diff --git a/config/config.go b/config/config.go
index 76aa494c4..d6081aedc 100644
--- a/config/config.go
+++ b/config/config.go
@@ -1593,7 +1593,7 @@ func (c *Config) missingTomlField(_ reflect.Type, key string) error {
 		"json_string_fields", "json_time_format", "json_time_key", "json_timestamp_format", "json_timestamp_units", "json_timezone", "json_v2",
 		"lvm", "metric_batch_size", "metric_buffer_limit", "name_override", "name_prefix",
 		"name_suffix", "namedrop", "namepass", "order", "pass", "period", "precision",
-		"prefix", "prometheus_export_timestamp", "prometheus_sort_metrics", "prometheus_string_as_label",
+		"prefix", "prometheus_export_timestamp", "prometheus_ignore_timestamp", "prometheus_sort_metrics", "prometheus_string_as_label",
 		"separator", "splunkmetric_hec_routing", "splunkmetric_multimetric", "tag_keys",
 		"tagdrop", "tagexclude", "taginclude", "tagpass", "tags", "template", "templates",
 		"value_field_name", "wavefront_source_override", "wavefront_use_strict",
diff --git a/etc/telegraf.conf b/etc/telegraf.conf
index 2892d9914..12672da45 100644
--- a/etc/telegraf.conf
+++ b/etc/telegraf.conf
@@ -8305,6 +8305,10 @@
 #   ## Url tag name (tag containing scrapped url. optional, default is "url")
 #   # url_tag = "url"
 #
+#   ## Whether the timestamp of the scraped metrics will be ignored.
+#   ## If set to true, the gather time will be used.
+#   # ignore_timestamp = false
+#
 #   ## An array of Kubernetes services to scrape metrics from.
 #   # kubernetes_services = ["http://my-service-dns.my-namespace:9100/metrics"]
 #
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/prometheus/README.md b/plugins/inputs/prometheus/README.md
index 955c6ab7d..fe6d3a8e8 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/prometheus/README.md
+++ b/plugins/inputs/prometheus/README.md
@@ -23,6 +23,10 @@ in Prometheus format.
   ## Url tag name (tag containing scrapped url. optional, default is "url")
   # url_tag = "url"
   
+  ## Whether the timestamp of the scraped metrics will be ignored.
+  ## If set to true, the gather time will be used.
+  # ignore_timestamp = false
+  
   ## An array of Kubernetes services to scrape metrics from.
   # kubernetes_services = ["http://my-service-dns.my-namespace:9100/metrics"]
   
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/prometheus/parser.go b/plugins/inputs/prometheus/parser.go
index 7d3140dc7..dfe5cc474 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/prometheus/parser.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/prometheus/parser.go
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/prometheus/common/expfmt"
 )
 
-func Parse(buf []byte, header http.Header) ([]telegraf.Metric, error) {
+func Parse(buf []byte, header http.Header, ignoreTimestamp bool) ([]telegraf.Metric, error) {
 	var parser expfmt.TextParser
 	var metrics []telegraf.Metric
 	var err error
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ func Parse(buf []byte, header http.Header) ([]telegraf.Metric, error) {
 			// converting to telegraf metric
 			if len(fields) > 0 {
 				var t time.Time
-				if m.TimestampMs != nil && *m.TimestampMs > 0 {
+				if !ignoreTimestamp && m.TimestampMs != nil && *m.TimestampMs > 0 {
 					t = time.Unix(0, *m.TimestampMs*1000000)
 				} else {
 					t = now
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/prometheus/parser_test.go b/plugins/inputs/prometheus/parser_test.go
index 293e1968d..ffd596745 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/prometheus/parser_test.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/prometheus/parser_test.go
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 package prometheus
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
 	"testing"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 )
@@ -42,7 +44,7 @@ apiserver_request_latencies_count{resource="bindings",verb="POST"} 2025
 
 func TestParseValidPrometheus(t *testing.T) {
 	// Gauge value
-	metrics, err := Parse([]byte(validUniqueGauge), http.Header{})
+	metrics, err := Parse([]byte(validUniqueGauge), http.Header{}, false)
 	assert.NoError(t, err)
 	assert.Len(t, metrics, 1)
 	assert.Equal(t, "cadvisor_version_info", metrics[0].Name())
@@ -58,7 +60,7 @@ func TestParseValidPrometheus(t *testing.T) {
 	}, metrics[0].Tags())
 
