diff --git a/python/rnet/__init__.pyi b/python/rnet/__init__.pyi
index 836d68db..2b753044 100644
--- a/python/rnet/__init__.pyi
+++ b/python/rnet/__init__.pyi
@@ -391,14 +391,9 @@ class Response:
         Get the response into a `Streamer` of `bytes` from the body.
         """
 
-    async def text(self) -> str:
+    async def text(self, encoding: str | None = None) -> str:
         r"""
-        Get the text content of the response.
-        """
-
-    async def text_with_charset(self, encoding: str) -> str:
-        r"""
-        Get the full response text given a specific encoding.
+        Get the text content with the response encoding, defaulting to utf-8 when unspecified.
         """
 
     async def json(self) -> Any:
diff --git a/python/rnet/blocking.py b/python/rnet/blocking.py
index 58f4a0eb..837f06fd 100644
--- a/python/rnet/blocking.py
+++ b/python/rnet/blocking.py
@@ -88,15 +88,9 @@ def stream(self) -> Streamer:
         """
         ...
 
-    def text(self) -> str:
+    def text(self, encoding: str | None = None) -> str:
         r"""
-        Get the text content of the response.
-        """
-        ...
-
-    def text_with_charset(self, encoding: str) -> str:
-        r"""
-        Get the full response text given a specific encoding.
+        Get the text content with the response encoding, defaulting to utf-8 when unspecified.
         """
         ...
 
diff --git a/src/client/resp/ext.rs b/src/client/resp/ext.rs
index 95cfd0ee..05b9a390 100644
--- a/src/client/resp/ext.rs
+++ b/src/client/resp/ext.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 use bytes::Bytes;
+use pyo3::pybacked::PyBackedStr;
 
 use crate::error::Error;
 
@@ -8,11 +9,8 @@ use crate::error::Error;
 /// This trait wraps the underlying [`wreq::Response`] methods and converts their errors to our
 /// custom `Error` type.
 pub trait ResponseExt {
-    /// Returns an error if the body cannot be decoded as valid UTF-8.
-    async fn text(self) -> Result<String, Error>;
-
     /// Returns an error if the encoding is unsupported or decoding fails.
-    async fn text_with_charset(self, encoding: impl AsRef<str>) -> Result<String, Error>;
+    async fn text(self, encoding: Option<PyBackedStr>) -> Result<String, Error>;
 
     /// Returns an error if the body is not valid JSON or cannot be deserialized into `T`.
     async fn json<T: serde::de::DeserializeOwned>(self) -> Result<T, Error>;
@@ -23,15 +21,12 @@ pub trait ResponseExt {
 
 impl ResponseExt for wreq::Response {
     #[inline]
-    async fn text(self) -> Result<String, Error> {
-        self.text().await.map_err(Error::Library)
-    }
-
-    #[inline]
-    async fn text_with_charset(self, encoding: impl AsRef<str>) -> Result<String, Error> {
-        self.text_with_charset(encoding)
-            .await
-            .map_err(Error::Library)
+    async fn text(self, encoding: Option<PyBackedStr>) -> Result<String, Error> {
+        match encoding {
+            Some(encoding) => self.text_with_charset(encoding).await,
+            None => self.text().await,
+        }
+        .map_err(Error::Library)
     }
 
     #[inline]
diff --git a/src/client/resp/http.rs b/src/client/resp/http.rs
index c7a04bd2..9ed82819 100644
--- a/src/client/resp/http.rs
+++ b/src/client/resp/http.rs
@@ -219,27 +219,17 @@ impl Response {
             .map_err(Into::into)
     }
 
-    /// Get the text content of the response.
-    pub async fn text(&self, #[pyo3(cancel_handle)] cancel: CancelHandle) -> PyResult<String> {
-        let fut = self
-            .clone()
-            .cache_response()
-            .and_then(ResponseExt::text)
-            .map_err(Into::into);
-        NoGIL::new(fut, cancel).await
-    }
-
-    /// Get the full response text given a specific encoding.
-    #[pyo3(signature = (encoding))]
-    pub async fn text_with_charset(
+    /// Get the text content with the response encoding, defaulting to utf-8 when unspecified.
+    #[pyo3(signature = (encoding = None))]
+    pub async fn text(
         &self,
         #[pyo3(cancel_handle)] cancel: CancelHandle,
-        encoding: PyBackedStr,
+        encoding: Option<PyBackedStr>,
     ) -> PyResult<String> {
         let fut = self
             .clone()
             .cache_response()
-            .and_then(|resp| ResponseExt::text_with_charset(resp, encoding))
+            .and_then(|resp| ResponseExt::text(resp, encoding))
             .map_err(Into::into);
         NoGIL::new(fut, cancel).await
     }
@@ -392,28 +382,15 @@ impl BlockingResponse {
         self.0.stream()
     }
 
-    /// Get the text content of the response.
-    pub fn text(&self, py: Python) -> PyResult<String> {
-        py.detach(|| {
-            let fut = self
-                .0
-                .clone()
-                .cache_response()
-                .and_then(ResponseExt::text)
-                .map_err(Into::into);
-            pyo3_async_runtimes::tokio::get_runtime().block_on(fut)
-        })
-    }
-
-    /// Get the full response text given a specific encoding.
-    #[pyo3(signature = (encoding))]
-    pub fn text_with_charset(&self, py: Python, encoding: PyBackedStr) -> PyResult<String> {
+    /// Get the text content with the response encoding, defaulting to utf-8 when unspecified.
+    #[pyo3(signature = (encoding = None))]
+    pub fn text(&self, py: Python, encoding: Option<PyBackedStr>) -> PyResult<String> {
         py.detach(|| {
             let fut = self
                 .0
                 .clone()
                 .cache_response()
-                .and_then(|resp| ResponseExt::text_with_charset(resp, encoding))
+                .and_then(|resp| ResponseExt::text(resp, encoding))
                 .map_err(Into::into);
             pyo3_async_runtimes::tokio::get_runtime().block_on(fut)
         })