---
title: Explore metrics data with Discover in Kibana
description: Make the most of Discover to explore metrics data.
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/solutions/observability/infra-and-hosts/discover-metrics
products:
  - Elastic Observability
  - Elastic Security
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Preview
  - Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.2
---

# Explore metrics data with Discover in Kibana
**Discover** offers a dedicated experience for exploring metrics data. When **Discover** recognizes metrics data, it enables specific features and default behaviors to optimize your data exploration. Metrics-specific exploration in Discover automatically generates a grid of charts showing available metrics from your data. Use this view to quickly search and filter metrics, break metrics down by dimension, review the ES|QL query that generates the charts, and add metrics to dashboards with a single click.
If you're just getting started with **Discover** and want to learn its main principles, you should get familiar with the [default experience](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/explore-analyze/discover).
![Screenshot of adding a dimension.](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/solutions/images/explore-metrics-ui.png)


## Requirements


### Data recognition

By default, all data stored in a `metrics-*` index is recognized as metrics data and triggers the **Discover** experience described on this page.

### Required Kibana privileges

Viewing metrics data in **Discover** requires at least `read` privileges for **Discover**.
For more on assigning Kibana privileges, refer to the [Kibana privileges documentation](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/deploy-manage/users-roles/cluster-or-deployment-auth/kibana-privileges).

## Load metrics data

<note>
  To visualize your metrics data as charts, its data stream needs its **Index mode** set to **Time series**. Open **Index Management** using the [global search field](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/explore-analyze/find-and-organize/find-apps-and-objects), then select the **Data Streams** tab to find your data stream's index mode.
</note>

The dedicated metrics view is only available in ES|QL mode. Select `code` **ES|QL** or **Try ES|QL** from the application menu.
Use the `TS` command to select the data source. For example, the following query returns all of your metrics data:
```esql
TS metrics-*
```

You can also query a specific index:
```esql
TS metrics-index-1
```


## Metrics-specific Discover options

With your data loaded, use the metrics charts to:
**Search for specific metrics**
Use the search function to find and visualize specific metric data:
![Screenshot of searching for a specific metric.](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/solutions/images/explore-metrics-search.png)

**Break down metrics by dimension**
Break down your metrics by dimension to find metrics that contain those dimensions and identify which values in those dimensions contribute the most to each metric.
![Screenshot of adding a dimension.](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/solutions/images/explore-metrics-host-ip.png)

**Filter dimensions by a specific value**
Select specific values to focus on within the dimension. You can select up to 10 values to filter your dimension by.
![Screenshot of adding a filtering a dimension by a value.](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/solutions/images/explore-metrics-host-ip-values.png)

**View metric charts in full screen**
Select full screen (`full_screen`) to view the metric charts in full-screen mode.

### Actions

For each metric chart, you can perform the following actions:
- **Explore in Discover** (`app_discover`): Open Discover filtered to focus on that specific metric.
- **Inspect** (`inspect`): Show details about the query request and response.
- **View details** (`eye`): Get additional information about the metric like metric type, dimensions, and ES|QL query.
- **Copy to dashboard** (`app_dashboard`): Save the metric chart to an existing or new [dashboard](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/explore-analyze/dashboards).
- **Add to case** (`app_cases`): Add the metric chart to a [case](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/solutions/observability/incident-management/observability-cases).