diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/common/util/fields_utils.ts b/x-pack/plugins/ml/common/util/fields_utils.ts
index f17a593dd09dc..9e0806069a9d3 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/common/util/fields_utils.ts
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/common/util/fields_utils.ts
@@ -60,7 +60,9 @@ export function combineFieldsAndAggs(
         default:
           // all other aggs take numerical fields
           numericalFields.forEach((f) => {
-            mix(f, a);
+            if (f.aggregatable) {
+              mix(f, a);
+            }
           });
           break;
       }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/server/models/job_service/new_job_caps/field_service.ts b/x-pack/plugins/ml/server/models/job_service/new_job_caps/field_service.ts
index 4e52a0ddee38d..83144d20b39bc 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/server/models/job_service/new_job_caps/field_service.ts
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/server/models/job_service/new_job_caps/field_service.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import type * as estypes from '@elastic/elasticsearch/lib/api/typesWithBodyKey';
 import type { IScopedClusterClient } from '@kbn/core/server';
 import { ES_FIELD_TYPES } from '@kbn/field-types';
 import type { DataViewsService } from '@kbn/data-views-plugin/common';
-import type { Field, FieldId, NewJobCaps, RollupFields } from '../../../../common/types/fields';
+import type { Field, NewJobCaps, RollupFields } from '../../../../common/types/fields';
 import { combineFieldsAndAggs } from '../../../../common/util/fields_utils';
 import { rollupServiceProvider } from './rollup';
 import { aggregations, mlOnlyAggregations } from '../../../../common/constants/aggregation_types';
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ class FieldsService {
     this._dataViewsService = dataViewsService;
   }
 
-  private async loadFieldCaps(): Promise<any> {
+  private async loadFieldCaps() {
     return await this._mlClusterClient.asCurrentUser.fieldCaps(
       {
         index: this._indexPattern,
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ class FieldsService {
     const fieldCaps = await this.loadFieldCaps();
     const fields: Field[] = [];
     if (fieldCaps && fieldCaps.fields) {
-      Object.keys(fieldCaps.fields).forEach((k: FieldId) => {
+      Object.keys(fieldCaps.fields).forEach((k) => {
         const fc = fieldCaps.fields[k];
         const firstKey = Object.keys(fc)[0];
         if (firstKey !== undefined) {
@@ -90,8 +90,8 @@ class FieldsService {
             fields.push({
               id: k,
               name: k,
-              type: field.type,
-              aggregatable: field.aggregatable,
+              type: field.type as ES_FIELD_TYPES,
+              aggregatable: this.isFieldAggregatable(field),
               aggs: [],
             });
           }
@@ -101,6 +101,13 @@ class FieldsService {
     return fields.sort((a, b) => a.id.localeCompare(b.id));
   }
 
+  // check to see whether the field is aggregatable
+  // If it is a counter field from a time series data stream, we cannot currently
+  // support any aggregations and so it cannot be used as a field_name in a detector.
+  private isFieldAggregatable(field: estypes.FieldCapsFieldCapability) {
+    return field.time_series_metric !== 'counter' ?? field.aggregatable;
+  }
+
   // public function to load fields from _field_caps and create a list
   // of aggregations and fields that can be used for an ML job
   // if the index is a rollup, the fields and aggs will be filtered