# Unicode
Unicode is a standard for encoding text across multiple writing systems. MariaDB supports a number of [character sets](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/data-types/string-data-types/character-sets) for storing Unicode data:
| Character Set | Description |
| ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `ucs2` | UCS-2, each character is represented by a 2-byte code with the most significant byte first. Fixed-length 16-bit encoding. |
| `utf8` | `utf8` is an alias for `utf8mb3`, but this can changed to `ut8mb4` by changing the default value of the [old\_mode](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/server-management/variables-and-modes/server-system-variables#old_mode) system variable. |
| `utf8mb3` | UTF-8 encoding using one to three bytes per character. Basic Latin letters, numbers and punctuation use one byte. European and Middle East letters mostly fit into 2 bytes. Korean, Chinese, and Japanese ideographs use 3-bytes. No supplementary characters are stored. Until [MariaDB 10.5](https://app.gitbook.com/s/aEnK0ZXmUbJzqQrTjFyb/community-server/old-releases/10.5/what-is-mariadb-105), this was an alias for utf8. From [MariaDB 10.6](https://app.gitbook.com/s/aEnK0ZXmUbJzqQrTjFyb/community-server/10.6/what-is-mariadb-106), utf8 is by default an alias for utf8mb3, but this can changed to ut8mb4 by changing the default value of the [old\_mode](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/server-management/variables-and-modes/server-system-variables#old_mode) system variable. |
| `utf8mb4` | UTF-8 encoding the same as `utf8mb3` but which stores supplementary characters in four bytes. |
| `utf16` | UTF-16, same as `ucs2`, but stores supplementary characters in 32 bits. 16 or 32-bits. |
| `utf32` | UTF-32, fixed-length 32-bit encoding. |
Support for the UCA-14.0.0 collations was added in [MariaDB 10.10](https://app.gitbook.com/s/aEnK0ZXmUbJzqQrTjFyb/community-server/old-releases/10.10/what-is-mariadb-1010) ([MDEV-27009](https://jira.mariadb.org/browse/MDEV-27009)).
Support for the MySQL 8.0 UCA-9-0-0 (utf8mb4\_0900\_...) collations will be added to [MariaDB 11.4.5](https://app.gitbook.com/s/aEnK0ZXmUbJzqQrTjFyb/community-server/11.4/11.4.5).
*This page is licensed: CC BY-SA / Gnu FDL*
{% @marketo/form formId="4316" %}
---
# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.
Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:
```
GET https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/data-types/string-data-types/character-sets/unicode.md?ask=
```
The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.
Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.