diff --git a/plugins/inputs/reader/reader.go b/plugins/inputs/reader/reader.go
index 504a40b3a..853405745 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/reader/reader.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/reader/reader.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf"
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf/internal/globpath"
+	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf/plugins/inputs"
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf/plugins/parsers"
 )
 
@@ -154,3 +155,9 @@ func (r *Reader) readMetric(filename string) ([]telegraf.Metric, error) {
 	return r.Parser.Parse(fileContents)
 
 }
+
+func init() {
+	inputs.Add("reader", func() telegraf.Input {
+		return &Reader{}
+	})
+}