diff --git a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/Receivers.test.tsx b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/Receivers.test.tsx
index f002c1c41f4..9ffc2e43e97 100644
--- a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/Receivers.test.tsx
+++ b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/Receivers.test.tsx
@@ -7,8 +7,14 @@ import { locationService, setDataSourceSrv } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { act, render } from '@testing-library/react';
 import { getAllDataSources } from './utils/config';
 import { typeAsJestMock } from 'test/helpers/typeAsJestMock';
-import { updateAlertManagerConfig, fetchAlertManagerConfig } from './api/alertmanager';
-import { mockDataSource, MockDataSourceSrv, someCloudAlertManagerConfig, someGrafanaAlertManagerConfig } from './mocks';
+import { updateAlertManagerConfig, fetchAlertManagerConfig, fetchStatus } from './api/alertmanager';
+import {
+  mockDataSource,
+  MockDataSourceSrv,
+  someCloudAlertManagerConfig,
+  someCloudAlertManagerStatus,
+  someGrafanaAlertManagerConfig,
+} from './mocks';
 import { DataSourceType, GRAFANA_RULES_SOURCE_NAME } from './utils/datasource';
 import { fetchNotifiers } from './api/grafana';
 import { grafanaNotifiersMock } from './mocks/grafana-notifiers';
@@ -27,6 +33,7 @@ const mocks = {
 
   api: {
     fetchConfig: typeAsJestMock(fetchAlertManagerConfig),
+    fetchStatus: typeAsJestMock(fetchStatus),
     updateConfig: typeAsJestMock(updateAlertManagerConfig),
     fetchNotifiers: typeAsJestMock(fetchNotifiers),
   },
@@ -302,4 +309,25 @@ describe('Receivers', () => {
       },
     });
   }, 10000);
+
+  it('Loads config from status endpoint if there is no user config', async () => {
+    // loading an empty config with make it fetch config from status endpoint
+    mocks.api.fetchConfig.mockResolvedValue({
+      template_files: {},
+      alertmanager_config: {},
+    });
+    mocks.api.fetchStatus.mockResolvedValue(someCloudAlertManagerStatus);
+    await renderReceivers('CloudManager');
+
+    // check that receiver from the default config is represented
+    const receiversTable = await ui.receiversTable.find();
+    const receiverRows = receiversTable.querySelectorAll<HTMLTableRowElement>('tbody tr');
+    expect(receiverRows[0]).toHaveTextContent('default-email');
+
+    // check that both config and status endpoints were called
+    expect(mocks.api.fetchConfig).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    expect(mocks.api.fetchConfig).toHaveBeenLastCalledWith('CloudManager');
+    expect(mocks.api.fetchStatus).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    expect(mocks.api.fetchStatus).toHaveBeenLastCalledWith('CloudManager');
+  });
 });
diff --git a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/api/alertmanager.ts b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/api/alertmanager.ts
index 90ccaf53ae0..5689a46f671 100644
--- a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/api/alertmanager.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/api/alertmanager.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import {
   Silence,
   SilenceCreatePayload,
   Matcher,
+  AlertmanagerStatus,
 } from 'app/plugins/datasource/alertmanager/types';
 import { getDatasourceAPIId, GRAFANA_RULES_SOURCE_NAME } from '../utils/datasource';
 
@@ -131,6 +132,18 @@ export async function fetchAlertGroups(alertmanagerSourceName: string): Promise<
   return result.data;
 }
 
+export async function fetchStatus(alertManagerSourceName: string): Promise<AlertmanagerStatus> {
+  const result = await getBackendSrv()
+    .fetch<AlertmanagerStatus>({
+      url: `/api/alertmanager/${getDatasourceAPIId(alertManagerSourceName)}/api/v2/status`,
+      showErrorAlert: false,
+      showSuccessAlert: false,
+    })
+    .toPromise();
+
+  return result.data;
+}
+
 function escapeQuotes(value: string): string {
   return value.replace(/"/g, '\\"');
 }
diff --git a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/mocks.ts b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/mocks.ts
index b2f80a70a1c..d737b9def90 100644
--- a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/mocks.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/mocks.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,11 @@ import { PromAlertingRuleState, PromRuleType } from 'app/types/unified-alerting-
 import { AlertingRule, Alert, RecordingRule, RuleGroup, RuleNamespace } from 'app/types/unified-alerting';
 import DatasourceSrv from 'app/features/plugins/datasource_srv';
 import { DataSourceSrv, GetDataSourceListFilters } from '@grafana/runtime';
-import { AlertManagerCortexConfig, GrafanaManagedReceiverConfig } from 'app/plugins/datasource/alertmanager/types';
+import {
+  AlertManagerCortexConfig,
+  AlertmanagerStatus,
+  GrafanaManagedReceiverConfig,
+} from 'app/plugins/datasource/alertmanager/types';
 
 let nextDataSourceId = 1;
 
