diff --git a/.changelog/16469.txt b/.changelog/16469.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e97e2f5dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/16469.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+```release-note:improvement
+agent: trim leading and trailing spaces when parsing `X-Nomad-Token` header
+```
diff --git a/command/agent/http.go b/command/agent/http.go
index 78876f890..aab5c0017 100644
--- a/command/agent/http.go
+++ b/command/agent/http.go
@@ -969,7 +969,7 @@ func parseInt(req *http.Request, field string) (*int, error) {
 // parseToken is used to parse the X-Nomad-Token param
 func (s *HTTPServer) parseToken(req *http.Request, token *string) {
 	if other := req.Header.Get("X-Nomad-Token"); other != "" {
-		*token = other
+		*token = strings.TrimSpace(other)
 		return
 	}
 
diff --git a/command/agent/http_test.go b/command/agent/http_test.go
index 66d097e0d..9f31caf51 100644
--- a/command/agent/http_test.go
+++ b/command/agent/http_test.go
@@ -552,7 +552,7 @@ func TestParseToken(t *testing.T) {
 		{
 			Name:          "Parses token from X-Nomad-Token",
 			HeaderKey:     "X-Nomad-Token",
-			HeaderValue:   "foobar",
+			HeaderValue:   " foobar",
 			ExpectedToken: "foobar",
 		},
 		{