diff --git a/backend/open_webui/main.py b/backend/open_webui/main.py
index 6250dd947e..7dc765a56c 100644
--- a/backend/open_webui/main.py
+++ b/backend/open_webui/main.py
@@ -608,7 +608,7 @@ class SPAStaticFiles(StaticFiles):
 
 
 if LOG_FORMAT != 'json':
-    print(rf"""
+    banner = rf"""
  ██████╗ ██████╗ ███████╗███╗   ██╗    ██╗    ██╗███████╗██████╗ ██╗   ██╗██╗
 ██╔═══██╗██╔══██╗██╔════╝████╗  ██║    ██║    ██║██╔════╝██╔══██╗██║   ██║██║
 ██║   ██║██████╔╝█████╗  ██╔██╗ ██║    ██║ █╗ ██║█████╗  ██████╔╝██║   ██║██║
@@ -620,7 +620,12 @@ if LOG_FORMAT != 'json':
 v{VERSION} - building the best AI user interface.
 {f'Commit: {WEBUI_BUILD_HASH}' if WEBUI_BUILD_HASH != 'dev-build' else ''}
 https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui
-""")
+"""
+    try:
+        print(banner)
+    except UnicodeEncodeError:
+        # Stdout can't encode the box-drawing banner (Windows cp1252, redirected/headless stdout); fall back to ASCII.
+        print(f'Open WebUI v{VERSION} - building the best AI user interface.\nhttps://github.com/open-webui/open-webui')
 
 
 @asynccontextmanager