diff --git a/profiler/proftest/proftest.go b/profiler/proftest/proftest.go
index ebe2e31eec6..86c21aaa7a6 100644
--- a/profiler/proftest/proftest.go
+++ b/profiler/proftest/proftest.go
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ const (
 
 var (
 	logtimeRE     = regexp.MustCompile(`[A-Z][a-z]{2} [A-Z][a-z]{2}  ?\d+ \d\d:\d\d:\d\d [A-Z]{3} \d{4}`)
-	backoffTimeRE = regexp.MustCompile(`(\d+(h|m|s|ms|us))+`)
+	backoffTimeRE = regexp.MustCompile(`(\d+(\.\d+)?(h|m|s|ms|us))+`)
 )
 
 // BaseStartupTmpl is the common part of the startup script that
diff --git a/profiler/proftest/proftest_test.go b/profiler/proftest/proftest_test.go
index e99ff948f6a..f22beda103e 100644
--- a/profiler/proftest/proftest_test.go
+++ b/profiler/proftest/proftest_test.go
@@ -124,6 +124,11 @@ func TestParseBackoffDuration(t *testing.T) {
 			line:           "Fri May 15 22:05:01 UTC 2020: benchmark 0: failed to create profile, will retry: rpc error: code = Aborted desc = generic::aborted: action throttled, backoff for 32m0s",
 			wantBackoffDur: 32 * time.Minute,
 		},
+		{
+			desc:           "a floating-point backoff duration is parsed correctly",
+			line:           "Fri May 15 22:05:01 UTC 2020: benchmark 0: failed to create profile, will retry: rpc error: code = Aborted desc = generic::aborted: action throttled, backoff for 2000.000s",
+			wantBackoffDur: 2000 * time.Second,
+		},
 		{
 			desc:    "an error is returned when the backoff duration is invalid",
 			line:    "Fri May 15 22:05:01 UTC 2020: benchmark 0: failed to create profile, will retry: rpc error: code = Aborted desc = generic::aborted: action throttled, backoff for 32..0.s",
@@ -139,7 +144,7 @@ func TestParseBackoffDuration(t *testing.T) {
 				return
 			}
 			if backoffDur != tc.wantBackoffDur {
-				t.Errorf("got log time = %v, want %v", backoffDur, tc.wantBackoffDur)
+				t.Errorf("backoff duration: got %v, want %v", backoffDur, tc.wantBackoffDur)
 			}
 		})
 	}