diff --git a/api/audio/echo_canceller3_config_json.cc b/api/audio/echo_canceller3_config_json.cc
index 784f928f9c..d039c8b616 100644
--- a/api/audio/echo_canceller3_config_json.cc
+++ b/api/audio/echo_canceller3_config_json.cc
@@ -109,21 +109,29 @@ void ReadParam(const Json::Value& root,
 }
 }  // namespace
 
-EchoCanceller3Config Aec3ConfigFromJsonString(absl::string_view json_string) {
-  EchoCanceller3Config cfg;
+void Aec3ConfigFromJsonString(absl::string_view json_string,
+                              EchoCanceller3Config* config,
+                              bool* parsing_successful) {
+  RTC_DCHECK(config);
+  RTC_DCHECK(parsing_successful);
+  EchoCanceller3Config& cfg = *config;
+  cfg = EchoCanceller3Config();
+  *parsing_successful = true;
 
   Json::Value root;
   bool success = Json::Reader().parse(std::string(json_string), root);
   if (!success) {
     RTC_LOG(LS_ERROR) << "Incorrect JSON format: " << json_string;
-    return EchoCanceller3Config();
+    *parsing_successful = false;
+    return;
   }
 
   Json::Value aec3_root;
   success = rtc::GetValueFromJsonObject(root, "aec3", &aec3_root);
   if (!success) {
     RTC_LOG(LS_ERROR) << "Missing AEC3 config field: " << json_string;
-    return EchoCanceller3Config();
+    *parsing_successful = false;
+    return;
   }
 
   Json::Value section;
@@ -325,6 +333,12 @@ EchoCanceller3Config Aec3ConfigFromJsonString(absl::string_view json_string) {
     ReadParam(section, "enforce_empty_higher_bands",
               &cfg.suppressor.enforce_empty_higher_bands);
   }
+}
+
+EchoCanceller3Config Aec3ConfigFromJsonString(absl::string_view json_string) {
+  EchoCanceller3Config cfg;
+  bool not_used;
+  Aec3ConfigFromJsonString(json_string, &cfg, &not_used);
   return cfg;
 }
 
diff --git a/api/audio/echo_canceller3_config_json.h b/api/audio/echo_canceller3_config_json.h
index 3c8b97589f..8973650f85 100644
--- a/api/audio/echo_canceller3_config_json.h
+++ b/api/audio/echo_canceller3_config_json.h
@@ -20,6 +20,16 @@
 namespace webrtc {
 // Parses a JSON-encoded string into an Aec3 config. Fields corresponds to
 // substruct names, with the addition that there must be a top-level node
+// "aec3". Produces default config values for anything that cannot be parsed
+// from the string. If any error was found in the parsing, parsing_successful is
+// set to false.
+RTC_EXPORT void Aec3ConfigFromJsonString(absl::string_view json_string,
+                                         EchoCanceller3Config* config,
+                                         bool* parsing_successful);
+
+// To be deprecated.
+// Parses a JSON-encoded string into an Aec3 config. Fields corresponds to
+// substruct names, with the addition that there must be a top-level node
 // "aec3". Returns default config values for anything that cannot be parsed from
 // the string.
 RTC_EXPORT EchoCanceller3Config
diff --git a/modules/audio_processing/test/audio_processing_simulator.cc b/modules/audio_processing/test/audio_processing_simulator.cc
index e4ac57b069..aae936389b 100644
--- a/modules/audio_processing/test/audio_processing_simulator.cc
+++ b/modules/audio_processing/test/audio_processing_simulator.cc
@@ -48,7 +48,17 @@ EchoCanceller3Config ReadAec3ConfigFromJsonFile(const std::string& filename) {
   while (std::getline(f, s)) {
     json_string += s;
   }
-  return Aec3ConfigFromJsonString(json_string);
+
+  bool parsing_successful;
+  EchoCanceller3Config cfg;
+  Aec3ConfigFromJsonString(json_string, &cfg, &parsing_successful);
+  if (!parsing_successful) {
+    std::cout << "Parsing of json string failed: " << std::endl
+              << json_string << std::endl;
+    RTC_CHECK(false);
+  }
+
+  return cfg;
 }
 
 void CopyFromAudioFrame(const AudioFrame& src, ChannelBuffer<float>* dest) {