diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/66996-zabbix-template.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/66996-zabbix-template.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4935157f4b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/66996-zabbix-template.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+- zabbix_template - no longer fails with KeyError when there are no macros present in existing template (see https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.zabbix/issues/19)
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/monitoring/zabbix/zabbix_template.py b/lib/ansible/modules/monitoring/zabbix/zabbix_template.py
index 8c1bdbaa9e2..8d17c859ca4 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/monitoring/zabbix/zabbix_template.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/monitoring/zabbix/zabbix_template.py
@@ -417,6 +417,9 @@ class Template(object):
                     changed = True
                     break
 
+        if 'macros' not in existing_template['zabbix_export']['templates'][0]:
+            existing_template['zabbix_export']['templates'][0]['macros'] = []
+
         if template_macros is not None:
             existing_macros = existing_template['zabbix_export']['templates'][0]['macros']
             if template_macros != existing_macros: