diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/datasource.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/datasource.tsx
index c6a3f089e90..98b72c1bd46 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/datasource.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/datasource.tsx
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ export class PrometheusDatasource
   }
 
   // Use this for tab completion features, wont publish response to other components
-  async metadataRequest<T = any>(url: string, params = {}) {
+  async metadataRequest<T = any>(url: string, params = {}, options?: Partial<BackendSrvRequest>) {
     // If URL includes endpoint that supports POST and GET method, try to use configured method. This might fail as POST is supported only in v2.10+.
     if (GET_AND_POST_METADATA_ENDPOINTS.some((endpoint) => url.includes(endpoint))) {
       try {
@@ -222,6 +222,7 @@ export class PrometheusDatasource
             method: this.httpMethod,
             hideFromInspector: true,
             showErrorAlert: false,
+            ...options,
           })
         );
       } catch (err) {
@@ -238,6 +239,7 @@ export class PrometheusDatasource
       this._request<T>(`/api/datasources/${this.id}/resources${url}`, params, {
         method: 'GET',
         hideFromInspector: true,
+        ...options,
       })
     ); // toPromise until we change getTagValues, getTagKeys to Observable
   }
@@ -1003,7 +1005,7 @@ export class PrometheusDatasource
 
   async loadRules() {
     try {
-      const res = await this.metadataRequest('/api/v1/rules');
+      const res = await this.metadataRequest('/api/v1/rules', {}, { showErrorAlert: false });
       const groups = res.data?.data?.groups;
 
       if (groups) {
@@ -1017,11 +1019,18 @@ export class PrometheusDatasource
 
   async areExemplarsAvailable() {
     try {
-      const res = await this.getResource('/api/v1/query_exemplars', {
-        query: 'test',
-        start: dateTime().subtract(30, 'minutes').valueOf(),
-        end: dateTime().valueOf(),
-      });
+      const res = await this.metadataRequest(
+        '/api/v1/query_exemplars',
+        {
+          query: 'test',
+          start: dateTime().subtract(30, 'minutes').valueOf().toString(),
+          end: dateTime().valueOf().toString(),
+        },
+        {
+          // Avoid alerting the user if this test fails
+          showErrorAlert: false,
+        }
+      );
       if (res.data.status === 'success') {
         return true;
       }
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/language_provider.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/language_provider.ts
index 66bf546a016..e88827e7cf7 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/language_provider.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/language_provider.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import {
   HistoryItem,
   LanguageProvider,
 } from '@grafana/data';
+import { BackendSrvRequest } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { CompletionItem, CompletionItemGroup, SearchFunctionType, TypeaheadInput, TypeaheadOutput } from '@grafana/ui';
 
 import { PrometheusDatasource } from './datasource';
@@ -120,9 +121,9 @@ export default class PromQlLanguageProvider extends LanguageProvider {
     return PromqlSyntax;
   }
 
-  request = async (url: string, defaultValue: any, params = {}): Promise<any> => {
+  request = async (url: string, defaultValue: any, params = {}, options?: Partial<BackendSrvRequest>): Promise<any> => {
     try {
-      const res = await this.datasource.metadataRequest(url, params);
+      const res = await this.datasource.metadataRequest(url, params, options);
       return res.data.data;
     } catch (error) {
       console.error(error);
@@ -145,7 +146,9 @@ export default class PromQlLanguageProvider extends LanguageProvider {
   };
 
   async loadMetricsMetadata() {
-    this.metricsMetadata = fixSummariesMetadata(await this.request('/api/v1/metadata', {}));
+    this.metricsMetadata = fixSummariesMetadata(
+      await this.request('/api/v1/metadata', {}, {}, { showErrorAlert: false })
+    );
   }
 
   getLabelKeys(): string[] {