The check interval controls how often Uptime Basics schedules the monitor's normal availability check. A shorter interval can detect a problem sooner. A longer interval is useful for lower-priority websites and endpoints that should receive fewer requests.
New monitors default to 5 minutes on every plan.
Available intervals
| Plan | Available intervals | One-minute monitor allowance |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes | None |
| Plus | 1, 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes | Up to 5 monitors |
| Pro | 1, 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes | Up to 10 monitors |
The one-minute allowance is a monitor-slot limit, not a monthly pool of checks. A paused one-minute monitor still keeps its saved configuration. Archive, delete, or change it to a longer interval when you want to free a one-minute slot.
Recommended choices
5 minutes
Use five minutes for most websites. It offers regular coverage without treating every page as a critical service.
1 minute
Use one minute for the most important customer-facing website, API, checkout, or authentication endpoint when earlier detection matters. One-minute monitors have an 8-second maximum timeout.
15 or 30 minutes
Use these for lower-priority services, informational websites, staging environments, or endpoints where a short detection delay is acceptable.
60 minutes
Use hourly checks for low-priority availability visibility. Do not use an hourly interval when a prolonged detection delay would materially affect customers or operations.
Change an existing interval
- Open Monitors and select the monitor.
- Open Monitor Tools.
- Select Monitor Settings.
- Choose the new Interval (minutes).
- Review the timeout, especially when switching to one minute.
- Select Save changes.
The interval change applies to future scheduling. It does not rewrite earlier check or uptime history.
Detection and confirmation timing
The interval is not a guaranteed alert-delivery time. A failed primary check may require additional failed checks or regional confirmation before the monitor changes to Down. Network time, timeout length, queue processing, and notification delivery also affect when an alert arrives.
A one-minute interval therefore improves observation frequency but does not mean every incident is declared exactly one minute after it begins.
Temporary effective intervals
The configured interval remains saved, but customer-visible safeguards may temporarily use a longer effective interval during prolonged outages, repeated timeouts, or sustained account activity. Monitor Details displays an active protection and restores the configured interval after recovery where applicable.
Troubleshooting
One minute is not available
Starter does not include one-minute monitoring. On Plus or Pro, all available one-minute slots may already be assigned. Review the counters on the New Monitor page or change another monitor to five minutes or longer.
The monitor does not run at the exact clock minute
The interval is a scheduling frequency, not a promise that every request begins at an exact wall-clock second. Small processing differences are normal.
Checks are temporarily farther apart
Open Monitor Details and look for an automatic-protection notice. A prolonged incident or sustained failure pattern may have temporarily changed the effective interval without changing the saved setting.