diff --git a/bilby/core/sampler/pymultinest.py b/bilby/core/sampler/pymultinest.py
index 6f0349fe33964ad381675dbc713edfe2dcc4ab1f..51bdef2e0e48c3b2c61d9e7e2569c1a03a57d1da 100644
--- a/bilby/core/sampler/pymultinest.py
+++ b/bilby/core/sampler/pymultinest.py
@@ -145,6 +145,8 @@ class Pymultinest(_TemporaryFileSamplerMixin, NestedSampler):
 
         self._setup_run_directory()
         self._check_and_load_sampling_time_file()
+        if not self.kwargs["resume"]:
+            self.total_sampling_time = 0.0
 
         # Overwrite pymultinest's signal handling function
         pm_run = importlib.import_module("pymultinest.run")