diff --git a/app/vmalert/config.go b/app/vmalert/config.go
index 34dd99e549..aabd6ff2d2 100644
--- a/app/vmalert/config.go
+++ b/app/vmalert/config.go
@@ -40,7 +40,10 @@ func Parse(pathPatterns []string, validateAnnotations bool) ([]Group, error) {
 				rule.alerts = make(map[uint64]*notifier.Alert)
 				if validateAnnotations {
 					if err = notifier.ValidateAnnotations(rule.Annotations); err != nil {
-						return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalida annotations filepath:%s, group %s:%w", file, group.Name, err)
+						return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid annotations filepath:%s, group %s:%w", file, group.Name, err)
+					}
+					if err = notifier.ValidateAnnotations(rule.Labels); err != nil {
+						return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid labels filepath:%s, group %s:%w", file, group.Name, err)
 					}
 				}
 				rule.group = &group
diff --git a/app/vmalert/config_test.go b/app/vmalert/config_test.go
index 6eaabb3b6f..057d1ab8bc 100644
--- a/app/vmalert/config_test.go
+++ b/app/vmalert/config_test.go
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@ func TestParseBad(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, err := Parse([]string{"testdata/dir/rules1-bad.rules"}, true); err == nil {
 		t.Errorf("expected same group error")
 	}
+	if _, err := Parse([]string{"testdata/dir/rules2-bad.rules"}, true); err == nil {
+		t.Errorf("expected template label error")
+	}
 	if _, err := Parse([]string{"testdata/*.yaml"}, true); err == nil {
 		t.Errorf("expected empty group")
 	}
diff --git a/app/vmalert/testdata/dir/rules2-bad.rules b/app/vmalert/testdata/dir/rules2-bad.rules
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..57ed213576
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/vmalert/testdata/dir/rules2-bad.rules
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+groups:
+  - name: group
+    rules:
+      - alert: UnkownLabelFunction
+        for: 5m
+        expr: vm_rows > 0
+        labels:
+          label: bar
+          summary: "{{ value|query }}"
+        annotations:
+          description: "{{$labels}}"
diff --git a/app/vmalert/testdata/rules0-good.rules b/app/vmalert/testdata/rules0-good.rules
index 6419f3c92b..ddb55a1d81 100644
--- a/app/vmalert/testdata/rules0-good.rules
+++ b/app/vmalert/testdata/rules0-good.rules
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ groups:
         expr: vm_rows > 0
         labels:
           label: bar
+          template: "{{ $value|humanize }}"
         annotations:
           summary: "{{ $value|humanize }}"
           description: "{{$labels}}"