diff --git a/.betterer.results b/.betterer.results
index b1e8976a9d1..f540cfeba20 100644
--- a/.betterer.results
+++ b/.betterer.results
@@ -359,7 +359,7 @@ exports[`no enzyme tests`] = {
     "public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/configuration/ConfigEditor.test.tsx:1661240493": [
       [1, 17, 13, "RegExp match", "2409514259"]
     ],
-    "public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/configuration/DebugSection.test.tsx:2317141020": [
+    "public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/configuration/DebugSection.test.tsx:3844880066": [
       [1, 17, 13, "RegExp match", "2409514259"]
     ],
     "public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/configuration/DerivedField.test.tsx:1527527456": [
diff --git a/packages/grafana-runtime/src/services/templateSrv.ts b/packages/grafana-runtime/src/services/templateSrv.ts
index 962dacd70c2..50b40325c5c 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-runtime/src/services/templateSrv.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-runtime/src/services/templateSrv.ts
@@ -17,6 +17,11 @@ export interface TemplateSrv {
    * Replace the values within the target string.  See also {@link InterpolateFunction}
    */
   replace(target?: string, scopedVars?: ScopedVars, format?: string | Function): string;
+
+  /**
+   * Checks if a target contains template variables.
+   */
+  containsTemplate(target?: string): boolean;
 }
 
 let singletonInstance: TemplateSrv;
diff --git a/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.test.ts b/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.test.ts
index 7d049b48197..1f58b54bcbd 100644
--- a/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/explore/utils/links.test.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ describe('getFieldLinksForExplore', () => {
       getVariables() {
         return [];
       },
+      containsTemplate() {
+        return false;
+      },
     });
   });
 
diff --git a/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.mock.ts b/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.mock.ts
index 394223a75c0..4ce57cdc914 100644
--- a/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.mock.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.mock.ts
@@ -45,4 +45,14 @@ export class TemplateSrvMock implements TemplateSrv {
     }
     return match.slice(1).find((match) => match !== undefined);
   }
+
+  containsTemplate(target: string | undefined): boolean {
+    if (!target) {
+      return false;
+    }
+
+    this.regex.lastIndex = 0;
+    const match = this.regex.exec(target);
+    return match !== null;
+  }
 }
diff --git a/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.test.ts b/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.test.ts
index 9c42d6fbc10..ebe981efc8f 100644
--- a/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.test.ts
@@ -430,37 +430,37 @@ describe('templateSrv', () => {
     });
 
     it('should return true if $test exists', () => {
-      const result = _templateSrv.variableExists('$test');
+      const result = _templateSrv.containsTemplate('$test');
       expect(result).toBe(true);
     });
 
     it('should return true if $test exists in string', () => {
-      const result = _templateSrv.variableExists('something $test something');
+      const result = _templateSrv.containsTemplate('something $test something');
       expect(result).toBe(true);
     });
 
     it('should return true if [[test]] exists in string', () => {
-      const result = _templateSrv.variableExists('something [[test]] something');
+      const result = _templateSrv.containsTemplate('something [[test]] something');
       expect(result).toBe(true);
     });
 
     it('should return true if [[test:csv]] exists in string', () => {
-      const result = _templateSrv.variableExists('something [[test:csv]] something');
+      const result = _templateSrv.containsTemplate('something [[test:csv]] something');
       expect(result).toBe(true);
     });
 
     it('should return true if ${test} exists in string', () => {
-      const result = _templateSrv.variableExists('something ${test} something');
+      const result = _templateSrv.containsTemplate('something ${test} something');
       expect(result).toBe(true);
     });
 
     it('should return true if ${test:raw} exists in string', () => {
-      const result = _templateSrv.variableExists('something ${test:raw} something');
+      const result = _templateSrv.containsTemplate('something ${test:raw} something');
       expect(result).toBe(true);
     });
 
     it('should return null if there are no variables in string', () => {
-      const result = _templateSrv.variableExists('string without variables');
+      const result = _templateSrv.containsTemplate('string without variables');
       expect(result).toBe(false);
     });
   });
diff --git a/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.ts b/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.ts
index 427cf7d6f1e..57d7671af8d 100644
--- a/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/templating/template_srv.ts
@@ -189,8 +189,11 @@ export class TemplateSrv implements BaseTemplateSrv {
     return variableName;
   }
 
