UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x92 in position 10: invalid start byte
Python read bytes that aren’t valid in the encoding it assumed (usually UTF-8).
Exact message you may see
codec can't decode byteinvalid start byteinvalid continuation byte
Seen on:
Python
Meaning
The file was saved in another encoding (Windows-1252/latin-1, UTF-16), or it’s binary. Byte 0x92 is a Windows “smart quote”; 0xff 0xfe at the start indicates UTF-16.
Common causes
- CSV exported from Excel in cp1252
- Reading a binary file in text mode
- UTF-16 file
- Default encoding differs on Windows
⚡ Quick fix
- Pass the right encoding: open(p, encoding="cp1252")
- Try encoding="utf-8-sig" for BOM files
- Use errors="replace" only when data loss is acceptable
- Open binaries with "rb"
Detailed fix by platform
Python
pd.read_csv("export.csv", encoding="cp1252")
How to diagnose
- Byte — Which byte value? (0x92/0x96 → cp1252, 0xff 0xfe → UTF-16)
- File — Text or binary?
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Last updated 15 Oct 2026