diff --git a/python/src/com/jetbrains/python/codeInsight/intentions/ConvertFormatOperatorToMethodIntention.java b/python/src/com/jetbrains/python/codeInsight/intentions/ConvertFormatOperatorToMethodIntention.java
index 8497b223d73b..67323df5896e 100644
--- a/python/src/com/jetbrains/python/codeInsight/intentions/ConvertFormatOperatorToMethodIntention.java
+++ b/python/src/com/jetbrains/python/codeInsight/intentions/ConvertFormatOperatorToMethodIntention.java
@@ -285,7 +285,9 @@ public class ConvertFormatOperatorToMethodIntention extends PyBaseIntentionActio
     final PyType rhsType = context.getType(rhs);
     String prefix = "";
     final LanguageLevel languageLevel = guessLanguageLevel(project);
-    if (!languageLevel.isPy3K() && PyTypeChecker.match(PyBuiltinCache.getInstance(rhs).getObjectType("unicode"), rhsType, context)) {
+    final PyBuiltinCache builtinCache = PyBuiltinCache.getInstance(rhs);
+    if (!languageLevel.isPy3K() && PyTypeChecker.match(builtinCache.getUnicodeType(languageLevel), rhsType, context) &&
+        !PyTypeChecker.match(builtinCache.getBytesType(languageLevel), rhsType, context)) {
       prefix = "u";
     }
     final PyStringLiteralExpression leftExpression = (PyStringLiteralExpression)element.getLeftExpression();