  '__from',
+  '__to',
+  '__interval',
+  '__interval_ms',
+  '__org',
+  '__user',
+  '__range',
+  '__rate_interval',
+  '__timeFilter',
+  'timeFilter',
+  // These are only applicable in dashboards so should not affect this for Explore
+  // '__dashboard',
+  //'__name',
+];
+
 /**
  * Use variable map from templateSrv to determine if all variables have values
  * @param query
@@ -244,14 +261,20 @@ export function getVariableUsageInfo<T extends DataLink>(
 ): { variables: VariableInterpolation[]; allVariablesDefined: boolean } {
   let variables: VariableInterpolation[] = [];
   const replaceFn = getTemplateSrv().replace.bind(getTemplateSrv());
+  // This adds info to the variables array while interpolating
   replaceFn(getStringsFromObject(query), scopedVars, undefined, variables);
   variables = uniqBy(variables, 'variableName');
   return {
     variables: variables,
-    allVariablesDefined: variables.every((variable) => variable.found),
+    allVariablesDefined: variables
+      // We filter out builtin variables as they should be always defined but sometimes only later, like
+      // __range_interval which is defined in prometheus at query time.
+      .filter((v) => !builtInVariables.includes(v.variableName))
+      .every((variable) => variable.found),
   };
 }
 
+// Recursively get all strings from an object into a simple list with space as separator.
 function getStringsFromObject(obj: Object): string {
   let acc = '';
   let k: keyof typeof obj;