diff --git a/plugins/in_tail/tail_config.c b/plugins/in_tail/tail_config.c
index a57d1aab2b9..be28410dc4a 100644
--- a/plugins/in_tail/tail_config.c
+++ b/plugins/in_tail/tail_config.c
@@ -191,10 +191,12 @@ struct flb_tail_config *flb_tail_config_create(struct flb_input_instance *ins,
         if (strcasecmp(tmp, "auto") == 0) {
             ctx->preferred_input_encoding = FLB_SIMDUTF_ENCODING_TYPE_UNICODE_AUTO;
         }
-        else if (strcasecmp(tmp, "utf-16le") == 0) {
+        else if (strcasecmp(tmp, "utf-16le") == 0 ||
+                 strcasecmp(tmp, "utf16-le") == 0) {
             ctx->preferred_input_encoding = FLB_SIMDUTF_ENCODING_TYPE_UTF16_LE;
         }
-        else if (strcasecmp(tmp, "utf-16be") == 0) {
+        else if (strcasecmp(tmp, "utf-16be") == 0 ||
+                 strcasecmp(tmp, "utf16-be") == 0) {
             ctx->preferred_input_encoding = FLB_SIMDUTF_ENCODING_TYPE_UTF16_BE;
         }
         else {