-  variableExists(expression: string): boolean {
-    const name = this.getVariableName(expression);
+  containsTemplate(target: string | undefined): boolean {
+    if (!target) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    const name = this.getVariableName(target);
     const variable = name && this.getVariableAtIndex(name);
     return variable !== null && variable !== undefined;
   }
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
index 660ca54ddfb..a4c92c98146 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
@@ -894,12 +894,12 @@ export class CloudWatchDatasource
 
   targetContainsTemplate(target: any) {
     return (
-      this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.region) ||
-      this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.namespace) ||
-      this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.metricName) ||
-      this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.expression!) ||
-      target.logGroupNames?.some((logGroup: string) => this.templateSrv.variableExists(logGroup)) ||
-      find(target.dimensions, (v, k) => this.templateSrv.variableExists(k) || this.templateSrv.variableExists(v))
+      this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(target.region) ||
+      this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(target.namespace) ||
+      this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(target.metricName) ||
+      this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(target.expression!) ||
+      target.logGroupNames?.some((logGroup: string) => this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(logGroup)) ||
+      find(target.dimensions, (v, k) => this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(k) || this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(v))
     );
   }
 
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts
index 3a797cf04d4..d9837dcf364 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts
@@ -871,19 +871,19 @@ export class ElasticDatasource
   }
 
   targetContainsTemplate(target: any) {
-    if (this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.query) || this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.alias)) {
+    if (this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(target.query) || this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(target.alias)) {
       return true;
     }
 
     for (const bucketAgg of target.bucketAggs) {
-      if (this.templateSrv.variableExists(bucketAgg.field) || this.objectContainsTemplate(bucketAgg.settings)) {
+      if (this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(bucketAgg.field) || this.objectContainsTemplate(bucketAgg.settings)) {
         return true;
       }
     }
 
     for (const metric of target.metrics) {
       if (
-        this.templateSrv.variableExists(metric.field) ||
+        this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(metric.field) ||
         this.objectContainsTemplate(metric.settings) ||
         this.objectContainsTemplate(metric.meta)
       ) {
@@ -912,7 +912,7 @@ export class ElasticDatasource
 
     for (const key of Object.keys(obj)) {
       if (this.isPrimitive(obj[key])) {
-        if (this.templateSrv.variableExists(obj[key])) {
+        if (this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(obj[key])) {
           return true;
         }
       } else if (Array.isArray(obj[key])) {
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/grafana-azure-monitor-datasource/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/grafana-azure-monitor-datasource/datasource.ts
index 5438e82a840..71564888677 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/grafana-azure-monitor-datasource/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/grafana-azure-monitor-datasource/datasource.ts
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ export default class Datasource extends DataSourceApi<AzureMonitorQuery, AzureDa
   }
 
   targetContainsTemplate(query: AzureMonitorQuery) {
-    if (query.subscription && this.templateSrv.variableExists(query.subscription)) {
+    if (query.subscription && this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(query.subscription)) {
       return true;
     }
 
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ export default class Datasource extends DataSourceApi<AzureMonitorQuery, AzureDa
       subQuery = JSON.stringify([query.azureResourceGraph, query.subscriptions]);
     }
 
-    return !!subQuery && this.templateSrv.variableExists(subQuery);
+    return !!subQuery && this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(subQuery);
   }
 
   async annotationQuery(options: any) {
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/graphite/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/graphite/datasource.ts
index d346a11f745..b33baad6011 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/graphite/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/graphite/datasource.ts
@@ -417,7 +417,7 @@ export class GraphiteDatasource
   }
 
   targetContainsTemplate(target: GraphiteQuery) {
-    return this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.target ?? '');
+    return this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(target.target ?? '');
   }
 
   translateTime(date: any, roundUp: any, timezone: any) {
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts
index 45ae5014af2..dba531a1e88 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/influxdb/datasource.ts
@@ -373,7 +373,7 @@ export default class InfluxDatasource extends DataSourceWithBackend<InfluxQuery,
     // for influxql-mode we use InfluxQueryModel to create the text-representation
     const queryText = this.isFlux ? target.query : buildRawQuery(target);
 
