diff --git a/sqlite_utils/cli.py b/sqlite_utils/cli.py
index 1e31088..b235068 100644
--- a/sqlite_utils/cli.py
+++ b/sqlite_utils/cli.py
@@ -791,7 +791,7 @@ def insert_upsert_implementation(
     else:
         try:
             if nl:
-                docs = (json.loads(line) for line in decoded)
+                docs = (json.loads(line) for line in decoded if line.strip())
             else:
                 docs = json.load(decoded)
                 if isinstance(docs, dict):
diff --git a/tests/test_cli_insert.py b/tests/test_cli_insert.py
index 9c218cc..c40dd85 100644
--- a/tests/test_cli_insert.py
+++ b/tests/test_cli_insert.py
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ def test_insert_newline_delimited(db_path):
     result = CliRunner().invoke(
         cli.cli,
         ["insert", db_path, "from_json_nl", "-", "--nl"],
-        input='{"foo": "bar", "n": 1}\n{"foo": "baz", "n": 2}',
+        input='{"foo": "bar", "n": 1}\n\n{"foo": "baz", "n": 2}',
     )
     assert 0 == result.exit_code, result.output
     db = Database(db_path)