diff --git a/public/app/core/services/backend_srv.ts b/public/app/core/services/backend_srv.ts
index be9a2c01cbf..559fbff18ff 100644
--- a/public/app/core/services/backend_srv.ts
+++ b/public/app/core/services/backend_srv.ts
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ import { AppEvents, DataQueryErrorType } from '@grafana/data';
 import { BackendSrv as BackendService, BackendSrvRequest, config, FetchError, FetchResponse } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import appEvents from 'app/core/app_events';
 import { getConfig } from 'app/core/config';
-import { getSessionExpiry } from 'app/core/utils/auth';
+import { getSessionExpiry, hasSessionExpiry } from 'app/core/utils/auth';
 import { loadUrlToken } from 'app/core/utils/urlToken';
 import { DashboardModel } from 'app/features/dashboard/state';
 import { DashboardSearchItem } from 'app/features/search/types';
@@ -390,10 +390,11 @@ export class BackendSrv implements BackendService {
                 }
 
                 let authChecker = this.loginPing();
-
-                const expired = getSessionExpiry() * 1000 < Date.now();
-                if (expired) {
-                  authChecker = this.rotateToken();
+                if (hasSessionExpiry()) {
+                  const expired = getSessionExpiry() * 1000 < Date.now();
+                  if (expired) {
+                    authChecker = this.rotateToken();
+                  }
                 }
 
                 return from(authChecker).pipe(
diff --git a/public/app/core/specs/backend_srv.test.ts b/public/app/core/specs/backend_srv.test.ts
index 54118ce553f..075ec6f0095 100644
--- a/public/app/core/specs/backend_srv.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/core/specs/backend_srv.test.ts
@@ -86,6 +86,11 @@ const getTestContext = (overides?: object, mockFromFetch = true) => {
   };
 };
 
+jest.mock('app/core/utils/auth', () => ({
+  getSessionExpiry: () => 1,
+  hasSessionExpiry: () => true,
+}));
+
 describe('backendSrv', () => {
   describe('parseRequestOptions', () => {
     it.each`
diff --git a/public/app/core/utils/auth.ts b/public/app/core/utils/auth.ts
index 42d99cd59c9..8c6b69cc028 100644
--- a/public/app/core/utils/auth.ts
+++ b/public/app/core/utils/auth.ts
@@ -11,3 +11,7 @@ export function getSessionExpiry() {
 
   return parseInt(expiresStr, 10);
 }
+
+export function hasSessionExpiry() {
+  return document.cookie.split('; ').findIndex((row) => row.startsWith('grafana_session_expiry=')) > -1;
+}