---
title: Why does zooming out a timeframe also smooth out my graphs?
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: >-
  Docs > Metrics > Metrics Guides > Why does zooming out a timeframe also smooth
  out my graphs?
---

# Why does zooming out a timeframe also smooth out my graphs?

Within Datadog, a graph can only contain a set number of points and, as the timeframe over which a metric is viewed increases, aggregation between points occurs so that the number of points remains under that set number. Thus, granularity is lost as the timeframe increases. For instance, for a four hour time window, data is aggregated to have one value per minute for a line graph, and one value per two minutes for a bar graph. As you zoom out by selecting a larger timeframe, the data shown on the graph represents a longer time period.

{% video
   url="https://datadog-docs.imgix.net/images/metrics/guide/smooth_line.mp4" /%}

When bars are displayed the rollup interval is more obvious:

{% video
   url="https://datadog-docs.imgix.net/images/metrics/guide/smoothing.mp4" /%}

You can manually append the `.rollup()` function to your query to adjust the method and granularity of time aggregation. Datadog rolls up data points automatically by default, averaging values in the rollup interval for `GAUGE`, `RATE` and `COUNT` metric types.

**Note**: If you query your metrics through the UI of a Datadog widget, an [in-application metric types modifier](https://docs.datadoghq.com/metrics/custom_metrics/type_modifiers/) is added automatically to your `RATE` and `COUNT` metric types. This changes the `.rollup()` behavior: values are summed without any interpolation.

## Further Reading{% #further-reading %}

- [Discover Datadog metrics types](https://docs.datadoghq.com/metrics/types/)
- [Learn more about the rollup function](https://docs.datadoghq.com/dashboards/functions/rollup/)