diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index 08d1f908ed4a..a91f589c83cd 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v7.0.0-alpha2...main[Check the HEAD dif
 - Fix using log_group_name_prefix in aws-cloudwatch input. {pull}29695[29695]
 - Fix multiple instances of the same module configured within `filebeat.modules` in filebeat.yml. {issue}29649[29649] {pull}29952[29952]
 - aws-s3: fix race condition in states used by s3-poller. {issue}30123[30123] {pull}30131[30131]
+- Report the starting offset of the line in `log.offset` when using `filestream` instead of the end to be ECS compliant. {pull}30445[30445]
 
 *Filebeat*
 - Fix broken Kafka input {issue}29746[29746] {pull}30277[30277]
diff --git a/libbeat/reader/readfile/metafields.go b/libbeat/reader/readfile/metafields.go
index 734069b59505..1b5cb8bed206 100644
--- a/libbeat/reader/readfile/metafields.go
+++ b/libbeat/reader/readfile/metafields.go
@@ -41,10 +41,9 @@ func NewFilemeta(r reader.Reader, path string, offset int64) reader.Reader {
 func (r *FileMetaReader) Next() (reader.Message, error) {
 	message, err := r.reader.Next()
 
-	r.offset += int64(message.Bytes)
-
 	// if the message is empty, there is no need to enrich it with file metadata
 	if message.IsEmpty() {
+		r.offset += int64(message.Bytes)
 		return message, err
 	}
 
@@ -56,6 +55,9 @@ func (r *FileMetaReader) Next() (reader.Message, error) {
 			},
 		},
 	})
+
+	r.offset += int64(message.Bytes)
+
 	return message, err
 }
 
diff --git a/libbeat/reader/readfile/metafields_test.go b/libbeat/reader/readfile/metafields_test.go
index 978591c1b1b2..a1480e6291b9 100644
--- a/libbeat/reader/readfile/metafields_test.go
+++ b/libbeat/reader/readfile/metafields_test.go
@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@ func TestMetaFieldsOffset(t *testing.T) {
 		if err == io.EOF {
 			break
 		}
-		offset += int64(msg.Bytes)
 
 		expectedFields := common.MapStr{}
 		if len(msg.Content) != 0 {
@@ -67,6 +66,8 @@ func TestMetaFieldsOffset(t *testing.T) {
 				},
 			}
 		}
+		offset += int64(msg.Bytes)
+
 		require.Equal(t, expectedFields, msg.Fields)
 		require.Equal(t, offset, in.offset)
 	}