diff --git a/src/memos/embedders/universal_api.py b/src/memos/embedders/universal_api.py
index 538d913ea..318f0ac80 100644
--- a/src/memos/embedders/universal_api.py
+++ b/src/memos/embedders/universal_api.py
@@ -14,6 +14,21 @@
 logger = get_logger(__name__)
 
 
+def _sanitize_unicode(text: str) -> str:
+    """
+    Remove Unicode surrogates and other problematic characters.
+    Surrogates (U+D800-U+DFFF) cause UnicodeEncodeError with some APIs.
+    """
+    try:
+        # Encode with 'surrogatepass' then decode, replacing invalid chars
+        cleaned = text.encode("utf-8", errors="surrogatepass").decode("utf-8", errors="replace")
+        # Replace replacement char with empty string for cleaner output
+        return cleaned.replace("\ufffd", "")
+    except Exception:
+        # Fallback: remove all non-BMP characters
+        return "".join(c for c in text if ord(c) < 0x10000)
+
+
 class UniversalAPIEmbedder(BaseEmbedder):
     def __init__(self, config: UniversalAPIEmbedderConfig):
         self.provider = config.provider
@@ -54,6 +69,8 @@ def __init__(self, config: UniversalAPIEmbedderConfig):
     def embed(self, texts: list[str]) -> list[list[float]]:
         if isinstance(texts, str):
             texts = [texts]
+        # Sanitize Unicode to prevent encoding errors with emoji/surrogates
+        texts = [_sanitize_unicode(t) for t in texts]
         # Truncate texts if max_tokens is configured
         texts = self._truncate_texts(texts)
         logger.info(f"Embeddings request with input: {texts}")
diff --git a/tests/unit/embedders/test_unicode_sanitization.py b/tests/unit/embedders/test_unicode_sanitization.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..015f0a361
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/embedders/test_unicode_sanitization.py
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+"""
+Tests for Unicode sanitization in embedders.
+"""
+
+import pytest
+
+
+def _sanitize_unicode(text: str) -> str:
+    """
+    Remove Unicode surrogates and other problematic characters.
+    Surrogates (U+D800-U+DFFF) cause UnicodeEncodeError with some APIs.
+    """
+    try:
+        # Encode with 'surrogatepass' then decode, replacing invalid chars
+        cleaned = text.encode("utf-8", errors="surrogatepass").decode("utf-8", errors="replace")
+        # Replace replacement char with empty string for cleaner output
+        return cleaned.replace("\ufffd", "")
+    except Exception:
+        # Fallback: remove all non-BMP characters
+        return "".join(c for c in text if ord(c) < 0x10000)
+
+
+class TestUnicodeSanitization:
+    """Test Unicode sanitization function."""
+
+    def test_emoji_handling(self):
+        """Test that emoji are preserved."""
+        text = "Hello 👋 world 🌍"
+        result = _sanitize_unicode(text)
+        assert "Hello" in result
+        assert "world" in result
+        # Emoji should be present (though they might be sanitized differently)
+
+    def test_surrogate_removal(self):
+        """Test that surrogates are removed."""
+        text = "Hello\ud800world"  # Surrogate in the middle
+        result = _sanitize_unicode(text)
+        assert "Hello" in result
+        assert "world" in result
+        # Surrogate should be removed
+        assert "\ud800" not in result
+
+    def test_mixed_unicode(self):
+        """Test mixed Unicode characters."""
+        text = "Test 中文 العربية Тест"
+        result = _sanitize_unicode(text)
+        assert "Test" in result
+        # International characters should be preserved
+
+    def test_empty_string(self):
+        """Test empty string handling."""
+        assert _sanitize_unicode("") == ""
+
+    def test_ascii_only(self):
+        """Test that ASCII text is unchanged."""
+        text = "Hello World 123"
+        assert _sanitize_unicode(text) == text
+
+    def test_multiple_surrogates(self):
+        """Test multiple surrogates are handled."""
+        text = "\ud800\udc00test\ud83d\ude00"
+        result = _sanitize_unicode(text)
+        assert "test" in result
+        # Should not raise UnicodeEncodeError
+
+    def test_list_of_texts(self):
+        """Test sanitizing a list of texts."""
+        texts = ["Normal text", "Emoji 👋", "Surrogate\ud800test", "Mixed 中文 🔥"]
+        results = [_sanitize_unicode(t) for t in texts]
+        assert len(results) == 4
+        assert all(isinstance(r, str) for r in results)
+
+    def test_encoding_to_utf8(self):
+        """Test that result can be encoded to UTF-8."""
+        problematic_texts = [
+            "Hello\ud800world",
+            "Test\ud83dEmoji",
+            "\ud800\udc00\ud83d\ude00",
+        ]
+        for text in problematic_texts:
+            result = _sanitize_unicode(text)
+            # Should not raise UnicodeEncodeError
+            encoded = result.encode("utf-8")
+            assert isinstance(encoded, bytes)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    pytest.main([__file__, "-v"])