diff --git a/oracletrace/compare.py b/oracletrace/compare.py
index 1656235..15eeb2f 100644
--- a/oracletrace/compare.py
+++ b/oracletrace/compare.py
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
-from .tracer import TracerData, FunctionData
+from .tracer import TracerData, FunctionData, _safe_char
 from rich import print
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Set, Optional
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 
+_ARROW = _safe_char("→", "->")
+
 @dataclass
 class RegressionData:
     name: str
@@ -59,7 +61,7 @@ def compare_traces(
 
         print(
             f"{name}\n"
-            f"    total_time: {old_time:.4f}s → {new_time:.4f}s "
+            f"    total_time: {old_time:.4f}s {_ARROW} {new_time:.4f}s "
             f"[{color}]({percent:+.2f}%)[/]\n"
         ) if not show_only_regressions or percent > threshold else ...
         
diff --git a/oracletrace/tracer.py b/oracletrace/tracer.py
index 7297725..cfff533 100644
--- a/oracletrace/tracer.py
+++ b/oracletrace/tracer.py
@@ -18,6 +18,21 @@
 ProfileEvent: TypeAlias = Literal["call", "return", "c_call", "c_return", "c_exception"]
 ProfileFunction: TypeAlias = Callable[[FrameType, ProfileEvent, Any], object]
 
+
+def _safe_char(preferred: str, fallback: str) -> str:
+    # Use the unicode char only when stdout can actually encode it —
+    # piped output on Windows is often cp1252, where rich raises
+    # UnicodeEncodeError and the whole run crashes after tracing finished
+    enc = getattr(sys.stdout, "encoding", None) or "utf-8"
+    try:
+        preferred.encode(enc)
+        return preferred
+    except (UnicodeEncodeError, LookupError):
+        return fallback
+
+
+_CYCLE = _safe_char("↻", "@")
+
 @dataclass
 class TracerMetadata:
     root_path: str
@@ -271,7 +286,7 @@ def add_nodes(parent_node: Tree, parent_key: str, current_path: set[str]) -> Non
                 _total_time = self._func_time[child_key]
                 # Detect recursion to prevent infinite loops in the tree
                 if child_key in current_path:
-                    parent_node.add(f"[red]↻ {child_key}[/] ({count}x)")
+                    parent_node.add(f"[red]{_CYCLE} {child_key}[/] ({count}x)")
                     continue
 
                 node_text = f"{child_key} [dim]({count}x, {_total_time:.4f}s)[/]"
diff --git a/tests/test_encoding.py b/tests/test_encoding.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dcef7f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_encoding.py
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+import os
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import tempfile
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from oracletrace.tracer import _safe_char
+
+REPO_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
+
+RECURSIVE_SCRIPT = """\
+def rec(n):
+    if n:
+        rec(n - 1)
+
+def main():
+    rec(3)
+
+main()
+"""
+
+
+class _FakeStdout:
+    def __init__(self, encoding):
+        self.encoding = encoding
+
+
+def test_safe_char_keeps_unicode_when_encodable(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(sys, "stdout", _FakeStdout("utf-8"))
+    assert _safe_char("↻", "@") == "↻"
+
+
+def test_safe_char_falls_back_on_cp1252(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(sys, "stdout", _FakeStdout("cp1252"))
+    assert _safe_char("↻", "@") == "@"
+    assert _safe_char("→", "->") == "->"
+
+
+def test_safe_char_survives_missing_encoding(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(sys, "stdout", _FakeStdout(None))
+    assert _safe_char("→", "->") == "→"  # falls back to utf-8
+
+
+def test_piped_cp1252_output_does_not_crash():
+    # Piped output on Windows often defaults to cp1252, which cannot encode
+    # the recursion marker in the call tree; the run then dies with
+    # UnicodeEncodeError AFTER tracing succeeded. Forced via PYTHONIOENCODING
+    # so the regression is caught on any platform.
+    env = {
+        **os.environ,
+        "PYTHONPATH": str(REPO_ROOT),
+        "PYTHONIOENCODING": "cp1252",
+    }
+    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(dir=REPO_ROOT) as tmp:
+        script = Path(tmp) / "script.py"
+        script.write_text(RECURSIVE_SCRIPT, encoding="utf-8")
+        result = subprocess.run(
+            [sys.executable, "-m", "oracletrace", "script.py"],
+            capture_output=True,
+            text=True,
+            cwd=tmp,
+            env=env,
+        )
+    assert result.returncode == 0, result.stderr
+    assert "UnicodeEncodeError" not in result.stderr
+    assert "rec" in result.stdout