chcp - Switch the Character Encoding

Maintained on October 27, 2026

The chcp command checks and changes the code page (the character encoding) used by Command Prompt.

When output turns into garbled characters, it is almost always because the encoding of Command Prompt and the encoding of the data being read or written do not match. chcp lets you resolve that mismatch.

Basic syntax of `chcp`

chcp [<code_page_number>]

Without a number it shows the current code page; with a number it switches to that code page.

Check the current code page

Run it with no arguments.

chcp

－ □ ×

Command Prompt

Microsoft Windows [Version xx.x.xxxxx.xxx]

C:\users\user>chcp

Active code page: 437

C:\users\user>

The default is 437 on US English Windows and 932 (Shift_JIS family) on Japanese Windows.

Change the code page

Specify the number to switch to. Use 65001 for UTF-8.

chcp 65001

－ □ ×

Command Prompt

Microsoft Windows [Version xx.x.xxxxx.xxx]

C:\users\user>chcp 65001

Active code page: 65001

C:\users\user>

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To go back, run chcp with the original number (for example chcp 437).

Common code pages

Number	Name	Use
`932`	Shift_JIS (Windows Japanese)	Default on Japanese Windows
`65001`	UTF-8	UTF-8 files and output of web-style tools
`437`	United States (OEM)	Default on US English Windows
`1252`	Western European (Windows)	European-language text

Scope of the change

A change made with chcp applies only to that Command Prompt window (session). Closing the window or opening a new one returns to the default code page.

Fix garbled text

Display a UTF-8 file

Showing a UTF-8 text file with type under a non-UTF-8 code page produces garbled text. Switch with chcp 65001 first.

chcp 65001
type utf8.txt

When output is garbled

If the output of an external tool is garbled, set the code page to match the encoding the tool outputs: 65001 for UTF-8, 932 for Shift_JIS.

Switch temporarily in a batch file and restore

To use UTF-8 inside a batch file and put things back afterwards, save the current number first.

utf8.cmd

@echo off

for /f "tokens=2 delims=:" %%a in ('chcp') do set ORIG_CP=%%a
chcp 65001 >nul

type "%~dp0utf8.txt"

chcp %ORIG_CP% >nul

The wording of chcp output changes with the display language, but the number always follows a colon (:), so delims=: extracts it. Adding >nul hides the “Active code page” message.

When the batch file itself is saved as UTF-8

If a batch file (.cmd) containing non-ASCII text is itself saved as UTF-8, labels and goto may not be parsed correctly on some environments. For batch files you distribute, saving as the system’s legacy encoding (for example Shift_JIS in Japan) is safer. See the encoding article for details.

For the full picture, see the encoding article

How to choose a save format and how to switch the whole system to UTF-8 are covered in the related article below.

Character Encoding and Garbled Text

Learn the causes of garbled text in the command prompt and batch files, and how to fix it. Covers changing the code page

type - Display a Text File

Learn how to display the contents of a text file with the type command, the equivalent of the Unix cat command. Covers d

Redirection

Learn how to use redirection in Windows Command Prompt to save command output to files. Covers stdout, stderr, append mo

for - Loop Command

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