About This HTML Issue
The character encoding declared in the HTML differs from the actual file encoding.
The meta element with charset="utf-8" tells browsers to interpret the document as UTF-8. However, if the file is actually saved in another encoding (such as Windows-1252), validators and browsers will detect a mismatch, leading to this error. To resolve this, you must ensure the file contents and the encoding declaration match.
Recommended: Save your document in UTF-8 encoding to match your meta tag.
Alternatively, if you must use Windows-1252, update charset accordingly.
UTF-8 example (preferred):
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>UTF-8 Encoding Example</title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>This page is encoded in UTF-8.</p>
</body>
</html>Windows-1252 example (not recommended):
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Windows-1252 Encoding Example</title>
<meta charset="windows-1252">
</head>
<body>
<p>This page is encoded in Windows-1252.</p>
</body>
</html>Summary:
-
Use UTF-8 as your file encoding and declare
<meta charset="utf-8">. - Always make sure the file is saved using the same encoding you declare in the HTML.
Last reviewed: May 05, 2025
Find issues like this automatically
Rocket Validator scans thousands of pages in seconds, detecting HTML issues across your entire site.