diff --git a/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval.go b/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval.go
index 1542781f077d..a22ae8189600 100644
--- a/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval.go
+++ b/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"net/http"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/util"
 	"github.com/opentracing/opentracing-go"
 	otlog "github.com/opentracing/opentracing-go/log"
 	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
@@ -327,6 +328,20 @@ func splitMetricByTime(r queryrangebase.Request, interval time.Duration) ([]quer
 	}
 
 	lokiReq := r.(*LokiRequest)
+
+	// step align start and end time of the query. Start time is rounded down and end time is rounded up.
+	stepNs := r.GetStep() * 1e6
+	startNs := lokiReq.StartTs.UnixNano()
+	start := time.Unix(0, startNs-startNs%stepNs)
+
+	endNs := lokiReq.EndTs.UnixNano()
+	if mod := endNs % stepNs; mod != 0 {
+		endNs += stepNs - mod
+	}
+	end := time.Unix(0, endNs)
+
+	lokiReq = lokiReq.WithStartEnd(util.TimeToMillis(start), util.TimeToMillis(end)).(*LokiRequest)
+
 	// step is >= configured split interval, let us just split the query interval by step
 	if lokiReq.Step >= interval.Milliseconds() {
 		forInterval(time.Duration(lokiReq.Step*1e6), lokiReq.StartTs, lokiReq.EndTs, false, func(start, end time.Time) {
@@ -344,12 +359,7 @@ func splitMetricByTime(r queryrangebase.Request, interval time.Duration) ([]quer
 		return reqs, nil
 	}
 
-	// nextIntervalBoundary always moves ahead in a multiple of steps but the time it returns would not be step aligned.
-	// To have step aligned intervals for better cache-ability of results, let us step align the start time which make all the split intervals step aligned.
-	startNs := lokiReq.StartTs.UnixNano()
-	start := time.Unix(0, startNs-startNs%(r.GetStep()*1e6))
-
-	for start := start; start.Before(lokiReq.EndTs); start = nextIntervalBoundary(start, r.GetStep(), interval).Add(time.Duration(r.GetStep()) * time.Millisecond) {
+	for start := lokiReq.StartTs; start.Before(lokiReq.EndTs); start = nextIntervalBoundary(start, r.GetStep(), interval).Add(time.Duration(r.GetStep()) * time.Millisecond) {
 		end := nextIntervalBoundary(start, r.GetStep(), interval)
 		if end.Add(time.Duration(r.GetStep())*time.Millisecond).After(lokiReq.EndTs) || end.Add(time.Duration(r.GetStep())*time.Millisecond) == lokiReq.EndTs {
 			end = lokiReq.EndTs
@@ -365,10 +375,6 @@ func splitMetricByTime(r queryrangebase.Request, interval time.Duration) ([]quer
 		})
 	}
 
-	if len(reqs) != 0 {
-		// change the start time to original time
-		reqs[0] = reqs[0].WithStartEnd(lokiReq.GetStart(), reqs[0].GetEnd())
-	}
 	return reqs, nil
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval_test.go b/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval_test.go
index ef65a01d12e3..f1c37dfa4383 100644
--- a/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval_test.go
+++ b/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval_test.go
@@ -376,14 +376,44 @@ func Test_splitMetricQuery(t *testing.T) {
 				},
 				&LokiRequest{
 					StartTs: time.Unix(2*3*3600+7, 0),
-					EndTs:   time.Unix(3*3*3600, 0),
+					EndTs:   time.Unix(3*3*3600+2, 0), // 9h mod 17s = 2s
+					Step:    17 * seconds,
+					Query:   `rate({app="foo"}[1m])`,
+				},
+			},
+			interval: 3 * time.Hour,
+		},
+		// end time already step aligned
+		{
+			input: &LokiRequest{
+				StartTs: time.Unix(2*3600, 0),
+				EndTs:   time.Unix(3*3*3600+2, 0), // 9h mod 17s = 2s
+				Step:    17 * seconds,
+				Query:   `rate({app="foo"}[1m])`,
+			},
+			expected: []queryrangebase.Request{
+				&LokiRequest{
+					StartTs: time.Unix(2*3600-9, 0),   // 2h mod 17s = 9s
+					EndTs:   time.Unix((3*3600)-5, 0), // 3h mod 17s = 5s
+					Step:    17 * seconds,
+					Query:   `rate({app="foo"}[1m])`,
+				},
+				&LokiRequest{
+					StartTs: time.Unix((3*3600)+12, 0),
+					EndTs:   time.Unix((2*3*3600)-10, 0), // 6h mod 17s = 10s
+					Step:    17 * seconds,
+					Query:   `rate({app="foo"}[1m])`,
+				},
+				&LokiRequest{
+					StartTs: time.Unix(2*3*3600+7, 0),
+					EndTs:   time.Unix(3*3*3600+2, 0),
 					Step:    17 * seconds,
 					Query:   `rate({app="foo"}[1m])`,
 				},
 			},
 			interval: 3 * time.Hour,
 		},
-		// start time not aligned with step
+		// start & end time not aligned with step
 		{
 			input: &LokiRequest{
 				StartTs: time.Unix(2*3600, 0),
@@ -393,7 +423,7 @@ func Test_splitMetricQuery(t *testing.T) {
 			},
 			expected: []queryrangebase.Request{
 				&LokiRequest{
-					StartTs: time.Unix(2*3600, 0),
+					StartTs: time.Unix(2*3600-9, 0),   // 2h mod 17s = 9s
 					EndTs:   time.Unix((3*3600)-5, 0), // 3h mod 17s = 5s
 					Step:    17 * seconds,
 					Query:   `rate({app="foo"}[1m])`,
@@ -406,7 +436,7 @@ func Test_splitMetricQuery(t *testing.T) {
 				},
 				&LokiRequest{
 					StartTs: time.Unix(2*3*3600+7, 0),
-					EndTs:   time.Unix(3*3*3600, 0),
+					EndTs:   time.Unix(3*3*3600+2, 0), // 9h mod 17s = 2s
 					Step:    17 * seconds,
 					Query:   `rate({app="foo"}[1m])`,
 				},
@@ -449,7 +479,7 @@ func Test_splitMetricQuery(t *testing.T) {
 				},
 				&LokiRequest{
 					StartTs: time.Unix(24*3600, 0),
-					EndTs:   time.Unix(25*3600, 0),
+					EndTs:   time.Unix(30*3600, 0),
 					Step:    6 * 3600 * seconds,
 					Query:   `rate({app="foo"}[1m])`,
 				},
@@ -458,7 +488,7 @@ func Test_splitMetricQuery(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 		{
 			input: &LokiRequest{
-				StartTs: time.Unix(0, 0),
+				StartTs: time.Unix(1*3600, 0),
 				EndTs:   time.Unix(3*3600, 0),
 				Step:    6 * 3600 * seconds,
 				Query:   `rate({app="foo"}[1m])`,
@@ -466,7 +496,7 @@ func Test_splitMetricQuery(t *testing.T) {
 			expected: []queryrangebase.Request{
 				&LokiRequest{
 					StartTs: time.Unix(0, 0),
-					EndTs:   time.Unix(3*3600, 0),
+					EndTs:   time.Unix(6*3600, 0),
 					Step:    6 * 3600 * seconds,
 					Query:   `rate({app="foo"}[1m])`,
 				},