@@ -176,6 +180,37 @@ export const someGrafanaAlertManagerConfig: AlertManagerCortexConfig = {
   },
 };
 
+export const someCloudAlertManagerStatus: AlertmanagerStatus = {
+  cluster: {
+    peers: [],
+    status: 'ok',
+  },
+  uptime: '10 hours',
+  versionInfo: {
+    branch: '',
+    version: '',
+    goVersion: '',
+    buildDate: '',
+    buildUser: '',
+    revision: '',
+  },
+  config: {
+    route: {
+      receiver: 'default-email',
+    },
+    receivers: [
+      {
+        name: 'default-email',
+        email_configs: [
+          {
+            to: 'example@example.com',
+          },
+        ],
+      },
+    ],
+  },
+};
+
 export const someCloudAlertManagerConfig: AlertManagerCortexConfig = {
   template_files: {
     'foo template': 'foo content',
diff --git a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/state/actions.ts b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/state/actions.ts
index 04a907a833a..a67986cf8a2 100644
--- a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/state/actions.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/state/actions.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import {
   fetchSilences,
   createOrUpdateSilence,
   updateAlertManagerConfig,
+  fetchStatus,
 } from '../api/alertmanager';
 import { fetchRules } from '../api/prometheus';
 import {
@@ -47,6 +48,7 @@ import {
 } from '../utils/rules';
 import { addDefaultsToAlertmanagerConfig } from '../utils/alertmanager';
 import { backendSrv } from 'app/core/services/backend_srv';
+import { isEmpty } from 'lodash';
 
 export const fetchPromRulesAction = createAsyncThunk(
   'unifiedalerting/fetchPromRules',
@@ -56,7 +58,18 @@ export const fetchPromRulesAction = createAsyncThunk(
 export const fetchAlertManagerConfigAction = createAsyncThunk(
   'unifiedalerting/fetchAmConfig',
   (alertManagerSourceName: string): Promise<AlertManagerCortexConfig> =>
-    withSerializedError(fetchAlertManagerConfig(alertManagerSourceName))
+    withSerializedError(
+      fetchAlertManagerConfig(alertManagerSourceName).then((result) => {
+        // if user config is empty for cortex alertmanager, try to get config from status endpoint
+        if (isEmpty(result.alertmanager_config) && alertManagerSourceName !== GRAFANA_RULES_SOURCE_NAME) {
+          return fetchStatus(alertManagerSourceName).then((status) => ({
+            alertmanager_config: status.config,
+            template_files: {},
+          }));
+        }
+        return result;
+      })
+    )
 );
 
 export const fetchRulerRulesAction = createAsyncThunk(
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/alertmanager/types.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/alertmanager/types.ts
index add15e180bc..ca953310c5d 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/alertmanager/types.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/alertmanager/types.ts
@@ -5,13 +5,6 @@ export type AlertManagerCortexConfig = {
   alertmanager_config: AlertmanagerConfig;
 };
 
-// NOTE - This type is incomplete! But currently, we don't need more.
-export type AlertmanagerStatusPayload = {
-  config: {
-    original: string;
-  };
-};
-
 export type TLSConfig = {
   ca_file: string;
   cert_file: string;
@@ -217,3 +210,20 @@ export type AlertmanagerGroup = {
   alerts: AlertmanagerAlert[];
   id: string;
 };
+
+export interface AlertmanagerStatus {
+  cluster: {
+    peers: unknown;
+    status: string;
+  };
+  config: AlertmanagerConfig;
+  uptime: string;
+  versionInfo: {
+    branch: string;
+    buildDate: string;
+    buildUser: string;
+    goVersion: string;
+    revision: string;
+    version: string;
+  };
+}