diff --git a/extra/grpc/autogptq/autogptq.py b/extra/grpc/autogptq/autogptq.py
index fe1fba90..bcc4e14d 100755
--- a/extra/grpc/autogptq/autogptq.py
+++ b/extra/grpc/autogptq/autogptq.py
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ class BackendServicer(backend_pb2_grpc.BackendServicer):
             top_p=top_p,
             repetition_penalty=penalty,
             )
-        return backend_pb2.Result(message=bytes(pipeline(request.Prompt)[0]["generated_text"]))
+        return backend_pb2.Result(message=bytes(pipeline(request.Prompt)[0]["generated_text"], encoding='utf-8'))
 
     def PredictStream(self, request, context):
         # Implement PredictStream RPC