diff --git a/deploy/k8s-onprem/values.yaml b/deploy/k8s-onprem/values.yaml
index fdbb0cc714..6804ec745f 100644
--- a/deploy/k8s-onprem/values.yaml
+++ b/deploy/k8s-onprem/values.yaml
@@ -81,4 +81,9 @@ prometheus-adapter:
         name:
           matches: "nv_inference_queue_duration_us"
           as: "avg_time_queue_us"
-        metricsQuery: 'avg(delta(nv_inference_queue_duration_us{<<.LabelMatchers>>}[30s])/(1+delta(nv_inference_request_success{<<.LabelMatchers>>}[30s]))) by (<<.GroupBy>>)'
+        # Mean time a request spent queued on the pod across all models it serves.
+        # Both counters are per-model series, so they must be summed over the pod
+        # before dividing; averaging per-model ratios lets idle models dilute the
+        # value. clamp_min guards the division by zero without shifting the result,
+        # and increase (not delta) handles counter resets on server restart.
+        metricsQuery: 'sum(increase(nv_inference_queue_duration_us{<<.LabelMatchers>>}[30s])) by (<<.GroupBy>>) / clamp_min(sum(increase(nv_inference_request_success{<<.LabelMatchers>>}[30s])) by (<<.GroupBy>>), 1)'