diff --git a/src/core/layout/qgslayoutitemattributetable.cpp b/src/core/layout/qgslayoutitemattributetable.cpp
index b935450c91e3..b46a0caec8fb 100644
--- a/src/core/layout/qgslayoutitemattributetable.cpp
+++ b/src/core/layout/qgslayoutitemattributetable.cpp
@@ -399,6 +399,8 @@ bool QgsLayoutItemAttributeTable::getTableContents( QgsLayoutTableContents &cont
   QgsExpressionContext context = createExpressionContext();
   context.setFields( layer->fields() );
 
+  QgsFeatureRequest req;
+
   //prepare filter expression
   std::unique_ptr<QgsExpression> filterExpression;
   bool activeFilter = false;
@@ -408,6 +410,7 @@ bool QgsLayoutItemAttributeTable::getTableContents( QgsLayoutTableContents &cont
     if ( !filterExpression->hasParserError() )
     {
       activeFilter = true;
+      req.setFilterExpression( mFeatureFilter );
     }
   }
 
@@ -431,8 +434,6 @@ bool QgsLayoutItemAttributeTable::getTableContents( QgsLayoutTableContents &cont
     }
   }
 
-  QgsFeatureRequest req;
-
   if ( mSource == QgsLayoutItemAttributeTable::RelationChildren )
   {
     QgsRelation relation = mLayout->project()->relationManager()->relation( mRelationId );