remember to require mysql gem first require "rubygems" require 'mysql' with MySQL 5.1 db = Mysql.init db.options(Mysql::SET_CHARSET_NAME,"utf8") db.real_connect("localhost", "username", "password", "database") with MySQL 5.5 db = Mysql.real_connect("localhost", "username", "password", "database") db.charset = "utf8" check the result: puts db.character_set_name If you got utf8 , Congratulations!