diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 273d461..89dfccd 100755
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -295,6 +295,10 @@ These are the available config options for making requests. Only the `url` is re
   // options are 'arraybuffer', 'blob', 'document', 'json', 'text', 'stream'
   responseType: 'json', // default
 
+  // `responseEncoding` indicates encoding to use for decoding responses
+  // Note: Ignored for `responseType` of 'stream' or client-side requests
+  responseEncoding: 'utf8', // default
+
   // `xsrfCookieName` is the name of the cookie to use as a value for xsrf token
   xsrfCookieName: 'XSRF-TOKEN', // default
 
diff --git a/lib/adapters/http.js b/lib/adapters/http.js
index 0255d47..f081d49 100755
--- a/lib/adapters/http.js
+++ b/lib/adapters/http.js
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ module.exports = function httpAdapter(config) {
         stream.on('end', function handleStreamEnd() {
           var responseData = Buffer.concat(responseBuffer);
           if (config.responseType !== 'arraybuffer') {
-            responseData = responseData.toString('utf8');
+            responseData = responseData.toString(config.responseEncoding);
           }
 
           response.data = responseData;