From e6b078bc0f7cab3d0117f4b3f26a84bb5a5075b7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "grafana-delivery-bot[bot]"
 <132647405+grafana-delivery-bot[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2025 09:55:12 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] [release-12.0.3] docs(alerting): performance considerations
 minor clarifications (#107369)

docs(alerting): performance considerations minor clarifications (#107333)

(cherry picked from commit f5b79fca55144f9d7e2122501a53f45855dc8b00)

Co-authored-by: Pepe Cano <825430+ppcano@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 .../set-up/performance-limitations/index.md      | 16 ++++++++++------
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/sources/alerting/set-up/performance-limitations/index.md b/docs/sources/alerting/set-up/performance-limitations/index.md
index 9b716efbaac..72a6515e6cc 100644
--- a/docs/sources/alerting/set-up/performance-limitations/index.md
+++ b/docs/sources/alerting/set-up/performance-limitations/index.md
@@ -59,18 +59,22 @@ For more information, refer to [this GitHub issue](https://github.com/grafana/gr
 ## High load on database caused by a high number of alert instances
 
 If you have a high number of alert instances, it can happen that the load on the database gets very high, as each state
-transition of an alert instance is saved in the database.
+transition of an alert instance is saved in the database after every evaluation.
 
 ### Compressed alert state
 
-When the `alertingSaveStateCompressed` feature toggle is enabled, Grafana saves the alert rule state in a compressed form, reducing database overhead for alerts with many instances.
+When the `alertingSaveStateCompressed` feature toggle is enabled, Grafana saves the alert rule state in a compressed form. Instead of performing an individual SQL update for each alert instance, Grafana performs a single SQL update per alert rule, updating all alert instances belonging to that rule.
+
+This can significantly reduce database overhead for alert rules with many alert instances.
 
 ### Save state periodically
 
-High load can be also prevented by writing to the database periodically. For this the feature flag `alertingSaveStatePeriodic` needs
-to be enabled. By default, it saves the states every 5 minutes to the database and on each shutdown. The periodic interval
-can also be configured using the `state_periodic_save_interval` configuration flag. During this process, Grafana deletes all existing alert instances from the
-database and then writes the entire current set of instances back in batches in a single transacton.
+High load can be also prevented by writing to the database periodically, instead of after every evaluation.
+
+To save state periodically, enable the `alertingSaveStatePeriodic` feature toggle.
+
+By default, it saves the states every 5 minutes to the database and on each shutdown. The periodic interval
+can also be configured using the `state_periodic_save_interval` configuration flag. During this process, Grafana deletes all existing alert instances from the database and then writes the entire current set of instances back in batches in a single transaction.
 Configure the size of each batch using the `state_periodic_save_batch_size` configuration option.
 
 The time it takes to write to the database periodically can be monitored using the `state_full_sync_duration_seconds` metric