diff --git a/spec/text-editor-component-spec.js b/spec/text-editor-component-spec.js
index 2d58a291d..5020e82b8 100644
--- a/spec/text-editor-component-spec.js
+++ b/spec/text-editor-component-spec.js
@@ -421,6 +421,15 @@ describe('TextEditorComponent', () => {
       await component.getNextUpdatePromise()
       expect(element.dataset.grammar).toBe('source js')
     })
+
+    it('adds the data-encoding attribute and updates it when the encoding changes', async () => {
+      const {editor, element, component} = buildComponent()
+      expect(element.dataset.encoding).toBe('utf8')
+
+      editor.setEncoding('ascii')
+      await component.getNextUpdatePromise()
+      expect(element.dataset.encoding).toBe('ascii')
+    })
   })
 
   describe('mini editors', () => {
diff --git a/src/text-editor-component.js b/src/text-editor-component.js
index 60c1e2ea2..15ec36541 100644
--- a/src/text-editor-component.js
+++ b/src/text-editor-component.js
@@ -361,7 +361,7 @@ class TextEditorComponent {
       className = className + ' mini'
     }
 
-    const dataset = {}
+    const dataset = {encoding: model.getEncoding()}
     const grammar = model.getGrammar()
     if (grammar && grammar.scopeName) {
       dataset.grammar = grammar.scopeName.replace(/\./g, ' ')