diff --git a/doc/config.rst b/doc/config.rst
index dea8a8b38b85ac72464ca59199ec7f9968d1805f..4d43c4200faff16aeabc28f9c7540464994c2860 100644
--- a/doc/config.rst
+++ b/doc/config.rst
@@ -65,13 +65,13 @@ DATABASE_URI
   SQLAlchemy database connection URI specifying the database used to store
   users, samples, variants, etcetera.
 
-  ================   =====================================================
+  ================   =============================================================
   Database system    Example URI
-  ================   =====================================================
+  ================   =============================================================
   PostgreSQL         ``postgresql://mutalyzer:*****@localhost/mutalyzer``
-  MySQL              ``mysql://mutalyzer:*****@localhost/mutalyzer``
+  MySQL              ``mysql://mutalyzer:*****@localhost/mutalyzer?charset=utf8``
   SQLite             ``sqlite:////tmp/mutalyzer.db``
-  ================   =====================================================
+  ================   =============================================================
 
   See the SQLAlchemy documentation on
   `Engine Configuration
diff --git a/doc/install.rst b/doc/install.rst
index 3db1005f8040c33a16bebb9ae0d384778f66570e..1a9f111820126aa01f200fce50b1a26dbb0643b2 100644
--- a/doc/install.rst
+++ b/doc/install.rst
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ the Mutalyzer settings file, e.g.:
 
 .. code-block:: python
 
-    DATABASE_URI = 'mysql://mutalyzer:*****@localhost/mutalyzer'
+    DATABASE_URI = 'mysql://mutalyzer:*****@localhost/mutalyzer?charset=utf8'
 
 .. seealso::