diff --git a/src/python/library/tritonclient/http/_utils.py b/src/python/library/tritonclient/http/_utils.py
index 9d6b69fd4..2098a48bc 100755
--- a/src/python/library/tritonclient/http/_utils.py
+++ b/src/python/library/tritonclient/http/_utils.py
@@ -153,4 +153,4 @@ def _get_inference_request(
         )
         return request_body, json_size
 
-    return request_body, None
+    return request_body.encode(), None