diff --git a/library/init/meta/format.lean b/library/init/meta/format.lean
index 68cd7f9bcf..e10df75dd6 100644
--- a/library/init/meta/format.lean
+++ b/library/init/meta/format.lean
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ meta_definition subtype.has_to_format [instance] {A : Type} {P : A → Prop} [ha
 has_to_format.mk (λ s, to_fmt (elt_of s))
 
 meta_definition format.bracket : string → string → format → format
-| o c f := to_fmt o ++ nest (length o) f ++ to_fmt c
+| o c f := to_fmt o ++ nest (utf8_length o) f ++ to_fmt c
 
 meta_definition format.paren (f : format) : format :=
 format.bracket "(" ")" f
@@ -131,5 +131,4 @@ meta_definition format.sbracket (f : format) : format :=
 format.bracket "[" "]" f
 
 meta_definition format.dcbrace (f : format) : format :=
--- TODO(Leo): backet uses length, but ⦃ is unicode, we need a function that computes the utf8 size of a string
 to_fmt "⦃" ++ nest 1 f ++ to_fmt "⦄"
diff --git a/library/init/string.lean b/library/init/string.lean
index 65549546e6..d71de1ceab 100644
--- a/library/init/string.lean
+++ b/library/init/string.lean
@@ -18,3 +18,21 @@ end string
 
 definition string.has_append [instance] : has_append string :=
 has_append.mk string.concat
+
+open list
+
+private definition utf8_length_aux : nat → nat → string → nat
+| 0 r (c::s) :=
+  let n := char.to_nat c in
+  if                 n < 0x80 then utf8_length_aux 0 (r+1) s
+  else if 0xC0 ≤ n ∧ n < 0xE0 then utf8_length_aux 1 (r+1) s
+  else if 0xE0 ≤ n ∧ n < 0xF0 then utf8_length_aux 2 (r+1) s
+  else if 0xF0 ≤ n ∧ n < 0xF8 then utf8_length_aux 3 (r+1) s
+  else if 0xF8 ≤ n ∧ n < 0xFC then utf8_length_aux 4 (r+1) s
+  else if 0xFC ≤ n ∧ n < 0xFE then utf8_length_aux 5 (r+1) s
+  else                             utf8_length_aux 0 (r+1) s
+| (n+1) r (c::s) := utf8_length_aux n r s
+| _     r []     := r
+
+definition utf8_length : string → nat
+| s := utf8_length_aux 0 0 (reverse s)
diff --git a/tests/lean/utf8.lean b/tests/lean/utf8.lean
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..89c5f39565
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/lean/utf8.lean
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+open list
+
+vm_eval length "α₁"
+vm_eval length "α₁ → β₁"
+vm_eval length "∀ α : nat → nat, α 0 ≥ 0"
+print "------------"
+vm_eval utf8_length "α₁"
+vm_eval utf8_length "α₁ → β₁"
+vm_eval utf8_length "∀ α : nat → nat, α 0 ≥ 0"
diff --git a/tests/lean/utf8.lean.expected.out b/tests/lean/utf8.lean.expected.out
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..908d347ee2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/lean/utf8.lean.expected.out
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+5
+15
+32
+------------
+2
+7
+24