diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
index 05be023c3f0eda0066394651602f5be4ba6823ca..dfd13d6e2931f929aab817c6231f059fd698e8d6 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
@@ -2449,6 +2449,18 @@ static int add_default_attributes(void)
 		return 0;
 
 	if (transaction_run) {
+		/* Handle -T as -M transaction. Once platform specific metrics
+		 * support has been added to the json files, all archictures
+		 * will use this approach. To determine transaction support
+		 * on an architecture test for such a metric name.
+		 */
+		if (metricgroup__has_metric("transaction")) {
+			struct option opt = { .value = &evsel_list };
+
+			return metricgroup__parse_groups(&opt, "transaction",
+							 &metric_events);
+		}
+
 		if (pmu_have_event("cpu", "cycles-ct") &&
 		    pmu_have_event("cpu", "el-start"))
 			err = parse_events(evsel_list, transaction_attrs,
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
index 1ddc3d1d0147e7e86dccbf4d522076b602c0c157..96eab4ec34ff0f8a3610d34b311aa9c165ea6c59 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
@@ -490,3 +490,25 @@ int metricgroup__parse_groups(const struct option *opt,
 	metricgroup__free_egroups(&group_list);
 	return ret;
 }
+
+bool metricgroup__has_metric(const char *metric)
+{
+	struct pmu_events_map *map = perf_pmu__find_map(NULL);
+	struct pmu_event *pe;
+	int i;
+
+	if (!map)
+		return false;
+
+	for (i = 0; ; i++) {
+		pe = &map->table[i];
+
+		if (!pe->name && !pe->metric_group && !pe->metric_name)
+			break;
+		if (!pe->metric_expr)
+			continue;
+		if (match_metric(pe->metric_name, metric))
+			return true;
+	}
+	return false;
+}
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.h b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.h
index 06854e125ee71c9f7cae52dc2b81ae00329afdf6..8a155dba0581e5d3c7bad97a946c222fba898852 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.h
+++ b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.h
@@ -28,4 +28,5 @@ int metricgroup__parse_groups(const struct option *opt,
 			struct rblist *metric_events);
 
 void metricgroup__print(bool metrics, bool groups, char *filter, bool raw);
+bool metricgroup__has_metric(const char *metric);
 #endif