pingcap · ti-chi-bot · Nov 18, 2025 · Nov 11, 2025 · Nov 11, 2025 · Nov 11, 2025
diff --git a/TOC-tidb-cloud.md b/TOC-tidb-cloud.md
@@ -644,6 +644,7 @@
   - Character Set and Collation
     - [Overview](/character-set-and-collation.md)
     - [GBK](/character-set-gbk.md)
+    - [GB18030](/character-set-gb18030.md)
   - Read Historical Data
     - Use Stale Read (Recommended)
       - [Usage Scenarios of Stale Read](/stale-read.md)

diff --git a/TOC.md b/TOC.md
@@ -1004,6 +1004,7 @@
     - Character Set and Collation
       - [Overview](/character-set-and-collation.md)
       - [GBK](/character-set-gbk.md)
+      - [GB18030](/character-set-gb18030.md)
     - [Placement Rules in SQL](/placement-rules-in-sql.md)
     - System Tables
       - `mysql` Schema

diff --git a/br/backup-and-restore-overview.md b/br/backup-and-restore-overview.md
@@ -112,7 +112,8 @@ Backup and restore might go wrong when some TiDB features are enabled or disable
 
 | Feature | Issue | Solution |
 |  ----  | ----  | ----- |
-|GBK charset|| BR of versions earlier than v5.4.0 does not support restoring `charset=GBK` tables. No version of BR supports recovering `charset=GBK` tables to TiDB clusters earlier than v5.4.0. |
+|GBK charset|| Before v5.4.0, BR does not support restoring tables with `charset=GBK`. In addition, no version of BR supports restoring tables with `charset=GBK` to TiDB clusters earlier than v5.4.0. |
+|GB18030 charset|| Before v9.0.0, BR does not support restoring tables with `charset=GB18030`. In addition, no version of BR supports restoring tables with `charset=GB18030` to TiDB clusters earlier than v9.0.0.|
 | Clustered index | [#565](https://github.com/pingcap/br/issues/565) | Make sure that the value of the `tidb_enable_clustered_index` global variable during restore is consistent with that during backup. Otherwise, data inconsistency might occur, such as `default not found` error and inconsistent data index. |
 | New collation  | [#352](https://github.com/pingcap/br/issues/352)       | Make sure that the value of the `new_collation_enabled` variable in the `mysql.tidb` table during restore is consistent with that during backup. Otherwise, inconsistent data index might occur and checksum might fail to pass. For more information, see [FAQ - Why does BR report `new_collations_enabled_on_first_bootstrap` mismatch?](/faq/backup-and-restore-faq.md#why-is-new_collation_enabled-mismatch-reported-during-restore). |
 | Global temporary tables | | Make sure that you are using v5.3.0 or a later version of BR to back up and restore data. Otherwise, an error occurs in the definition of the backed global temporary tables. |

diff --git a/character-set-and-collation.md b/character-set-and-collation.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 title: Character Set and Collation
-summary: Learn about the supported character sets and collations in TiDB.
+summary: Learn character sets and collations supported by TiDB.
 aliases: ['/docs/dev/character-set-and-collation/','/docs/dev/reference/sql/characterset-and-collation/','/docs/dev/reference/sql/character-set/']
 ---
 
@@ -38,15 +38,15 @@ SELECT 'A' = 'a';
 SET NAMES utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
 ```
 
