diff --git a/.betterer.results b/.betterer.results
index 540406092ed..27389d1d9cb 100644
--- a/.betterer.results
+++ b/.betterer.results
@@ -5555,12 +5555,6 @@ exports[`no gf-form usage`] = {
     "public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/query/influxql/visual/TagsSection.tsx:5381": [
       [0, 0, 0, "gf-form usage has been deprecated. Use a component from @grafana/ui or custom CSS instead.", "5381"]
     ],
-    "public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/variable/VariableQueryEditor.tsx:5381": [
-      [0, 0, 0, "gf-form usage has been deprecated. Use a component from @grafana/ui or custom CSS instead.", "5381"],
-      [0, 0, 0, "gf-form usage has been deprecated. Use a component from @grafana/ui or custom CSS instead.", "5381"],
-      [0, 0, 0, "gf-form usage has been deprecated. Use a component from @grafana/ui or custom CSS instead.", "5381"],
-      [0, 0, 0, "gf-form usage has been deprecated. Use a component from @grafana/ui or custom CSS instead.", "5381"]
-    ],
     "public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/components/LokiQueryField.tsx:5381": [
       [0, 0, 0, "gf-form usage has been deprecated. Use a component from @grafana/ui or custom CSS instead.", "5381"],
       [0, 0, 0, "gf-form usage has been deprecated. Use a component from @grafana/ui or custom CSS instead.", "5381"],
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/query/QueryEditor.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/query/QueryEditor.tsx
index 8c639067a2c..7976e9edf9c 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/query/QueryEditor.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/query/QueryEditor.tsx
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ export const QueryEditor = ({ query, onChange, onRunQuery, datasource }: Props)
     case InfluxVersion.Flux:
       return (
         <div className="gf-form-query-content">
-          <FluxQueryEditor query={query} onChange={onChange} onRunQuery={onRunQuery} datasource={datasource} />
+          <FluxQueryEditor query={query} onChange={onChange} datasource={datasource} />
         </div>
       );
     case InfluxVersion.SQL:
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/query/flux/FluxQueryEditor.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/query/flux/FluxQueryEditor.tsx
index d6bdfd58689..56102fdac15 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/query/flux/FluxQueryEditor.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/query/flux/FluxQueryEditor.tsx
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ import { InfluxQuery } from '../../../../types';
 
 interface Props extends Themeable2 {
   onChange: (query: InfluxQuery) => void;
-  onRunQuery: () => void;
   query: InfluxQuery;
   // `datasource` is not used internally, but this component is used at some places
   // directly, where the `datasource` prop has to exist. later, when the whole
@@ -98,7 +97,6 @@ v1.tagValues(
 class UnthemedFluxQueryEditor extends PureComponent<Props> {
   onFluxQueryChange = (query: string) => {
     this.props.onChange({ ...this.props.query, query });
-    this.props.onRunQuery();
   };
 
   onSampleChange = (val: SelectableValue<string>) => {
@@ -109,7 +107,6 @@ class UnthemedFluxQueryEditor extends PureComponent<Props> {
 
     // Angular HACK: Since the target does not actually change!
     this.forceUpdate();
-    this.props.onRunQuery();
   };
 
   getSuggestions = (): CodeEditorSuggestionItem[] => {
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/variable/VariableQueryEditor.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/variable/VariableQueryEditor.tsx
index e771e54a982..dd1bc42d73a 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/variable/VariableQueryEditor.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/components/editor/variable/VariableQueryEditor.tsx
@@ -1,68 +1,75 @@
-import React, { PureComponent } from 'react';
+import React from 'react';
 
-import { Field, FieldSet, InlineFormLabel, TextArea } from '@grafana/ui';
+import { QueryEditorProps } from '@grafana/data';
+import { Field, FieldSet, InlineFieldRow, TextArea } from '@grafana/ui';
+import { InlineField } from '@grafana/ui/';
 
 import InfluxDatasource from '../../../datasource';
-import { InfluxVersion } from '../../../types';
+import { InfluxOptions, InfluxQuery, InfluxVariableQuery, InfluxVersion } from '../../../types';
 import { FluxQueryEditor } from '../query/flux/FluxQueryEditor';
 
