---
schema_version: "1"
id: 00500d9ad0be4662f4766dddde08e4bd7e06f045b76882818270e41ea147e879
title: Character Set Encodings
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/platform/264-0-0/external_services_schema_def_character_set_encodings.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.external_services_schema_def_character_set_encodings.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: a2b41a13059fdd68a301e464c61544e397aa7baeb197b9721ac481dae4c307ad
description: Learn about request and response character set encodings.
products:
  - Salesforce Platform
  - Security
release: "264"
---
# Character Set Encodings

Learn about request and response character set encodings.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: Lightning Experience</td></tr><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: <strong>Enterprise</strong>, <strong>Performance</strong>, <strong>Unlimited</strong>, and <strong>Developer</strong> Editions</td></tr></tbody></table>

The request body is encoded by the character set in the operation’s resolved request schema directive. For example, `application/json; charset=ISO-8859-1` encodes the HTTP request in Latin-1 before sending it to the server.

The response body is encoded by the character set in the operation’s resolved response schema directive. For example, `application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=SHIFT_JIS` decodes the percent URL encoded form with the Shift JIS character set.

The default character set for encoding request bodies is UTF-8.

The default character set for decoding server response entities is defined by the server response’s Content-Type header. If the Content-Type header is missing from the response, then it uses UTF-8.

Reserved HTTP request header characters aren’t escaped and are encoded by the request body’s character set.

The supported encoding set is as defined by the Java JDK. For example, for version 11, supported encoding is documented here (replace the “11” in this URL with your Java SE Platform version number): [https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/intl/supported-encodings.html](https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/intl/supported-encodings.html) - and it’s recommended to use the standard character set encoding name as described by the [IANA Charset Registry](https://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets/character-sets.xhtml).

#### See Also

- [Schema Examples](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.external_services_examples.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Explore various scenarios with OpenAPI 2.0 and OpenAPI 3.0 compliant JSON or YAML schemas supported by External Services. The examples cover schema elements like HTTP header as input parameters, and include example usage in Apex. Understanding the examples helps with proper syntax and code placement.")