> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.incident.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How long can alerts be grouped together in an incident?

## Context

When multiple alerts are received with the same deduplication key, incident.io groups them together within a specific time window. Understanding how this grouping window works is important for managing ongoing incidents, especially those that span longer periods.

## Answer

Alert grouping in incident.io works with a rolling 48-hour window. The grouping functionality works as follows:

* Alerts with the same deduplication key will be grouped together if they arrive within 48 hours of the most recent alert in the group
* The 48-hour window is rolling, meaning it resets each time a new alert in the group is received
* If a new alert arrives after the 48-hour window has expired, a new incident will be created

If you need to track updates beyond the 48-hour window, you may need to consider alternative approaches such as:

* Creating a separate alerts route with different grouping rules
* Using the incident.io API to update incident summaries programmatically