diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/4945-fix-get_vm-int-parse-handling.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/4945-fix-get_vm-int-parse-handling.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1a563f6c93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/4945-fix-get_vm-int-parse-handling.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - proxmox - fix error handling when getting VM by name when ``state=absent`` (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/4945).
+  - proxmox_kvm - fix error handling when getting VM by name when ``state=absent`` (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/4945).
diff --git a/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/proxmox.py b/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/proxmox.py
index da8783e16d..dccfdc7b67 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/proxmox.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/proxmox.py
@@ -743,6 +743,8 @@ def main():
             module.fail_json(msg="restarting of VM %s failed with exception: %s" % (vmid, e))
 
     elif state == 'absent':
+        if not vmid:
+            module.exit_json(changed=False, msg='VM with hostname = %s is already absent' % hostname)
         try:
             vm = proxmox.get_vm(vmid, ignore_missing=True)
             if not vm:
diff --git a/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/proxmox_kvm.py b/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/proxmox_kvm.py
index abc63f24c3..2b38e89964 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/proxmox_kvm.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/proxmox_kvm.py
@@ -1370,6 +1370,8 @@ def main():
 
     elif state == 'absent':
         status = {}
+        if not vmid:
+            module.exit_json(changed=False, msg='VM with name = %s is already absent' % name)
         try:
             vm = proxmox.get_vm(vmid, ignore_missing=True)
             if not vm: