Multi-window multi-burn rate alerts are a method for detecting SLO violations early and reliably by looking at error budget burn rates over multiple time windows.
Monitor how fast your error budget is being consumed in:
- Short windows (e.g. 5m, 30m) → catch fast burn (“alert quickly”)
- Long windows (e.g. 1h, 6h) → confirm sustained impact (“alert reliably”)
Why it matters:
- Reduces noise from short-term blips
- Catches serious outages early
- Balances between too many alerts and missing real problems
To understand the effects of multiple burn rate alerts and which burn rate over what period of time would lead to an alert being triggered, check out: https://wpjunior.github.io/multi-burn-rate-calculator/