 	// Counter value
-	metrics, err = Parse([]byte(validUniqueCounter), http.Header{})
+	metrics, err = Parse([]byte(validUniqueCounter), http.Header{}, false)
 	assert.NoError(t, err)
 	assert.Len(t, metrics, 1)
 	assert.Equal(t, "get_token_fail_count", metrics[0].Name())
@@ -69,7 +71,7 @@ func TestParseValidPrometheus(t *testing.T) {
 
 	// Summary data
 	//SetDefaultTags(map[string]string{})
-	metrics, err = Parse([]byte(validUniqueSummary), http.Header{})
+	metrics, err = Parse([]byte(validUniqueSummary), http.Header{}, false)
 	assert.NoError(t, err)
 	assert.Len(t, metrics, 1)
 	assert.Equal(t, "http_request_duration_microseconds", metrics[0].Name())
@@ -83,7 +85,7 @@ func TestParseValidPrometheus(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, map[string]string{"handler": "prometheus"}, metrics[0].Tags())
 
 	// histogram data
-	metrics, err = Parse([]byte(validUniqueHistogram), http.Header{})
+	metrics, err = Parse([]byte(validUniqueHistogram), http.Header{}, false)
 	assert.NoError(t, err)
 	assert.Len(t, metrics, 1)
 	assert.Equal(t, "apiserver_request_latencies", metrics[0].Name())
@@ -103,3 +105,38 @@ func TestParseValidPrometheus(t *testing.T) {
 		map[string]string{"verb": "POST", "resource": "bindings"},
 		metrics[0].Tags())
 }
+
+func TestMetricsWithTimestamp(t *testing.T) {
+	testTime := time.Date(2020, time.October, 4, 17, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
+	testTimeUnix := testTime.UnixNano() / int64(time.Millisecond)
+	metricsWithTimestamps := fmt.Sprintf(`
+# TYPE test_counter counter
+test_counter{label="test"} 1 %d
+`, testTimeUnix)
+
+	// IgnoreTimestamp is false
+	metrics, err := Parse([]byte(metricsWithTimestamps), http.Header{}, false)
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Len(t, metrics, 1)
+	assert.Equal(t, "test_counter", metrics[0].Name())
+	assert.Equal(t, map[string]interface{}{
+		"counter": float64(1),
+	}, metrics[0].Fields())
+	assert.Equal(t, map[string]string{
+		"label": "test",
+	}, metrics[0].Tags())
+	assert.Equal(t, testTime, metrics[0].Time().UTC())
+
+	// IgnoreTimestamp is true
+	metrics, err = Parse([]byte(metricsWithTimestamps), http.Header{}, true)
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Len(t, metrics, 1)
+	assert.Equal(t, "test_counter", metrics[0].Name())
+	assert.Equal(t, map[string]interface{}{
+		"counter": float64(1),
+	}, metrics[0].Fields())
+	assert.Equal(t, map[string]string{
+		"label": "test",
+	}, metrics[0].Tags())
+	assert.WithinDuration(t, time.Now(), metrics[0].Time().UTC(), 5*time.Second)
+}
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/prometheus/prometheus.go b/plugins/inputs/prometheus/prometheus.go
index 136e8ae0f..18cbf6c8b 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/prometheus/prometheus.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/prometheus/prometheus.go
@@ -58,6 +58,8 @@ type Prometheus struct {
 
 	URLTag string `toml:"url_tag"`
 
+	IgnoreTimestamp bool `toml:"ignore_timestamp"`
+
 	tls.ClientConfig
 
 	Log telegraf.Logger
@@ -101,6 +103,10 @@ var sampleConfig = `
   ## Url tag name (tag containing scrapped url. optional, default is "url")
   # url_tag = "url"
 
+  ## Whether the timestamp of the scraped metrics will be ignored.
+  ## If set to true, the gather time will be used.
+  # ignore_timestamp = false
+
   ## An array of Kubernetes services to scrape metrics from.
   # kubernetes_services = ["http://my-service-dns.my-namespace:9100/metrics"]
 
@@ -414,10 +420,13 @@ func (p *Prometheus) gatherURL(u URLAndAddress, acc telegraf.Accumulator) error
 	}
 
 	if p.MetricVersion == 2 {
-		parser := parser_v2.Parser{Header: resp.Header}
+		parser := parser_v2.Parser{
+			Header:          resp.Header,
+			IgnoreTimestamp: p.IgnoreTimestamp,
+		}
 		metrics, err = parser.Parse(body)
 	} else {
-		metrics, err = Parse(body, resp.Header)
+		metrics, err = Parse(body, resp.Header, p.IgnoreTimestamp)
 	}
 
