diff --git a/CHANGELOG.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
index b3985ae5b24..8eefb2a421b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
@@ -301,6 +301,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v6.2.3...master[Check the HEAD diff]
 - Add TLS support to MongoDB module. {pull}7401[7401]
 - Added Traefik module with health metricset. {pull}7413[7413]
 - Add Elasticsearch ml_job metricsets. {pull}7196[7196]
+- Add support for bearer token files to HTTP helper. {pull}7527[7527]
 
 *Packetbeat*
 
diff --git a/metricbeat/autodiscover/appender/kubernetes/token/token.go b/metricbeat/autodiscover/appender/kubernetes/token/token.go
index 2b6deb3bd93..5471f874ca9 100644
--- a/metricbeat/autodiscover/appender/kubernetes/token/token.go
+++ b/metricbeat/autodiscover/appender/kubernetes/token/token.go
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ type tokenAppender struct {
 // NewTokenAppender creates a token appender that can append a bearer token required to authenticate with
 // protected endpoints
 func NewTokenAppender(cfg *common.Config) (autodiscover.Appender, error) {
-	cfgwarn.Beta("The token appender is beta")
+	cfgwarn.Deprecate("7.0.0", "token appender is deprecated in favor of bearer_token_file config parameter")
 	conf := defaultConfig()
 
 	err := cfg.Unpack(&conf)
diff --git a/metricbeat/docs/metricbeat-options.asciidoc b/metricbeat/docs/metricbeat-options.asciidoc
index 426dccafd4f..c188df1405f 100644
--- a/metricbeat/docs/metricbeat-options.asciidoc
+++ b/metricbeat/docs/metricbeat-options.asciidoc
@@ -216,3 +216,9 @@ The username to use for basic authentication.
 ==== `password`
 
 The password to use for basic authentication.
+
+[float]
+==== `bearer_token_file`
+
+If defined, Metricbeat will read the contents of the file once at initialization
+and then use the value in an HTTP Authorization header.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/metricbeat/docs/modules/kubernetes.asciidoc b/metricbeat/docs/modules/kubernetes.asciidoc
index a3b8cc2fcc7..11cce59d264 100644
--- a/metricbeat/docs/modules/kubernetes.asciidoc
+++ b/metricbeat/docs/modules/kubernetes.asciidoc
@@ -35,7 +35,9 @@ metricbeat.modules:
   period: 10s
   hosts: ["localhost:10255"]
   enabled: true
-  #ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/pki/root/ca.pem"]
+  #bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+  #ssl.certificate_authorities:
+  #  - /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt
   #ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem"
   #ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"
 
diff --git a/metricbeat/docs/modules/prometheus.asciidoc b/metricbeat/docs/modules/prometheus.asciidoc
index d25d1618726..cada7468f0d 100644
--- a/metricbeat/docs/modules/prometheus.asciidoc
+++ b/metricbeat/docs/modules/prometheus.asciidoc
@@ -37,6 +37,11 @@ metricbeat.modules:
   hosts: ["localhost:9090"]
   #metrics_path: /metrics
   #namespace: example
+
+  # This can be used for service account based authorization:
+  #  bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+  #ssl.certificate_authorities:
+  #  - /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt
 ----
 
 This module supports TLS connection when using `ssl` config field, as described in <<configuration-ssl>>. It also supports the options described in <<module-http-config-options>>.
diff --git a/metricbeat/helper/http.go b/metricbeat/helper/http.go
index 495df91b1f5..b01fa781885 100644
--- a/metricbeat/helper/http.go
+++ b/metricbeat/helper/http.go
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ import (
 	"net/http"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+
 	"github.com/elastic/beats/libbeat/common/transport/tlscommon"
 	"github.com/elastic/beats/libbeat/outputs/transport"
 	"github.com/elastic/beats/metricbeat/mb"
@@ -44,9 +46,10 @@ type HTTP struct {
 // NewHTTP creates new http helper
 func NewHTTP(base mb.BaseMetricSet) (*HTTP, error) {
 	config := struct {
-		TLS     *tlscommon.Config `config:"ssl"`
-		Timeout time.Duration     `config:"timeout"`
-		Headers map[string]string `config:"headers"`
+		TLS             *tlscommon.Config `config:"ssl"`
+		Timeout         time.Duration     `config:"timeout"`
+		Headers         map[string]string `config:"headers"`
+		BearerTokenFile string            `config:"bearer_token_file"`
 	}{}
 	if err := base.Module().UnpackConfig(&config); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
@@ -56,6 +59,14 @@ func NewHTTP(base mb.BaseMetricSet) (*HTTP, error) {
 		config.Headers = map[string]string{}
 	}
 
+	if config.BearerTokenFile != "" {
+		header, err := getAuthHeaderFromToken(config.BearerTokenFile)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		config.Headers["Authorization"] = header
+	}
+
 	tlsConfig, err := tlscommon.LoadTLSConfig(config.TLS)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
@@ -179,3 +190,22 @@ func (h *HTTP) FetchJSON() (map[string]interface{}, error) {
 