 ```sql
 SELECT 'A' = 'a';
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 +-----------+
 | 'A' = 'a' |
 +-----------+
@@ -98,18 +98,19 @@ Currently, TiDB supports the following character sets:
 SHOW CHARACTER SET;
 ```
 
-```sql
-+---------+-------------------------------------+-------------------+--------+
-| Charset | Description                         | Default collation | Maxlen |
-+---------+-------------------------------------+-------------------+--------+
-| ascii   | US ASCII                            | ascii_bin         |      1 |
-| binary  | binary                              | binary            |      1 |
-| gbk     | Chinese Internal Code Specification | gbk_chinese_ci    |      2 |
-| latin1  | Latin1                              | latin1_bin        |      1 |
-| utf8    | UTF-8 Unicode                       | utf8_bin          |      3 |
-| utf8mb4 | UTF-8 Unicode                       | utf8mb4_bin       |      4 |
-+---------+-------------------------------------+-------------------+--------+
-6 rows in set (0.00 sec)
+```
++---------+-------------------------------------+--------------------+--------+
+| Charset | Description                         | Default collation  | Maxlen |
++---------+-------------------------------------+--------------------+--------+
+| ascii   | US ASCII                            | ascii_bin          |      1 |
+| binary  | binary                              | binary             |      1 |
+| gb18030 | China National Standard GB18030     | gb18030_chinese_ci |      4 |
+| gbk     | Chinese Internal Code Specification | gbk_chinese_ci     |      2 |
+| latin1  | Latin1                              | latin1_bin         |      1 |
+| utf8    | UTF-8 Unicode                       | utf8_bin           |      3 |
+| utf8mb4 | UTF-8 Unicode                       | utf8mb4_bin        |      4 |
++---------+-------------------------------------+--------------------+--------+
+7 rows in set (0.000 sec)
 ```
 
 TiDB supports the following collations:
@@ -118,12 +119,14 @@ TiDB supports the following collations:
 SHOW COLLATION;
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 +--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
 | Collation          | Charset | Id  | Default | Compiled | Sortlen | Pad_attribute |
 +--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
 | ascii_bin          | ascii   |  65 | Yes     | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
 | binary             | binary  |  63 | Yes     | Yes      |       1 | NO PAD        |
+| gb18030_bin        | gb18030 | 249 |         | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
+| gb18030_chinese_ci | gb18030 | 248 | Yes     | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
 | gbk_bin            | gbk     |  87 |         | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
 | gbk_chinese_ci     | gbk     |  28 | Yes     | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
 | latin1_bin         | latin1  |  47 | Yes     | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
@@ -136,7 +139,7 @@ SHOW COLLATION;
 | utf8mb4_general_ci | utf8mb4 |  45 |         | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
 | utf8mb4_unicode_ci | utf8mb4 | 224 |         | Yes      |       8 | PAD SPACE     |
 +--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
-13 rows in set (0.00 sec)
+15 rows in set (0.000 sec)
 ```
 
 > **Warning:**
@@ -158,7 +161,7 @@ You can use the following statement to view the collations (under the [new frame
 SHOW COLLATION WHERE Charset = 'utf8mb4';
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 +--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
 | Collation          | Charset | Id  | Default | Compiled | Sortlen | Pad_attribute |
 +--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
@@ -171,7 +174,7 @@ SHOW COLLATION WHERE Charset = 'utf8mb4';
 5 rows in set (0.001 sec)
 ```
 
-For details about the TiDB support of the GBK character set, see [GBK](/character-set-gbk.md).
+For details about the GBK character set, see [The GBK Character Set](/character-set-gbk.md). For details about the GB18030 character set, see [The GB18030 Character Set](/character-set-gb18030.md).
 
 ## `utf8` and `utf8mb4` in TiDB
 
@@ -282,7 +285,7 @@ Database changed
 SELECT @@character_set_database, @@collation_database;
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 +--------------------------|----------------------+
 | @@character_set_database | @@collation_database |
 +--------------------------|----------------------+
@@ -295,7 +298,7 @@ SELECT @@character_set_database, @@collation_database;
 CREATE SCHEMA test2 CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_bin;
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.09 sec)
 ```
 
@@ -311,7 +314,7 @@ Database changed
 SELECT @@character_set_database, @@collation_database;
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 +--------------------------|----------------------+
 | @@character_set_database | @@collation_database |
 +--------------------------|----------------------+
@@ -347,7 +350,7 @@ For example:
 CREATE TABLE t1(a int) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)
 ```
 
@@ -379,7 +382,7 @@ Each string corresponds to a character set and a collation. When you use a strin
 
 Example:
 
