diff --git a/tools/shell/embedded_shell.cpp b/tools/shell/embedded_shell.cpp
index a5251cb6a90..438c15277cc 100644
--- a/tools/shell/embedded_shell.cpp
+++ b/tools/shell/embedded_shell.cpp
@@ -401,6 +401,57 @@ EmbeddedShell::EmbeddedShell(std::shared_ptr<Database> database, std::shared_ptr
     }
 }
 
+std::string decodeEscapeSequences(const std::string& input) {
+    std::regex unicodeRegex(R"(\\u([0-9A-Fa-f]{4})|\\U([0-9A-Fa-f]{8}))");
+    std::string result = input;
+    std::smatch match;
+    while (std::regex_search(result, match, unicodeRegex)) {
+        std::string codepointStr;
+        if (match[1].matched) {
+            codepointStr = match[1].str();
+        } else if (match[2].matched) {
+            codepointStr = match[2].str();
+        }
+        uint32_t codepoint = static_cast<uint32_t>(std::stoull(codepointStr, nullptr, 16));
+        if (codepoint > 0x10FFFF) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("Invalid Unicode codepoint");
+        }
+        if (codepoint == 0) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("Null character not allowed");
+        }
+        // Check for surrogate pairs
+        if (0xD800 <= codepoint && codepoint <= 0xDBFF) {
+            // High surrogate, look for the next low surrogate
+            std::smatch nextMatch;
+            std::string remainingString = result.substr(match.position() + match.length());
+            if (std::regex_search(remainingString, nextMatch, unicodeRegex)) {
+                std::string nextCodepointStr = nextMatch[1].str();
+                int nextCodepoint = std::stoi(nextCodepointStr, nullptr, 16);
+                if (0xDC00 <= nextCodepoint && nextCodepoint <= 0xDFFF) {
+                    // Valid surrogate pair
+                    codepoint = 0x10000 + ((codepoint - 0xD800) << 10) + (nextCodepoint - 0xDC00);
+                    result.replace(match.position() + match.length(), nextMatch.length(), "");
+                } else {
+                    throw std::runtime_error("Invalid surrogate pair");
+                }
+            } else {
+                throw std::runtime_error("Unmatched high surrogate");
+            }
+        }
+
+        // Convert codepoint to UTF-8
+        char utf8Char[5] = {0}; // UTF-8 characters can be up to 4 bytes + null terminator
+        int size = 0;
+        if (!Utf8Proc::codepointToUtf8(codepoint, size, utf8Char)) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("Failed to convert codepoint to UTF-8");
+        }
+
+        // Replace the escape sequence with the actual UTF-8 character
+        result.replace(match.position(), match.length(), std::string(utf8Char, size));
+    }
+    return result;
+}
+
 std::vector<std::unique_ptr<QueryResult>> EmbeddedShell::processInput(std::string input) {
     std::string query;
     std::stringstream ss;
@@ -413,13 +464,22 @@ std::vector<std::unique_ptr<QueryResult>> EmbeddedShell::processInput(std::strin
         continueLine = false;
     }
     input = input.erase(input.find_last_not_of(" \t\n\r\f\v") + 1);
+    // Decode escape sequences
+    std::string unicodeInput;
+    try {
+        unicodeInput = decodeEscapeSequences(input);
+    } catch (std::exception& e) {
+        printf("Error: %s\n", e.what());
+        historyLine = input;
+        return queryResults;
+    }
     // process shell commands
-    if (!continueLine && input[0] == ':') {
-        processShellCommands(input);
+    if (!continueLine && unicodeInput[0] == ':') {
+        processShellCommands(unicodeInput);
         // process queries
-    } else if (!input.empty() && cypherComplete((char*)input.c_str())) {
+    } else if (!unicodeInput.empty() && cypherComplete((char*)unicodeInput.c_str())) {
         ss.clear();
-        ss.str(input);
+        ss.str(unicodeInput);
         while (getline(ss, query, ';')) {
             queryResults.push_back(conn->query(query));
         }
diff --git a/tools/shell/test/test_shell_basics.py b/tools/shell/test/test_shell_basics.py
index 92e2af9ea58..72138e867f8 100644
--- a/tools/shell/test/test_shell_basics.py
+++ b/tools/shell/test/test_shell_basics.py
@@ -235,3 +235,31 @@ def test_shell_auto_completion(temp_db) -> None:
     test.send_statement("() ret\t")
     test.send_finished_statement(" *;\n")
     assert test.shell_process.expect_exact(["\u2502 coolTable \u2502", pexpect.EOF]) == 0
+
+
+def test_shell_unicode_input(temp_db) -> None:
+    test = (
+        ShellTest()
+        .add_argument(temp_db)
+        .statement('CREATE NODE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `B\\u00fccher` (title STRING, price INT64, PRIMARY KEY (title));\n') 
+        .statement("CREATE (n:`B\\u00fccher` {title: 'Der Thron der Sieben K\\00f6nigreiche'}) SET n.price = 20;\n")
+        .statement('MATCH (n:B\\u00fccher) RETURN label(n);\n')
+        .statement('return "\\uD83D\\uDE01";\n') # surrogate pair for grinning face emoji
+        .statement('return "\\U0001F601";\n') # grinning face emoji
+        .statement('return "\\uD83D";\n') #  unmatched surrogate pair
+        .statement('return "\\uDE01";\n') # unmatched surrogate pair
+        .statement('return "\\uD83D\\uDBFF";\n') # bad lower surrogate
+        .statement('return "\\u000";\n') # bad unicode codepoint
+        .statement('return "\\u0000";\n') # Null character
+        .statement('return "\\U00110000";\n') # Invalid codepoint
+    )
+    result = test.run()
+    result.check_stdout("\u2502 B\u00fccher")
+    result.check_stdout("\u2502 \U0001F601") # grinning face emoji
+    result.check_stdout("\u2502 \U0001F601") # grinning face emoji
+    result.check_stdout("Error: Unmatched high surrogate")
+    result.check_stdout("Error: Failed to convert codepoint to UTF-8")
+    result.check_stdout("Error: Invalid surrogate pair")
+    result.check_stdout("Error: Parser exception: Invalid input <return \">: expected rule oC_RegularQuery (line: 1, offset: 7)")
+    result.check_stdout("Error: Null character not allowed")
+    result.check_stdout("Error: Invalid Unicode codepoint")