diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index a9074f696d54..6627e8e71b91 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v7.0.0-alpha2...master[Check the HEAD d
 - Fix initialization of the TCP input logger. {pull}11605[11605]
 - Fix flaky service_integration_windows_test test by introducing a confidence factor and enriching the error message with more service details. {issue}8880[8880] and {issue}7977[7977]
 - Replace wmi queries with win32 api calls as they were consuming CPU resources {issue}3249[3249] and {issue}11840[11840]
+- Fix queue.spool.write.flush.events config type. {pull}12080[12080]
 
 *Auditbeat*
 
diff --git a/libbeat/publisher/queue/spool/config.go b/libbeat/publisher/queue/spool/config.go
index acff07f77d95..e936bae1f7bf 100644
--- a/libbeat/publisher/queue/spool/config.go
+++ b/libbeat/publisher/queue/spool/config.go
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ type pathConfig struct {
 
 type writeConfig struct {
 	BufferSize   cfgtype.ByteSize `config:"buffer_size"`
-	FlushEvents  time.Duration    `config:"flush.events"`
+	FlushEvents  int              `config:"flush.events"`
 	FlushTimeout time.Duration    `config:"flush.timeout"`
 	Codec        codecID          `config:"codec"`
 }