diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/6111-influxdb_user-check-mode.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/6111-influxdb_user-check-mode.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4789c2ba76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/6111-influxdb_user-check-mode.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - influxdb_user - fix running in check mode when the user does not exist yet (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/6111).
diff --git a/plugins/modules/database/influxdb/influxdb_user.py b/plugins/modules/database/influxdb/influxdb_user.py
index 25bc2a95ce..b66c89401e 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/database/influxdb/influxdb_user.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/database/influxdb/influxdb_user.py
@@ -168,8 +168,14 @@ def drop_user(module, client, user_name):
 def set_user_grants(module, client, user_name, grants):
     changed = False
 
+    current_grants = []
     try:
         current_grants = client.get_list_privileges(user_name)
+    except influx.exceptions.InfluxDBClientError as e:
+        if not module.check_mode or 'user not found' not in e.content:
+            module.fail_json(msg=e.content)
+
+    try:
         parsed_grants = []
         # Fix privileges wording
         for i, v in enumerate(current_grants):