diff --git a/app/vmalert/notifier/alert_test.go b/app/vmalert/notifier/alert_test.go
index 6612891b21..3cd032d6a8 100644
--- a/app/vmalert/notifier/alert_test.go
+++ b/app/vmalert/notifier/alert_test.go
@@ -52,15 +52,15 @@ func TestAlert_ExecTemplate(t *testing.T) {
 		{
 			name: "expression-template",
 			alert: &Alert{
-				Expr: "vm_rows>0",
+				Expr: `vm_rows{"label"="bar"}>0`,
 			},
 			annotations: map[string]string{
-				"exprEscapedQuery": "{{ $expr|queryEscape }}",
-				"exprEscapedPath":  "{{ $expr|pathEscape }}",
+				"exprEscapedQuery": "{{ $expr|quotesEscape|queryEscape }}",
+				"exprEscapedPath":  "{{ $expr|quotesEscape|pathEscape }}",
 			},
 			expTpl: map[string]string{
-				"exprEscapedQuery": "vm_rows%3E0",
-				"exprEscapedPath":  "vm_rows%3E0",
+				"exprEscapedQuery": "vm_rows%7B%5C%22label%5C%22%3D%5C%22bar%5C%22%7D%3E0",
+				"exprEscapedPath":  "vm_rows%7B%5C%22label%5C%22=%5C%22bar%5C%22%7D%3E0",
 			},
 		},
 	}
diff --git a/app/vmalert/notifier/template_func.go b/app/vmalert/notifier/template_func.go
index 88547d1a5b..abfd8fc918 100644
--- a/app/vmalert/notifier/template_func.go
+++ b/app/vmalert/notifier/template_func.go
@@ -148,6 +148,9 @@ func InitTemplateFunc(externalURL *url.URL) {
 		"queryEscape": func(q string) string {
 			return url.QueryEscape(q)
 		},
+		"quotesEscape": func(q string) string {
+			return strings.Replace(q, `"`, `\"`, -1)
+		},
 	}
 }