diff --git a/PVE/API2/Qemu/Agent.pm b/PVE/API2/Qemu/Agent.pm
index a1aa7409..9a061914 100644
--- a/PVE/API2/Qemu/Agent.pm
+++ b/PVE/API2/Qemu/Agent.pm
@@ -473,7 +473,15 @@ __PACKAGE__->register_method({
 		type => 'string',
 		maxLength => 60*1024, # 60k, smaller than our 64k POST limit
 		description => "The content to write into the file."
-	    }
+	    },
+	    encode => {
+		type => 'boolean',
+		description => "If set the content will be encoded as base64"
+		    ." (required by QEMU). Otherwise the content needs to be encoded"
+		    ." beforehand. (Default is true)",
+		optional => 1,
+		default => 1,
+	    },
 	},
     },
     returns => { type => 'null' },
@@ -481,7 +489,15 @@ __PACKAGE__->register_method({
 	my ($param) = @_;
 
 	my $vmid = $param->{vmid};
-	my $buf = encode_base64($param->{content});
+	my $encode = $param->{encode} // 1;
+	my $buf;
+	if ($encode) {
+	    $buf = encode_base64($param->{content});
+	} else {
+	    die "content is not base64 encoded\n"
+		if $param->{content} !~ m@^(?:[A-Z0-9+/]{4})*(?:[A-Z0-9+/]{2}==|[A-Z0-9+/]{3}=)?$@mi;
+	    $buf = $param->{content};
+	}
 
 	my $qgafh = agent_cmd($vmid, "file-open",  { path => $param->{file}, mode => 'wb' }, "can't open file");
 	my $write = agent_cmd($vmid, "file-write", { handle => $qgafh, 'buf-b64' => $buf }, "can't write to file");