-```sql
+```
 SELECT 'string';
 SELECT _utf8mb4'string';
 SELECT _utf8mb4'string' COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
@@ -518,7 +521,7 @@ For a TiDB cluster that is already initialized, you can check whether the new co
 SELECT VARIABLE_VALUE FROM mysql.tidb WHERE VARIABLE_NAME='new_collation_enabled';
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 +----------------+
 | VARIABLE_VALUE |
 +----------------+
@@ -535,39 +538,39 @@ This new framework supports semantically parsing collations. TiDB enables the ne
 
 </CustomContent>
 
-Under the new framework, TiDB supports the `utf8_general_ci`, `utf8mb4_general_ci`, `utf8_unicode_ci`, `utf8mb4_unicode_ci`, `utf8mb4_0900_bin`, `utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci`, `gbk_chinese_ci`, and `gbk_bin` collations, which is compatible with MySQL.
+Under the new framework, TiDB supports the `utf8_general_ci`, `utf8mb4_general_ci`, `utf8_unicode_ci`, `utf8mb4_unicode_ci`, `utf8mb4_0900_bin`, `utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci`, `gbk_chinese_ci`, `gbk_bin`, `gb18030_chinese_ci` and `gb18030_bin` collations, which is compatible with MySQL.
 
-When one of `utf8_general_ci`, `utf8mb4_general_ci`, `utf8_unicode_ci`, `utf8mb4_unicode_ci`, `utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci` and `gbk_chinese_ci` is used, the string comparison is case-insensitive and accent-insensitive. At the same time, TiDB also corrects the collation's `PADDING` behavior:
+When one of `utf8_general_ci`, `utf8mb4_general_ci`, `utf8_unicode_ci`, `utf8mb4_unicode_ci`, `utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci`, `gbk_chinese_ci` and `gb18030_chinese_ci` is used, the string comparison is case-insensitive and accent-insensitive. At the same time, TiDB also corrects the collation's `PADDING` behavior:
 
 ```sql
 CREATE TABLE t(a varchar(20) charset utf8mb4 collate utf8mb4_general_ci PRIMARY KEY);
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
 ```
 
 ```sql
 INSERT INTO t VALUES ('A');
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
 ```
 
 ```sql
 INSERT INTO t VALUES ('a');
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 ERROR 1062 (23000): Duplicate entry 'a' for key 't.PRIMARY' -- TiDB is compatible with the case-insensitive collation of MySQL.
 ```
 
 ```sql
 INSERT INTO t VALUES ('a ');
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 ERROR 1062 (23000): Duplicate entry 'a ' for key 't.PRIMARY' -- TiDB modifies the `PADDING` behavior to be compatible with MySQL.
 ```
 