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/prometheus/prometheus_test.go b/plugins/inputs/prometheus/prometheus_test.go
index ea8ca0e93..11117e05b 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/prometheus/prometheus_test.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/prometheus/prometheus_test.go
@@ -242,6 +242,29 @@ func TestPrometheusGeneratesGaugeMetricsV2(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.True(t, acc.HasTimestamp("prometheus", time.Unix(1490802350, 0)))
 }
 
+func TestPrometheusGeneratesMetricsWithIgnoreTimestamp(t *testing.T) {
+	ts := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		_, err := fmt.Fprintln(w, sampleTextFormat)
+		require.NoError(t, err)
+	}))
+	defer ts.Close()
+
+	p := &Prometheus{
+		Log:             testutil.Logger{},
+		URLs:            []string{ts.URL},
+		URLTag:          "url",
+		IgnoreTimestamp: true,
+	}
+
+	var acc testutil.Accumulator
+
+	err := acc.GatherError(p.Gather)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	m, _ := acc.Get("test_metric")
+	assert.WithinDuration(t, time.Now(), m.Time, 5*time.Second)
+}
+
 func TestUnsupportedFieldSelector(t *testing.T) {
 	fieldSelectorString := "spec.containerName=container"
 	prom := &Prometheus{Log: testutil.Logger{}, KubernetesFieldSelector: fieldSelectorString}
diff --git a/plugins/parsers/prometheus/parser.go b/plugins/parsers/prometheus/parser.go
index e55789f79..bc7ea0c63 100644
--- a/plugins/parsers/prometheus/parser.go
+++ b/plugins/parsers/prometheus/parser.go
@@ -21,8 +21,9 @@ import (
 )
 
 type Parser struct {
-	DefaultTags map[string]string
-	Header      http.Header
+	DefaultTags     map[string]string
+	Header          http.Header
+	IgnoreTimestamp bool
 }
 
 func (p *Parser) Parse(buf []byte) ([]telegraf.Metric, error) {
@@ -65,14 +66,15 @@ func (p *Parser) Parse(buf []byte) ([]telegraf.Metric, error) {
 		for _, m := range mf.Metric {
 			// reading tags
 			tags := common.MakeLabels(m, p.DefaultTags)
+			t := p.GetTimestamp(m, now)
 
 			if mf.GetType() == dto.MetricType_SUMMARY {
 				// summary metric
-				telegrafMetrics := makeQuantiles(m, tags, metricName, mf.GetType(), now)
+				telegrafMetrics := makeQuantiles(m, tags, metricName, mf.GetType(), t)
 				metrics = append(metrics, telegrafMetrics...)
 			} else if mf.GetType() == dto.MetricType_HISTOGRAM {
 				// histogram metric
-				telegrafMetrics := makeBuckets(m, tags, metricName, mf.GetType(), now)
+				telegrafMetrics := makeBuckets(m, tags, metricName, mf.GetType(), t)
 				metrics = append(metrics, telegrafMetrics...)
 			} else {
 				// standard metric
@@ -80,7 +82,6 @@ func (p *Parser) Parse(buf []byte) ([]telegraf.Metric, error) {
 				fields := getNameAndValue(m, metricName)
 				// converting to telegraf metric
 				if len(fields) > 0 {
-					t := getTimestamp(m, now)
 					m := metric.New("prometheus", tags, fields, t, common.ValueType(mf.GetType()))
 					metrics = append(metrics, m)
 				}
@@ -113,10 +114,9 @@ func (p *Parser) SetDefaultTags(tags map[string]string) {
 }
 
 // Get Quantiles for summary metric & Buckets for histogram
-func makeQuantiles(m *dto.Metric, tags map[string]string, metricName string, metricType dto.MetricType, now time.Time) []telegraf.Metric {
+func makeQuantiles(m *dto.Metric, tags map[string]string, metricName string, metricType dto.MetricType, t time.Time) []telegraf.Metric {
 	var metrics []telegraf.Metric
 	fields := make(map[string]interface{})
-	t := getTimestamp(m, now)
 
 	fields[metricName+"_count"] = float64(m.GetSummary().GetSampleCount())
 	fields[metricName+"_sum"] = float64(m.GetSummary().GetSampleSum())
@@ -137,10 +137,9 @@ func makeQuantiles(m *dto.Metric, tags map[string]string, metricName string, met
 }
 
 // Get Buckets  from histogram metric
-func makeBuckets(m *dto.Metric, tags map[string]string, metricName string, metricType dto.MetricType, now time.Time) []telegraf.Metric {
+func makeBuckets(m *dto.Metric, tags map[string]string, metricName string, metricType dto.MetricType, t time.Time) []telegraf.Metric {
 	var metrics []telegraf.Metric
 	fields := make(map[string]interface{})
-	t := getTimestamp(m, now)
 
 	fields[metricName+"_count"] = float64(m.GetHistogram().GetSampleCount())
 	fields[metricName+"_sum"] = float64(m.GetHistogram().GetSampleSum())
@@ -179,9 +178,9 @@ func getNameAndValue(m *dto.Metric, metricName string) map[string]interface{} {
 	return fields
 }
 
