# Whether rate() result is a positive number?

**URL:** <https://discuss.prometheus.io/t/whether-rate-result-is-a-positive-number/658>\
**Category:** PromQL\
**Created:** [December 16, 2021, 2:14am UTC](https://discuss.prometheus.io/t/whether-rate-result-is-a-positive-number/658 "2021-12-16T02:14:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mark](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/discuss.prometheus.io/mark/32/297_2.png) [@mark](https://discuss.prometheus.io/u/mark)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:14am UTC](https://discuss.prometheus.io/t/whether-rate-result-is-a-positive-number/658/1 "2021-12-16T02:14:34Z")

</div>

whether rate() result is a positive number?

```auto
rate(metric_name{job="api-server"}[5m])

```

or It could be positive or negative.