diff --git a/lib/internal/fs/promises.js b/lib/internal/fs/promises.js
index a80a5283c52e3c..97ac4c6c495b3d 100644
--- a/lib/internal/fs/promises.js
+++ b/lib/internal/fs/promises.js
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ async function readFileHandle(filehandle, options) {
   }
 
   if (size === 0)
-    return Buffer.alloc(0);
+    return options.encoding ? '' : Buffer.alloc(0);
 
   if (size > kMaxLength)
     throw new ERR_FS_FILE_TOO_LARGE(size);
@@ -459,11 +459,12 @@ async function appendFile(path, data, options) {
 
 async function readFile(path, options) {
   options = getOptions(options, { flag: 'r' });
+  const flag = options.flag || 'r';
 
   if (path instanceof FileHandle)
     return readFileHandle(path, options);
 
-  const fd = await open(path, options.flag, 0o666);
+  const fd = await open(path, flag, 0o666);
   return readFileHandle(fd, options).finally(fd.close.bind(fd));
 }
 
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-fs-promises-readfile-empty.js b/test/parallel/test-fs-promises-readfile-empty.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..24c17655c62135
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-fs-promises-readfile-empty.js
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+'use strict';
+const common = require('../common');
+
+const assert = require('assert');
+const { promises: fs } = require('fs');
+const fixtures = require('../common/fixtures');
+
+const fn = fixtures.path('empty.txt');
+
+common.crashOnUnhandledRejection();
+
+fs.readFile(fn)
+  .then(assert.ok);
+
+fs.readFile(fn, 'utf8')
+  .then(assert.strictEqual.bind(this, ''));
+
+fs.readFile(fn, { encoding: 'utf8' })
+  .then(assert.strictEqual.bind(this, ''));
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-fs-readfile-empty.js b/test/parallel/test-fs-readfile-empty.js
index 21f99fc6be24ba..36eccfb1162713 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-fs-readfile-empty.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-fs-readfile-empty.js
@@ -38,5 +38,9 @@ fs.readFile(fn, 'utf8', function(err, data) {
   assert.strictEqual('', data);
 });
 
+fs.readFile(fn, { encoding: 'utf8' }, function(err, data) {
+  assert.strictEqual('', data);
+});
+
 assert.ok(fs.readFileSync(fn));
 assert.strictEqual('', fs.readFileSync(fn, 'utf8'));