diff --git a/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_db_instance.go b/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_db_instance.go
index 55eb85cd9..9af762f48 100644
--- a/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_db_instance.go
+++ b/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_db_instance.go
@@ -66,6 +66,13 @@ func resourceAwsDbInstance() *schema.Resource {
 				Computed: true,
 			},
 
+			"character_set_name": &schema.Schema{
+				Type:     schema.TypeString,
+				Optional: true,
+				Computed: true,
+				ForceNew: true,
+			},
+
 			"storage_encrypted": &schema.Schema{
 				Type:     schema.TypeBool,
 				Optional: true,
@@ -504,6 +511,10 @@ func resourceAwsDbInstanceCreate(d *schema.ResourceData, meta interface{}) error
 
 		}
 
+		if attr, ok := d.GetOk("character_set_name"); ok {
+			opts.CharacterSetName = aws.String(attr.(string))
+		}
+
 		if attr, ok := d.GetOk("maintenance_window"); ok {
 			opts.PreferredMaintenanceWindow = aws.String(attr.(string))
 		}
@@ -651,6 +662,10 @@ func resourceAwsDbInstanceRead(d *schema.ResourceData, meta interface{}) error {
 		d.Set("db_subnet_group_name", v.DBSubnetGroup.DBSubnetGroupName)
 	}
 
+	if v.CharacterSetName != nil {
+		d.Set("character_set_name", v.CharacterSetName)
+	}
+
 	if len(v.DBParameterGroups) > 0 {
 		d.Set("parameter_group_name", v.DBParameterGroups[0].DBParameterGroupName)
 	}
diff --git a/website/source/docs/providers/aws/r/db_instance.html.markdown b/website/source/docs/providers/aws/r/db_instance.html.markdown
index 05b72191f..c25f345c1 100644
--- a/website/source/docs/providers/aws/r/db_instance.html.markdown
+++ b/website/source/docs/providers/aws/r/db_instance.html.markdown
@@ -98,11 +98,13 @@ database, and to use this value as the source database. This correlates to the
 * `license_model` - (Optional, but required for some DB engines, i.e. Oracle SE1) License model information for this DB instance.
 * `auto_minor_version_upgrade` - (Optional) Indicates that minor engine upgrades will be applied automatically to the DB instance during the maintenance window. Defaults to true.
 * `allow_major_version_upgrade` - (Optional) Indicates that major version upgrades are allowed. Changing this parameter does not result in an outage and the change is asynchronously applied as soon as possible.
-* `monitoring_role_arn` - (Optional) The ARN for the IAM role that permits RDS to send 
-enhanced monitoring metrics to CloudWatch Logs. You can find more information on the [AWS Documentation](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_Monitoring.html) 
+* `monitoring_role_arn` - (Optional) The ARN for the IAM role that permits RDS to send
+enhanced monitoring metrics to CloudWatch Logs. You can find more information on the [AWS Documentation](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_Monitoring.html)
 what IAM permissions are needed to allow Enhanced Monitoring for RDS Instances.
 * `monitoring_interval` - (Optional) The interval, in seconds, between points when Enhanced Monitoring metrics are collected for the DB instance. To disable collecting Enhanced Monitoring metrics, specify 0. The default is 0. Valid Values: 0, 1, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60.
-* `kms_key_id` - (Optional) The ARN for the KMS encryption key. 
+* `kms_key_id` - (Optional) The ARN for the KMS encryption key.
+* `character_set_name` - (Optional) The character set name to use for DB encoding in Oracle instances. This can't be changed.
+[Oracle Character Sets Supported in Amazon RDS](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/Appendix.OracleCharacterSets.html)
 * `tags` - (Optional) A mapping of tags to assign to the resource.
 
 ~> **NOTE:** Removing the `replicate_source_db` attribute from an existing RDS
@@ -132,5 +134,9 @@ The following attributes are exported:
 * `username` - The master username for the database
 * `storage_encrypted` - Specifies whether the DB instance is encrypted
 
+On Oracle instances the following is exported additionally:
+
+* `character_set_name` - The character set used on Oracle instances.
+
 [1]: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/Overview.Replication.html
 [2]: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/fr_fr/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_UpgradeDBInstance.Maintenance.html