-    return this.templateSrv.variableExists(queryText);
+    return this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(queryText);
   }
 
   interpolateVariablesInQueries(queries: InfluxQuery[], scopedVars: ScopedVars): InfluxQuery[] {
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/configuration/DebugSection.test.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/configuration/DebugSection.test.tsx
index a530a5c7d74..5005a4f185a 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/configuration/DebugSection.test.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/configuration/DebugSection.test.tsx
@@ -35,6 +35,9 @@ describe('DebugSection', () => {
       getVariables() {
         return [];
       },
+      containsTemplate() {
+        return false;
+      },
     });
   });
 
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/mssql/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/mssql/datasource.ts
index d533515091a..6c65b747381 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/mssql/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/mssql/datasource.ts
@@ -185,6 +185,6 @@ export class MssqlDatasource extends DataSourceWithBackend<MssqlQuery, MssqlOpti
 
   targetContainsTemplate(query: MssqlQuery): boolean {
     const rawSql = query.rawSql.replace('$__', '');
-    return this.templateSrv.variableExists(rawSql);
+    return this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(rawSql);
   }
 }
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/mysql/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/mysql/datasource.ts
index a2e77ec4941..87e52893b11 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/mysql/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/mysql/datasource.ts
@@ -205,6 +205,6 @@ export class MysqlDatasource extends DataSourceWithBackend<MySQLQuery, MySQLOpti
 
     rawSql = rawSql.replace('$__', '');
 
-    return this.templateSrv.variableExists(rawSql);
+    return this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(rawSql);
   }
 }
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/opentsdb/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/opentsdb/datasource.ts
index 07757aa5356..34d904d45ea 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/opentsdb/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/opentsdb/datasource.ts
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ export default class OpenTsDatasource extends DataSourceApi<OpenTsdbQuery, OpenT
   targetContainsTemplate(target: any) {
     if (target.filters && target.filters.length > 0) {
       for (let i = 0; i < target.filters.length; i++) {
-        if (this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.filters[i].filter)) {
+        if (this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(target.filters[i].filter)) {
           return true;
         }
       }
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ export default class OpenTsDatasource extends DataSourceApi<OpenTsdbQuery, OpenT
 
     if (target.tags && Object.keys(target.tags).length > 0) {
       for (const tagKey in target.tags) {
-        if (this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.tags[tagKey])) {
+        if (this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(target.tags[tagKey])) {
           return true;
         }
       }
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/postgres/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/postgres/datasource.ts
index 6d6605740d3..84d6d3a65cd 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/postgres/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/postgres/datasource.ts
@@ -213,6 +213,6 @@ export class PostgresDatasource extends DataSourceWithBackend<PostgresQuery, Pos
 
     rawSql = rawSql.replace('$__', '');
 
-    return this.templateSrv.variableExists(rawSql);
+    return this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(rawSql);
   }
 }
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/datasource.ts
index 36db41a738c..1a4c1395024 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/prometheus/datasource.ts
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ export class PrometheusDatasource
   }
 
   targetContainsTemplate(target: PromQuery) {
-    return this.templateSrv.variableExists(target.expr);
+    return this.templateSrv.containsTemplate(target.expr);
   }
 
   prepareTargets = (options: DataQueryRequest<PromQuery>, start: number, end: number) => {
diff --git a/public/test/specs/helpers.ts b/public/test/specs/helpers.ts
index bddf0a7a0c3..1bb8a295729 100644
--- a/public/test/specs/helpers.ts
+++ b/public/test/specs/helpers.ts
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ export function TemplateSrvStub(this: any) {
   };
   this.fillVariableValuesForUrl = () => {};
   this.updateIndex = () => {};
-  this.variableExists = () => {
+  this.containsTemplate = () => {
     return false;
   };
   this.variableInitialized = () => {};