Depending on the way I call a page, utf-8 does not show properly. The best way is to provide an example. Please, try this: http://www.logicamix.fm.usp.br/cgi-bin/smst_testeeutf8.cgi It is a test page in Portuguese. At the bottom part of this page there is a textarea that repeats the last entry. Just type anything that requires utf-8, send it (click [Enviar esta nota]) to store it in my database (correctly configured to utf-8) and return to the previous page by clicking [Clique aqui para voltar à tela anterior]. All characters that were displaying nicely are now messed up. Even without the source code of my cgi, You can save the page html (CTRL+U) before and after. I did so and applied Kompare to check for differences. Except for the additional entry, they are both identical ! Is ThIs a bug? I am using Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04, but this behavior reproduces in Windows and MacOS, too. Chrome shows everything correctly.