Checkmate
Uptime monitoring

Monitor intervals and timing

Configure how often to check your services.

Overview

The check interval sets how often a monitor runs. Short intervals catch outages faster but produce more data and hit the target more often.

Available intervals

The interval dropdown is the same for every monitor type — HTTP, Ping, TCP, gRPC, Docker, SSL, hardware, and PageSpeed:

IntervalBest for
15 secondsUltra-critical services
30 secondsCritical production services
1–5 minutesStandard production monitoring
10–15 minutesLess critical services
30 minutesDevelopment/staging environments — and the longest interval the UI exposes today

There is currently no hourly or daily option in the dropdown. If you need a slower cadence (for example, a once-a-day PageSpeed audit), run the monitor at 30 minutes and accept the extra checks, or open an issue on GitHub asking for a longer interval — the server accepts any interval, the limit is purely the client-side dropdown.

PageSpeed monitors

PageSpeed monitors share the same dropdown, so 30 minutes is the longest interval. PageSpeed audits hit Google's PageSpeed Insights API on every run — set an API key (Settings → PageSpeed) and choose 30 minutes unless you have a specific reason to go shorter.

Choosing an interval

Consider these factors when selecting an interval:

  • Service criticality: Mission-critical services need shorter intervals
  • Expected downtime impact: High-traffic sites benefit from faster detection
  • Resource usage: Shorter intervals use more system resources
  • False positive tolerance: Longer intervals reduce noise from brief glitches

Start with 3-minute intervals for most monitors. Decrease to 1 minute only for your most critical services.

See also

On this page