diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index 89e0167ba88..0f1169cef89 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v8.2.0\...main[Check the HEAD diff]
 
 *Metricbeat*
 
-- Fix to ARN parsing for Cloudwatch resource names with leading slashes {pull}32446[32446]
+- Check for nil metadata in GCP. {pull}32281[32281]
 
 *Packetbeat*
 
diff --git a/x-pack/metricbeat/module/gcp/metrics/metricset.go b/x-pack/metricbeat/module/gcp/metrics/metricset.go
index 47cd71a7725..99e43e09876 100644
--- a/x-pack/metricbeat/module/gcp/metrics/metricset.go
+++ b/x-pack/metricbeat/module/gcp/metrics/metricset.go
@@ -322,14 +322,16 @@ func (m *MetricSet) getMetadata(out *metric.MetricDescriptor, metricsWithMeta ma
 		ingestDelay:  0 * time.Second,
 	}
 
-	if out.Metadata.SamplePeriod != nil {
-		m.Logger().Debugf("For metric type %s: sample period = %s", out.Type, out.Metadata.SamplePeriod)
-		meta.samplePeriod = time.Duration(out.Metadata.SamplePeriod.Seconds) * time.Second
-	}
+	if out.Metadata != nil {
+		if out.Metadata.SamplePeriod != nil {
+			m.Logger().Debugf("For metric type %s: sample period = %s", out.Type, out.Metadata.SamplePeriod)
+			meta.samplePeriod = time.Duration(out.Metadata.SamplePeriod.Seconds) * time.Second
+		}
 
-	if out.Metadata.IngestDelay != nil {
-		m.Logger().Debugf("For metric type %s: ingest delay = %s", out.Type, out.Metadata.IngestDelay)
-		meta.ingestDelay = time.Duration(out.Metadata.IngestDelay.Seconds) * time.Second
+		if out.Metadata.IngestDelay != nil {
+			m.Logger().Debugf("For metric type %s: ingest delay = %s", out.Type, out.Metadata.IngestDelay)
+			meta.ingestDelay = time.Duration(out.Metadata.IngestDelay.Seconds) * time.Second
+		}
 	}
 
 	metricsWithMeta[out.Type] = meta