@@ -604,7 +607,7 @@ TiDB supports using the `COLLATE` clause to specify the collation of an expressi
 SELECT 'a' = _utf8mb4 'A' collate utf8mb4_general_ci;
 ```
 
-```sql
+```
 +-----------------------------------------------+
 | 'a' = _utf8mb4 'A' collate utf8mb4_general_ci |
 +-----------------------------------------------+

diff --git a/character-set-gb18030.md b/character-set-gb18030.md
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+---
+title: The GB18030 Character Set
+summary: Learn the details of TiDB's support for the GB18030 character set.
+---
+
+# The GB18030 Character Set <span class="version-mark">New in v9.0.0</span>
+
+Starting from v9.0.0, TiDB supports the GB18030-2022 character set. This document describes TiDB's support for and compatibility with the GB18030 character set.
+
+```sql
+SHOW CHARACTER SET WHERE CHARSET = 'gb18030';
+```
+
+```
++---------+---------------------------------+--------------------+--------+
+| Charset | Description                     | Default collation  | Maxlen |
++---------+---------------------------------+--------------------+--------+
+| gb18030 | China National Standard GB18030 | gb18030_chinese_ci |      4 |
++---------+---------------------------------+--------------------+--------+
+1 row in set (0.01 sec)
+```
+
+```sql
+SHOW COLLATION WHERE CHARSET = 'gb18030';
+```
+
+```
++--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
+| Collation          | Charset | Id  | Default | Compiled | Sortlen | Pad_attribute |
++--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
+| gb18030_bin        | gb18030 | 249 |         | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
+| gb18030_chinese_ci | gb18030 | 248 | Yes     | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
++--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
+2 rows in set (0.001 sec)
+```
+
+## MySQL compatibility
+
+This section describes the compatibility of the GB18030 character set in TiDB with MySQL.
+
+### Collation compatibility
+
+In MySQL, the default collation for the GB18030 character set is `gb18030_chinese_ci`. In TiDB, the default collation for GB18030 depends on the configuration parameter [`new_collations_enabled_on_first_bootstrap`](https://docs.pingcap.com/tidb/stable/tidb-configuration-file/#new_collations_enabled_on_first_bootstrap):
+
+- By default, `new_collations_enabled_on_first_bootstrap` is set to `true`, which means enabling the [new collation framework](/character-set-and-collation.md#new-framework-for-collations). In this case, the default collation for GB18030 is `gb18030_chinese_ci`.
+- If `new_collations_enabled_on_first_bootstrap` is set to `false`, the new framework for collations is disabled, and the default collation for GB18030 is `gb18030_bin`.
+
+Additionally, the `gb18030_bin` supported by TiDB differs from MySQL's `gb18030_bin` collation. TiDB converts GB18030 to `utf8mb4` and then performs binary sorting.
+
+After enabling the new framework for collations, if you check the collations for the GB18030 character set, you can see that TiDB's default collation for GB18030 is switched to `gb18030_chinese_ci`:
+
+```sql
+SHOW CHARACTER SET WHERE CHARSET = 'gb18030';
+```
+
+```
++---------+---------------------------------+--------------------+--------+
+| Charset | Description                     | Default collation  | Maxlen |
++---------+---------------------------------+--------------------+--------+
+| gb18030 | China National Standard GB18030 | gb18030_chinese_ci |      4 |
++---------+---------------------------------+--------------------+--------+
+1 row in set (0.01 sec)
+```
+
+```sql
+SHOW COLLATION WHERE CHARSET = 'gb18030';
+```
+
+```
++--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
+| Collation          | Charset | Id  | Default | Compiled | Sortlen | Pad_attribute |
++--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
+| gb18030_bin        | gb18030 | 249 |         | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
+| gb18030_chinese_ci | gb18030 | 248 | Yes     | Yes      |       1 | PAD SPACE     |
++--------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
+2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
+```
+
+### Character compatibility
+
+- TiDB supports GB18030-2022 characters, while MySQL supports GB18030-2005 characters. As a result, the encoding and decoding results for certain characters differ between the two systems.
+
+- For invalid GB18030 characters, such as `0xFE39FE39`, MySQL allows writing them to the database in hexadecimal form and stores them as `?`. In TiDB, reading or writing invalid GB18030 characters in strict mode returns an error; in non-strict mode, TiDB allows reading or writing invalid GB18030 characters but returns a warning.
+
+### Others
+
+- Currently, TiDB does not support using the `ALTER TABLE` statement to convert other character sets to `gb18030`, or to convert from `gb18030` to another character set.
+
+- TiDB does not support using the `_gb18030` character set introducer. For example:
+
+    ```sql
+    CREATE TABLE t(a CHAR(10) CHARSET BINARY);
+    Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
+    INSERT INTO t VALUES (_gb18030'啊');
+    ERROR 1115 (42000): Unsupported character introducer: 'gb18030'
+    ```
+
+- For binary characters in `ENUM` and `SET` types, TiDB currently treats them as using the `utf8mb4` character set.
+
+## Component compatibility
+
+- TiFlash, TiDB Data Migration (DM), and TiCDC currently do not support the GB18030 character set.
+
+- Before v9.0.0, Dumpling does not support exporting tables with `charset=GB18030`, and TiDB Lightning does not support importing tables with `charset=GB18030`.
+
+- Before v9.0.0, TiDB Backup & Restore (BR) does not support backing up or restoring tables with `charset=GB18030`. In addition, no version of BR supports restoring tables with `charset=GB18030` to TiDB clusters earlier than v9.0.0.
+
+## See also
+
+* [`SHOW CHARACTER SET`](/sql-statements/sql-statement-show-character-set.md)
+* [Character Set and Collation](/character-set-and-collation.md)