diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b88d069c905a..7a8586f5252e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # Changelog
 
 ## Unreleased
+- `signalfx` exporter: **breaking change** - Allow periods to be sent in dimension keys (#2456). Existing users who do not want to change this functionality can set `nonalphanumeric_dimension_chars` to `_-`
 
 ## v0.20.0
 
diff --git a/exporter/signalfxexporter/README.md b/exporter/signalfxexporter/README.md
index 53da646cc8a5..645933fdb011 100644
--- a/exporter/signalfxexporter/README.md
+++ b/exporter/signalfxexporter/README.md
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ The following configuration options can also be configured:
   processor is enabled in the pipeline with one of the cloud provider detectors
   or environment variable detector setting a unique value to `host.name` attribute
   within your k8s cluster. And keep `override=true` in resourcedetection config.
-- `nonalphanumeric_dimension_chars`: (default = `"_-"`) A string of characters 
+- `nonalphanumeric_dimension_chars`: (default = `"_-."`) A string of characters 
 that are allowed to be used as a dimension key in addition to alphanumeric 
 characters. Each nonalphanumeric dimension key character that isn't in this string 
 will be replaced with a `_`.
diff --git a/exporter/signalfxexporter/config_test.go b/exporter/signalfxexporter/config_test.go
index 70523d543d4f..84465ab6777f 100644
--- a/exporter/signalfxexporter/config_test.go
+++ b/exporter/signalfxexporter/config_test.go
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ func TestLoadConfig(t *testing.T) {
 				"host.name": "host",
 			},
 		},
-		NonAlphanumericDimensionChars: "_-",
+		NonAlphanumericDimensionChars: "_-.",
 	}
 	assert.Equal(t, &expectedCfg, e1)
 
diff --git a/exporter/signalfxexporter/factory.go b/exporter/signalfxexporter/factory.go
index e16221452803..08dfa1638dc0 100644
--- a/exporter/signalfxexporter/factory.go
+++ b/exporter/signalfxexporter/factory.go
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ func createDefaultConfig() configmodels.Exporter {
 		},
 		DeltaTranslationTTL:           3600,
 		Correlation:                   correlation.DefaultConfig(),
-		NonAlphanumericDimensionChars: "_-",
+		NonAlphanumericDimensionChars: "_-.",
 	}
 }