diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e8db62397..416dff1f6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,15 @@
 <!-- markdownlint-disable MD024 -->
 # Changelog
 
+## Unreleased
+
+### Important Changes
+
+- PR [#15796](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/pull/15796) changes the
+  delivery state update of un-parseable messages from `ACK` to `NACK` without
+  requeueing. This way, those messages are not lost and can optionally be
+  handled using a dead-letter exchange by other means.
+
 ## v1.32.0 [2024-09-09]
 
 ### Important Changes
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/amqp_consumer/README.md b/plugins/inputs/amqp_consumer/README.md
index b8f582e84..3127c1da5 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/amqp_consumer/README.md
+++ b/plugins/inputs/amqp_consumer/README.md
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ implementation of this protocol being [RabbitMQ](https://www.rabbitmq.com/).
 Metrics are read from a topic exchange using the configured queue and
 binding_key.
 
-Message payload should be formatted in one of the [Telegraf Data
-Formats](../../../docs/DATA_FORMATS_INPUT.md).
+Message payload should be formatted in one of the
+[Telegraf Data Formats](../../../docs/DATA_FORMATS_INPUT.md).
 
 For an introduction to AMQP see:
 
@@ -153,10 +153,29 @@ to use them.
   data_format = "influx"
 ```
 
+## Message acknowledgement behavior
+
+This plugin tracks metrics to report the delivery state to the broker.
+
+Messages are **acknowledged** (ACK) in the broker if they were successfully
+parsed and delivered to all corresponding output sinks.
+
+Messages are **not acknowledged** (NACK) if parsing of the messages fails and no
+metrics were created. In this case requeueing is disabled so messages will not
+be sent out to any other queue. The message will then be discarded or sent to a
+dead-letter exchange depending on the server configuration. See
+[RabitMQ documentation][rabbitmq_doc] for more details.
+
+Messages are **rejected** (REJECT) if the messages were parsed correctly but
+could not be delivered e.g. due to output-service outages. Requeueing is
+disabled in this case and messages will be discarded by the server. See
+[RabitMQ documentation][rabbitmq_doc] for more details.
+
+[rabbitmq_doc]: https://www.rabbitmq.com/docs/confirms
+
 ## Metrics
 
-TODO
+The format of metrics produced by this plugin depends on the content and
+data format of received messages.
 
 ## Example Output
-
-TODO
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/amqp_consumer/amqp_consumer.go b/plugins/inputs/amqp_consumer/amqp_consumer.go
index f076261a3..f1e2fa8d0 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/amqp_consumer/amqp_consumer.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/amqp_consumer/amqp_consumer.go
@@ -422,11 +422,9 @@ func (a *AMQPConsumer) process(ctx context.Context, msgs <-chan amqp.Delivery, a
 
 func (a *AMQPConsumer) onMessage(acc telegraf.TrackingAccumulator, d amqp.Delivery) error {
 	onError := func() {
-		// Discard the message from the queue; will never be able to process
-		// this message.
-		rejErr := d.Ack(false)
-		if rejErr != nil {
-			a.Log.Errorf("Unable to reject message: %d: %v", d.DeliveryTag, rejErr)
+		// Discard the message from the queue; will never be able to process it
+		if err := d.Nack(false, false); err != nil {
+			a.Log.Errorf("Unable to NACK message: %d: %v", d.DeliveryTag, err)
 			a.conn.Close()
 		}
 	}