diff --git a/changelog.d/skip_empty_ecs_metrics.fix.md b/changelog.d/skip_empty_ecs_metrics.fix.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..9aae13a99a650
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/skip_empty_ecs_metrics.fix.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+The `aws_ecs_metrics` source now skips over empty ECS metrics payloads. It previously failed to parse such payloads.
+
+authors: tustvold
diff --git a/src/sources/aws_ecs_metrics/parser.rs b/src/sources/aws_ecs_metrics/parser.rs
index f4a066d0b712e..e37decf894bd6 100644
--- a/src/sources/aws_ecs_metrics/parser.rs
+++ b/src/sources/aws_ecs_metrics/parser.rs
@@ -507,14 +507,27 @@ fn network_metrics(
     .collect()
 }
 
+#[derive(Deserialize)]
+#[serde(untagged, deny_unknown_fields)]
+enum StatsPayload {
+    Container(ContainerStats),
+    Empty {},
+    Null,
+}
+
 pub(super) fn parse(
     bytes: &[u8],
     namespace: Option<String>,
 ) -> Result<Vec<Metric>, serde_json::Error> {
     let mut metrics = Vec::new();
-    let parsed = serde_json::from_slice::<BTreeMap<String, ContainerStats>>(bytes)?;
+    let parsed = serde_json::from_slice::<BTreeMap<String, StatsPayload>>(bytes)?;
+
+    for (id, payload) in parsed {
+        let container = match payload {
+            StatsPayload::Container(container) => container,
+            _ => continue,
+        };
 
-    for (id, container) in parsed {
         let mut tags = MetricTags::default();
         tags.replace("container_id".into(), id);
         if let Some(name) = container.name {
@@ -608,7 +621,9 @@ mod test {
                     "io_time_recursive": [],
                     "sectors_recursive": []
                 }
-            }
+            },
+            "123456789": {},
+            "123456789": null
         }"#;
 
         assert_event_data_eq!(
@@ -672,7 +687,9 @@ mod test {
                         "throttled_time": 0
                     }
                 }
-            }
+            },
+            "2344": {},
+            "test": null
         }"#;
 
         assert_event_data_eq!(