-func getTimestamp(m *dto.Metric, now time.Time) time.Time {
+func (p *Parser) GetTimestamp(m *dto.Metric, now time.Time) time.Time {
 	var t time.Time
-	if m.TimestampMs != nil && *m.TimestampMs > 0 {
+	if !p.IgnoreTimestamp && m.TimestampMs != nil && *m.TimestampMs > 0 {
 		t = time.Unix(0, m.GetTimestampMs()*1000000)
 	} else {
 		t = now
diff --git a/plugins/parsers/prometheus/parser_test.go b/plugins/parsers/prometheus/parser_test.go
index a403887e0..52ef2f5a3 100644
--- a/plugins/parsers/prometheus/parser_test.go
+++ b/plugins/parsers/prometheus/parser_test.go
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ func TestParsingValidGauge(t *testing.T) {
 	testutil.RequireMetricsEqual(t, expected, metrics, testutil.IgnoreTime(), testutil.SortMetrics())
 }
 
-func TestParsingValieCounter(t *testing.T) {
+func TestParsingValidCounter(t *testing.T) {
 	expected := []telegraf.Metric{
 		testutil.MustMetric(
 			"prometheus",
@@ -340,6 +340,32 @@ test_counter{label="test"} 1 %d
 	testutil.RequireMetricsEqual(t, expected, metrics, testutil.SortMetrics())
 }
 
+func TestMetricsWithoutIgnoreTimestamp(t *testing.T) {
+	testTime := time.Date(2020, time.October, 4, 17, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
+	testTimeUnix := testTime.UnixNano() / int64(time.Millisecond)
+	metricsWithTimestamps := fmt.Sprintf(`
+# TYPE test_counter counter
+test_counter{label="test"} 1 %d
+`, testTimeUnix)
+	expected := testutil.MustMetric(
+		"prometheus",
+		map[string]string{
+			"label": "test",
+		},
+		map[string]interface{}{
+			"test_counter": float64(1.0),
+		},
+		testTime,
+		telegraf.Counter,
+	)
+
+	parser := Parser{IgnoreTimestamp: true}
+	metric, _ := parser.ParseLine(metricsWithTimestamps)
+
+	testutil.RequireMetricEqual(t, expected, metric, testutil.IgnoreTime(), testutil.SortMetrics())
+	assert.WithinDuration(t, time.Now(), metric.Time(), 5*time.Second)
+}
+
 func parse(buf []byte) ([]telegraf.Metric, error) {
 	parser := Parser{}
 	return parser.Parse(buf)
diff --git a/plugins/parsers/registry.go b/plugins/parsers/registry.go
index f07c789a2..fcdfc473a 100644
--- a/plugins/parsers/registry.go
+++ b/plugins/parsers/registry.go
@@ -156,6 +156,9 @@ type Config struct {
 	// FormData configuration
 	FormUrlencodedTagKeys []string `toml:"form_urlencoded_tag_keys"`
 
+	// Prometheus configuration
+	PrometheusIgnoreTimestamp bool `toml:"prometheus_ignore_timestamp"`
+
 	// Value configuration
 	ValueFieldName string `toml:"value_field_name"`
 
@@ -259,7 +262,10 @@ func NewParser(config *Config) (Parser, error) {
 			config.FormUrlencodedTagKeys,
 		)
 	case "prometheus":
-		parser, err = NewPrometheusParser(config.DefaultTags)
+		parser, err = NewPrometheusParser(
+			config.DefaultTags,
+			config.PrometheusIgnoreTimestamp,
+		)
 	case "prometheusremotewrite":
 		parser, err = NewPrometheusRemoteWriteParser(config.DefaultTags)
 	case "xml", "xpath_json", "xpath_msgpack", "xpath_protobuf":
@@ -378,9 +384,10 @@ func NewFormUrlencodedParser(
 	}, nil
 }
 
-func NewPrometheusParser(defaultTags map[string]string) (Parser, error) {
+func NewPrometheusParser(defaultTags map[string]string, ignoreTimestamp bool) (Parser, error) {
 	return &prometheus.Parser{
-		DefaultTags: defaultTags,
+		DefaultTags:     defaultTags,
+		IgnoreTimestamp: ignoreTimestamp,
 	}, nil
 }