diff --git a/absl/strings/internal/utf8.cc b/absl/strings/internal/utf8.cc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82d36c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/absl/strings/internal/utf8.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+// Copyright 2017 The Abseil Authors.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//      https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+// UTF8 utilities, implemented to reduce dependencies.
+
+#include "absl/strings/internal/utf8.h"
+
+namespace absl {
+namespace strings_internal {
+
+size_t EncodeUTF8Char(char *buffer, char32_t utf8_char) {
+  if (utf8_char <= 0x7F) {
+    *buffer = static_cast<char>(utf8_char);
+    return 1;
+  } else if (utf8_char <= 0x7FF) {
+    buffer[1] = 0x80 | (utf8_char & 0x3F);
+    utf8_char >>= 6;
+    buffer[0] = 0xC0 | utf8_char;
+    return 2;
+  } else if (utf8_char <= 0xFFFF) {
+    buffer[2] = 0x80 | (utf8_char & 0x3F);
+    utf8_char >>= 6;
+    buffer[1] = 0x80 | (utf8_char & 0x3F);
+    utf8_char >>= 6;
+    buffer[0] = 0xE0 | utf8_char;
+    return 3;
+  } else {
+    buffer[3] = 0x80 | (utf8_char & 0x3F);
+    utf8_char >>= 6;
+    buffer[2] = 0x80 | (utf8_char & 0x3F);
+    utf8_char >>= 6;
+    buffer[1] = 0x80 | (utf8_char & 0x3F);
+    utf8_char >>= 6;
+    buffer[0] = 0xF0 | utf8_char;
+    return 4;
+  }
+}
+
+}  // namespace strings_internal
+}  // namespace absl