diff --git a/pkg/api/alerting/v2alpha1/types.go b/pkg/api/alerting/v2alpha1/types.go
index e723487d2..fbd37ff88 100644
--- a/pkg/api/alerting/v2alpha1/types.go
+++ b/pkg/api/alerting/v2alpha1/types.go
@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ import (
 const (
 	RuleLevelCluster   RuleLevel = "cluster"
 	RuleLevelNamespace RuleLevel = "namespace"
+
+	AnnotationKeyRuleUpdateTime = "rule_update_time"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -217,10 +219,22 @@ func AlertingRuleIdCompare(leftId, rightId string) bool {
 }
 
 func (q *AlertingRuleQueryParams) Sort(rules []*GettableAlertingRule) {
-	idCompare := func(left, right *GettableAlertingRule) bool {
+	baseCompare := func(left, right *GettableAlertingRule) bool {
+		var leftUpdateTime, rightUpdateTime string
+		if len(left.Annotations) > 0 {
+			leftUpdateTime = left.Annotations[AnnotationKeyRuleUpdateTime]
+		}
+		if len(right.Annotations) > 0 {
+			rightUpdateTime = right.Annotations[AnnotationKeyRuleUpdateTime]
+		}
+
+		if leftUpdateTime != rightUpdateTime {
+			return leftUpdateTime > rightUpdateTime
+		}
+
 		return AlertingRuleIdCompare(left.Id, right.Id)
 	}
-	var compare = idCompare
+	var compare = baseCompare
 	if q != nil {
 		reverse := q.SortType == "desc"
 		switch q.SortField {
@@ -232,7 +246,7 @@ func (q *AlertingRuleQueryParams) Sort(rules []*GettableAlertingRule) {
 					}
 					return c < 0
 				}
-				return idCompare(left, right)
+				return baseCompare(left, right)
 			}
 		case "lastEvaluation":
 			compare = func(left, right *GettableAlertingRule) bool {
@@ -250,7 +264,7 @@ func (q *AlertingRuleQueryParams) Sort(rules []*GettableAlertingRule) {
 						return left.LastEvaluation.Before(*right.LastEvaluation)
 					}
 				}
-				return idCompare(left, right)
+				return baseCompare(left, right)
 			}
 		case "evaluationTime":
 			compare = func(left, right *GettableAlertingRule) bool {
@@ -260,7 +274,7 @@ func (q *AlertingRuleQueryParams) Sort(rules []*GettableAlertingRule) {
 					}
 					return left.EvaluationDurationSeconds < right.EvaluationDurationSeconds
 				}
-				return idCompare(left, right)
+				return baseCompare(left, right)
 			}
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/models/alerting/alerting.go b/pkg/models/alerting/alerting.go
index 90568c713..3a4b14d4a 100644
--- a/pkg/models/alerting/alerting.go
+++ b/pkg/models/alerting/alerting.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 	promresourcesv1 "github.com/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator/pkg/apis/monitoring/v1"
@@ -470,6 +471,8 @@ func (o *operator) CreateCustomAlertingRule(ctx context.Context, namespace strin
 		return v2alpha1.ErrAlertingRuleAlreadyExists
 	}
 
+	setRuleUpdateTime(rule, time.Now())
+
 	return ruler.AddAlertingRule(ctx, ruleNamespace, extraRuleResourceSelector,
 		customRuleGroupDefault, parseToPrometheusRule(rule), ruleResourceLabels)
 }
@@ -521,6 +524,8 @@ func (o *operator) UpdateCustomAlertingRule(ctx context.Context, namespace, name
 		return v2alpha1.ErrAlertingRuleNotFound
 	}
 
+	setRuleUpdateTime(rule, time.Now())
+
 	return ruler.UpdateAlertingRule(ctx, ruleNamespace, extraRuleResourceSelector,
 		resourceRule.Group, parseToPrometheusRule(rule), ruleResourceLabels)
 }
@@ -633,3 +638,13 @@ func pageAlerts(alertingRules []*v2alpha1.GettableAlertingRule,
 		Items: queryParams.Sub(alerts),
 	}
 }
+
+func setRuleUpdateTime(rule *v2alpha1.PostableAlertingRule, t time.Time) {
+	if rule.Annotations == nil {
+		rule.Annotations = make(map[string]string)
+	}
+	if t.IsZero() {
+		t = time.Now()
+	}
+	rule.Annotations[v2alpha1.AnnotationKeyRuleUpdateTime] = t.UTC().Format(time.RFC3339)
+}