--- a/src/whisper.cpp
+++ b/src/whisper.cpp
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 #include <cstdio>
 #include <cstring>
 #include <fstream>
+#include <filesystem>
 #include <functional>
 #include <map>
 #include <random>
@@ -3730,13 +3731,7 @@
 struct whisper_context * whisper_init_from_file_with_params_no_state(const char * path_model, struct whisper_context_params params) {
     WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: loading model from '%s'\n", __func__, path_model);
-#ifdef _MSC_VER
-    // Convert UTF-8 path to wide string (UTF-16) for Windows, resolving character encoding issues.
-    std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>> converter;
-    std::wstring path_model_wide = converter.from_bytes(path_model);
-    auto fin = std::ifstream(path_model_wide, std::ios::binary);
-#else
-    auto fin = std::ifstream(path_model, std::ios::binary);
-#endif
+    // C++17 u8path preserves supplementary Unicode on Windows and UTF-8 elsewhere.
+    auto fin = std::ifstream(std::filesystem::u8path(path_model), std::ios::binary);
     if (!fin) {
         WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: failed to open '%s'\n", __func__, path_model);
         return nullptr;
@@ -4877,13 +4871,8 @@
         const char * path_model,
         struct whisper_vad_context_params params) {
     WHISPER_LOG_INFO("%s: loading VAD model from '%s'\n", __func__, path_model);
-#ifdef _MSC_VER
-    std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>> converter;
-    std::wstring path_model_wide = converter.from_bytes(path_model);
-    auto fin = std::ifstream(path_model_wide, std::ios::binary);
-#else
-    auto fin = std::ifstream(path_model, std::ios::binary);
-#endif
+    // Same strict UTF-8 path contract as the base recognizer.
+    auto fin = std::ifstream(std::filesystem::u8path(path_model), std::ios::binary);
     if (!fin) {
         WHISPER_LOG_ERROR("%s: failed to open VAD model '%s'\n", __func__, path_model);
         return nullptr;