diff --git a/internal/encoding/parser.go b/internal/encoding/parser.go
index e6bd53520..815832e94 100644
--- a/internal/encoding/parser.go
+++ b/internal/encoding/parser.go
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ func (p *Parser) Parse(dataFormat string, out []byte, acc telegraf.Accumulator)
 	var metric telegraf.Metric
 
 	switch dataFormat {
-	case "json":
+	case "","json":
 		var jsonOut interface{}
 		err = json.Unmarshal(out, &jsonOut)
 		if err != nil {