diff --git a/httplib.h b/httplib.h
index c52ba153..7b717de0 100644
--- a/httplib.h
+++ b/httplib.h
@@ -4993,6 +4993,7 @@ inline void SSEClient::run_event_loop() {
     SSEMessage current_msg;
     auto has_data = false;
     auto has_id = false;
+    auto first_line = true;
 
     while (running_.load() && result.next()) {
       buffer.append(result.data(), result.size());
@@ -5010,6 +5011,12 @@ inline void SSEClient::run_event_loop() {
         // one without a colon, sees the same line
         if (!line.empty() && line.back() == '\r') { line.pop_back(); }
 
+        // A UTF-8 BOM at the start of the stream is ignored per the SSE spec
+        if (first_line) {
+          first_line = false;
+          if (line.compare(0, 3, "\xEF\xBB\xBF") == 0) { line.erase(0, 3); }
+        }
+
         // Parse the line and check if event is complete
         auto event_complete = parse_sse_line(
             line, current_msg, reconnect_interval_ms_, has_data, has_id);
diff --git a/test/test.cc b/test/test.cc
index 0c3c6cd6..e5deedf0 100644
--- a/test/test.cc
+++ b/test/test.cc
@@ -22793,6 +22793,16 @@ TEST_F(SSEParsingTest, FieldNameOnlyWithCarriageReturn) {
   EXPECT_EQ(msgs[0].data, "");
 }
 
+TEST_F(SSEParsingTest, LeadingByteOrderMarkIgnored) {
+  // Only a BOM at the start of the stream is ignored
+  auto msgs = parse("\xEF\xBB\xBF"
+                    "data: first\n\n"
+                    "\xEF\xBB\xBF"
+                    "data: second\n\n");
+  ASSERT_EQ(msgs.size(), 1u);
+  EXPECT_EQ(msgs[0].data, "first");
+}
+
 TEST_F(SSEParsingTest, UnknownFieldsIgnored) {
   auto msgs = parse("unknown: value\ndata: hello\n\n");
   ASSERT_EQ(msgs.size(), 1u);