diff --git a/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.ts b/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.ts
index de5efabcf23..11e90cbb5f7 100644
--- a/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.ts
@@ -156,6 +156,9 @@ export class TemplateSrv {
         }
         return value;
       }
+      case 'json': {
+        return JSON.stringify(value);
+      }
       case 'percentencode': {
         // like glob, but url escaped
         if (_.isArray(value)) {