-interface Props {
-  query: string; // before flux, it was always a string
-  onChange: (query?: string) => void;
-  datasource: InfluxDatasource;
-}
+export type Props = QueryEditorProps<InfluxDatasource, InfluxQuery, InfluxOptions, InfluxVariableQuery>;
 
-export default class VariableQueryEditor extends PureComponent<Props> {
-  onRefresh = () => {
-    // noop
+const refId = 'InfluxVariableQueryEditor-VariableQuery';
+
+const useVariableQuery = (query: InfluxVariableQuery | string): InfluxVariableQuery => {
+  // in legacy variable support query can be only a string
+  // in new variable support query can be an object and hold more information
+  // to be able to support old version we check the query here
+  if (typeof query === 'string') {
+    return {
+      refId,
+      query,
+    };
+  } else {
+    return {
+      refId,
+      query: query.query ?? '',
+    };
+  }
+};
+
+export const InfluxVariableEditor = ({ onChange, datasource, query }: Props) => {
+  const varQuery = useVariableQuery(query);
+
+  const onChangeHandler = (q: InfluxQuery) => {
+    onChange({ refId, query: q.query || '' });
   };
 
-  render() {
-    let { query, datasource, onChange } = this.props;
+  const onBlurHandler = (e: React.FocusEvent<HTMLTextAreaElement>) => {
+    onChange({ refId, query: e.currentTarget.value });
+  };
 
-    switch (datasource.version) {
-      case InfluxVersion.Flux:
-        return (
-          <FluxQueryEditor
-            datasource={datasource}
-            query={{
-              refId: 'A',
-              query,
-            }}
-            onRunQuery={this.onRefresh}
-            onChange={(v) => onChange(v.query)}
-          />
-        );
-      case InfluxVersion.SQL:
-        return (
-          <FieldSet>
-            <Field htmlFor="influx-sql-variable-query">
-              <TextArea
-                id="influx-sql-variable-query"
-                defaultValue={query || ''}
-                placeholder="metric name or tags query"
-                rows={1}
-                onBlur={(e) => onChange(e.currentTarget.value)}
-              />
-            </Field>
-          </FieldSet>
-        );
-      case InfluxVersion.InfluxQL:
-      default:
-        return (
-          <div className="gf-form-inline">
-            <InlineFormLabel width={10}>Query</InlineFormLabel>
-            <div className="gf-form-inline gf-form--grow">
-              <TextArea
-                defaultValue={query || ''}
-                placeholder="metric name or tags query"
-                rows={1}
-                className="gf-form-input"
-                onBlur={(e) => onChange(e.currentTarget.value)}
-              />
-            </div>
-          </div>
-        );
-    }
+  switch (datasource.version) {
+    case InfluxVersion.Flux:
+      return <FluxQueryEditor datasource={datasource} query={varQuery} onChange={onChangeHandler} />;
+    case InfluxVersion.SQL:
+      return (
+        <FieldSet>
+          <Field htmlFor="influx-sql-variable-query">
+            <TextArea
+              id="influx-sql-variable-query"
+              defaultValue={varQuery.query || ''}
+              placeholder="metric name or tags query"
+              rows={1}
+              onBlur={onBlurHandler}
+            />
+          </Field>
+        </FieldSet>
+      );
+    case InfluxVersion.InfluxQL:
+    default:
+      return (
+        <InlineFieldRow>
+          <InlineField label="Query" labelWidth={20} required grow aria-labelledby="label-select">
+            <TextArea
+              defaultValue={varQuery.query || ''}
+              placeholder="metric name or tags query"
+              rows={1}
+              onBlur={onBlurHandler}
+            />
+          </InlineField>
+        </InlineFieldRow>
+      );
   }
-}
+};
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts
index e25441fb557..0cf30fa16be 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ import { prepareAnnotation } from './migrations';
 import { buildRawQuery, removeRegexWrapper } from './queryUtils';
 import ResponseParser from './response_parser';
 import { DEFAULT_POLICY, InfluxOptions, InfluxQuery, InfluxQueryTag, InfluxVersion } from './types';
+import { InfluxVariableSupport } from './variables';
 