 	return data, nil
 }
+
+// getAuthHeaderFromToken reads a bearer authorizaiton token from the given file
+func getAuthHeaderFromToken(path string) (string, error) {
+	var token string
+
+	b, err := ioutil.ReadFile(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", errors.Wrap(err, "reading bearer token file")
+	}
+
+	if len(b) != 0 {
+		if b[len(b)-1] == '\n' {
+			b = b[0 : len(b)-1]
+		}
+		token = fmt.Sprintf("Bearer %s", string(b))
+	}
+
+	return token, nil
+}
diff --git a/metricbeat/helper/http_test.go b/metricbeat/helper/http_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a3e5d615e4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metricbeat/helper/http_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+// Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one or more contributor
+// license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+// this work for additional information regarding copyright
+// ownership. Elasticsearch B.V. licenses this file to you under
+// the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+// not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+// software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+// "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+// KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+// specific language governing permissions and limitations
+// under the License.
+
+package helper
+
+import (
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+func TestGetAuthHeaderFromToken(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		Name, Content, Expected string
+	}{
+		{
+			"Test a token is read",
+			"testtoken",
+			"Bearer testtoken",
+		},
+		{
+			"Test a token is trimmed",
+			"testtoken\n",
+			"Bearer testtoken",
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, test := range tests {
+		t.Run(test.Name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			content := []byte(test.Content)
+			tmpfile, err := ioutil.TempFile("", "token")
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
+			defer os.Remove(tmpfile.Name())
+
+			if _, err := tmpfile.Write(content); err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
+			if err := tmpfile.Close(); err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
+
+			header, err := getAuthHeaderFromToken(tmpfile.Name())
+			assert.NoError(t, err)
+			assert.Equal(t, test.Expected, header)
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func TestGetAuthHeaderFromTokenNoFile(t *testing.T) {
+	header, err := getAuthHeaderFromToken("nonexistingfile")
+	assert.Equal(t, "", header)
+	assert.Error(t, err)
+}
diff --git a/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml b/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml
index ed2f25bb766..750ebeb6e15 100644
--- a/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml
+++ b/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml
@@ -361,7 +361,9 @@ metricbeat.modules:
   period: 10s
   hosts: ["localhost:10255"]
   enabled: true
-  #ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/pki/root/ca.pem"]
+  #bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+  #ssl.certificate_authorities:
+  #  - /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt
   #ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem"
   #ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"
 
@@ -542,6 +544,11 @@ metricbeat.modules:
   #metrics_path: /metrics
   #namespace: example
 
+  # This can be used for service account based authorization:
+  #  bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+  #ssl.certificate_authorities:
+  #  - /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt
+
 #------------------------------ RabbitMQ Module ------------------------------
 - module: rabbitmq
   metricsets: ["node", "queue", "connection"]
diff --git a/metricbeat/module/kubernetes/_meta/config.reference.yml b/metricbeat/module/kubernetes/_meta/config.reference.yml
index b5ef0867653..5b87632596b 100644
--- a/metricbeat/module/kubernetes/_meta/config.reference.yml
+++ b/metricbeat/module/kubernetes/_meta/config.reference.yml
@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@
   period: 10s
   hosts: ["localhost:10255"]
   enabled: true
-  #ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/pki/root/ca.pem"]
+  #bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+  #ssl.certificate_authorities:
+  #  - /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt
   #ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem"
   #ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"
 
diff --git a/metricbeat/module/kubernetes/_meta/config.yml b/metricbeat/module/kubernetes/_meta/config.yml
index 5492b0a3b99..896092f7b37 100644
--- a/metricbeat/module/kubernetes/_meta/config.yml
+++ b/metricbeat/module/kubernetes/_meta/config.yml
@@ -7,10 +7,10 @@
   #  - container
   #  - volume
   period: 10s
-  hosts: ["localhost:10255"]
-  #ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/pki/root/ca.pem"]
-  #ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem"
-  #ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"
+  hosts: ["localhost:10250"]
+  bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+  ssl.certificate_authorities:
+    - /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt
   #username: "user"
   #password: "secret"
 
diff --git a/metricbeat/module/prometheus/_meta/config.reference.yml b/metricbeat/module/prometheus/_meta/config.reference.yml
index dda648a4243..59680f2a901 100644
--- a/metricbeat/module/prometheus/_meta/config.reference.yml
+++ b/metricbeat/module/prometheus/_meta/config.reference.yml
@@ -13,3 +13,8 @@
   hosts: ["localhost:9090"]
   #metrics_path: /metrics
   #namespace: example
+
+  # This can be used for service account based authorization:
+  #  bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+  #ssl.certificate_authorities:
+  #  - /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt
diff --git a/metricbeat/module/prometheus/_meta/config.yml b/metricbeat/module/prometheus/_meta/config.yml
index 176fd562f01..1ff113c2d0f 100644
--- a/metricbeat/module/prometheus/_meta/config.yml
+++ b/metricbeat/module/prometheus/_meta/config.yml
@@ -7,3 +7,8 @@
   #namespace: example
   #username: "user"
   #password: "secret"
+
+  # This can be used for service account based authorization:
+  #  bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+  #ssl.certificate_authorities:
+  #  - /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt
diff --git a/metricbeat/modules.d/kubernetes.yml.disabled b/metricbeat/modules.d/kubernetes.yml.disabled
index 5c569025d57..c78dfa15d47 100644
--- a/metricbeat/modules.d/kubernetes.yml.disabled
+++ b/metricbeat/modules.d/kubernetes.yml.disabled
@@ -10,10 +10,10 @@
   #  - container
   #  - volume
   period: 10s
-  hosts: ["localhost:10255"]
-  #ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/pki/root/ca.pem"]
-  #ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem"
-  #ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"
+  hosts: ["localhost:10250"]
+  bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+  ssl.certificate_authorities:
+    - /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt
   #username: "user"
   #password: "secret"
 
diff --git a/metricbeat/modules.d/prometheus.yml.disabled b/metricbeat/modules.d/prometheus.yml.disabled
index 21684d3adf1..c13619278c2 100644
--- a/metricbeat/modules.d/prometheus.yml.disabled
+++ b/metricbeat/modules.d/prometheus.yml.disabled
@@ -10,3 +10,8 @@
   #namespace: example
   #username: "user"
   #password: "secret"
+
+  # This can be used for service account based authorization:
+  #  bearer_token_file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
+  #ssl.certificate_authorities:
+  #  - /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt