diff --git a/studio/backend/core/inference/tools.py b/studio/backend/core/inference/tools.py
index 8f9241d51f..9f2e7a0f62 100644
--- a/studio/backend/core/inference/tools.py
+++ b/studio/backend/core/inference/tools.py
@@ -3602,6 +3602,15 @@ _BINARY_MAGIC = (
     b"\x28\xb5\x2f\xfd",  # zstd
 )
 
+# Check UTF-32 first because its little-endian BOM starts with the UTF-16 BOM.
+_UNICODE_BOM_CODECS = (
+    (codecs.BOM_UTF32_LE, "utf-32"),
+    (codecs.BOM_UTF32_BE, "utf-32"),
+    (codecs.BOM_UTF16_LE, "utf-16"),
+    (codecs.BOM_UTF16_BE, "utf-16"),
+    (codecs.BOM_UTF8, "utf-8-sig"),
+)
+
 # A cp1252 retry needs 75% ASCII structure so it cannot rescue high-byte binary.
 _MIN_SINGLE_BYTE_ASCII_RATIO = 3 / 4
 _ASCII_TEXT_BYTES = frozenset((*range(0x20, 0x7F), 0x09, 0x0A, 0x0D, 0x1B))
@@ -3616,7 +3625,11 @@ def _looks_binary(text: str) -> bool:
 
 def _has_binary_magic(data: bytes) -> bool:
     """Whether a common binary signature follows optional BOM or whitespace."""
-    head = data[:1024].lstrip().removeprefix(b"\xef\xbb\xbf").lstrip()
+    head = data[:1024].lstrip()
+    for bom, _codec in _UNICODE_BOM_CODECS:
+        if head.startswith(bom):
+            head = head.removeprefix(bom).lstrip()
+            break
     return head.startswith(_BINARY_MAGIC)
 
 
@@ -3858,7 +3871,11 @@ def _fetch_page_text(
 
         declared = resp.headers.get_content_charset()
         declared_codec = codecs.lookup(declared).name if declared else None
-        raw_html = raw_bytes.decode(declared or "utf-8", errors = "replace")
+        bom_codec = next(
+            (codec for bom, codec in _UNICODE_BOM_CODECS if raw_bytes.startswith(bom)),
+            None,
+        )
+        raw_html = raw_bytes.decode(declared or bom_codec or "utf-8", errors = "replace")
 
         # Catch mislabeled or unlabeled binary, including valid UTF-8 controls.
         if _looks_binary(raw_html):
diff --git a/studio/backend/tests/test_web_fetch_binary_guard.py b/studio/backend/tests/test_web_fetch_binary_guard.py
index 411db2276f..57159c024f 100644
--- a/studio/backend/tests/test_web_fetch_binary_guard.py
+++ b/studio/backend/tests/test_web_fetch_binary_guard.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import codecs
 import sys
 from email.message import Message
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -122,6 +123,23 @@ def test_excel_labeled_csv_kept_after_sniffing(monkeypatch):
     assert "binary content" not in out
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "bom,encoding",
+    [
+        (codecs.BOM_UTF16_LE, "utf-16-le"),
+        (codecs.BOM_UTF16_BE, "utf-16-be"),
+        (codecs.BOM_UTF32_LE, "utf-32-le"),
+        (codecs.BOM_UTF32_BE, "utf-32-be"),
+    ],
+)
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("content_type", ["text/plain", "application/vnd.ms-excel"])
+def test_bom_unicode_text_without_charset_kept(monkeypatch, bom, encoding, content_type):
+    body = bom + ("name,value\nreadable,42\n" * 100).encode(encoding)
+    out = _fetch_with(monkeypatch, body, content_type)
+    assert "readable" in out
+    assert "binary content" not in out
+
+
 def test_valid_utf8_binary_caught_by_control_chars(monkeypatch):
     # These controls are valid UTF-8 and therefore produce no replacement chars.
     body = bytes([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]) * 400
@@ -146,7 +164,18 @@ def test_text_labeled_binary_caught_by_magic(monkeypatch, magic):
     assert "binary content" in out
 
 
-@pytest.mark.parametrize("prefix", [b"\xef\xbb\xbf", b" \r\n", b"\t\xef\xbb\xbf "])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "prefix",
+    [
+        codecs.BOM_UTF8,
+        codecs.BOM_UTF16_LE,
+        codecs.BOM_UTF16_BE,
+        codecs.BOM_UTF32_LE,
+        codecs.BOM_UTF32_BE,
+        b" \r\n",
+        b"\t\xef\xbb\xbf ",
+    ],
+)
 def test_pdf_magic_after_harmless_prefix(monkeypatch, prefix):
     body = prefix + b"%PDF-1.7\n" + b"1 0 obj<</Type/Catalog>>endobj\n" * 100
     out = _fetch_with(monkeypatch, body, "text/plain")