 export default class InfluxDatasource extends DataSourceWithBackend<InfluxQuery, InfluxOptions> {
   type: string;
@@ -89,6 +90,7 @@ export default class InfluxDatasource extends DataSourceWithBackend<InfluxQuery,
     this.responseParser = new ResponseParser();
     this.version = settingsData.version ?? InfluxVersion.InfluxQL;
     this.isProxyAccess = instanceSettings.access === 'proxy';
+    this.variables = new InfluxVariableSupport(this, this.templateSrv);
 
     if (this.version === InfluxVersion.Flux) {
       // When flux, use an annotation processor rather than the `annotationQuery` lifecycle
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/module.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/module.ts
index c293c017d6f..f6e46d7d331 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/module.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/module.ts
@@ -3,11 +3,9 @@ import { DataSourcePlugin } from '@grafana/data';
 import ConfigEditor from './components/editor/config/ConfigEditor';
 import { QueryEditor } from './components/editor/query/QueryEditor';
 import { InfluxStartPage } from './components/editor/query/influxql/InfluxStartPage';
-import VariableQueryEditor from './components/editor/variable/VariableQueryEditor';
 import InfluxDatasource from './datasource';
 
 export const plugin = new DataSourcePlugin(InfluxDatasource)
   .setConfigEditor(ConfigEditor)
   .setQueryEditor(QueryEditor)
-  .setVariableQueryEditor(VariableQueryEditor)
   .setQueryEditorHelp(InfluxStartPage);
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/types.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/types.ts
index d81cfd0cc15..c5c777711f3 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/types.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/types.ts
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ export interface InfluxQueryTag {
 
 export type ResultFormat = 'time_series' | 'table' | 'logs';
 
+export interface InfluxVariableQuery extends DataQuery {
+  query: string;
+}
+
 export interface InfluxQuery extends DataQuery {
   policy?: string;
   measurement?: string;
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/variables.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/variables.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..094c34a1d3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/variables.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import { from, Observable, of } from 'rxjs';
+import { map } from 'rxjs/operators';
+
+import { CustomVariableSupport, DataQueryRequest, DataQueryResponse } from '@grafana/data';
+import { getTemplateSrv, TemplateSrv } from '@grafana/runtime';
+
+import { InfluxVariableEditor } from './components/editor/variable/VariableQueryEditor';
+import InfluxDatasource from './datasource';
+import { InfluxVariableQuery } from './types';
+
+export class InfluxVariableSupport extends CustomVariableSupport<InfluxDatasource> {
+  editor = InfluxVariableEditor;
+
+  constructor(
+    private readonly datasource: InfluxDatasource,
+    private readonly templateSrv: TemplateSrv = getTemplateSrv()
+  ) {
+    super();
+  }
+
+  query(request: DataQueryRequest<InfluxVariableQuery>): Observable<DataQueryResponse> {
+    let query: string | undefined;
+    if (typeof request.targets[0] === 'string') {
+      query = request.targets[0];
+    } else {
+      query = request.targets[0].query;
+    }
+
+    if (!query) {
+      return of({ data: [] });
+    }
+
+    const interpolated = this.templateSrv.replace(query, request.scopedVars, this.datasource.interpolateQueryExpr);
+    const metricFindStream = from(this.datasource.metricFindQuery(interpolated, request.range));
+    return metricFindStream.pipe(map((results) => ({ data: results })));
+  }
+}