diff --git a/src/lib/commands/resolve-input.ts b/src/lib/commands/resolve-input.ts
index 0fd04769e..e849e1f95 100644
--- a/src/lib/commands/resolve-input.ts
+++ b/src/lib/commands/resolve-input.ts
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ export async function getInputOverride(
 					inputFlag.startsWith('./') ||
 					inputFlag.startsWith('../') ||
 					// Home directory access
-					inputFlag.includes('~') ||
+					inputFlag.startsWith('~') ||
 					// Windows-style path access
 					inputFlag.startsWith('.\\') ||
 					inputFlag.startsWith('..\\');
diff --git a/test/e2e/commands/actor/run-input.test.ts b/test/e2e/commands/actor/run-input.test.ts
index 9a270d4f0..6de91bbc2 100644
--- a/test/e2e/commands/actor/run-input.test.ts
+++ b/test/e2e/commands/actor/run-input.test.ts
@@ -43,6 +43,17 @@ describe('[e2e] actor run input', () => {
 			expect(run.input).toEqual({ foo: 'bar' });
 		});
 
+		it('passes JSON string containing ~ to the actor', async () => {
+			const result = await runCli('apify', ['run', '--input={"standbyActorId":"some-user~some-actor"}'], {
+				cwd: actor.dir,
+			});
+
+			expect(result.exitCode, `stderr: ${result.stderr}`).toBe(0);
+			const run = await getRunResults(actor.dir);
+			expect(run.started).toBe(true);
+			expect(run.input).toEqual({ standbyActorId: 'some-user~some-actor' });
+		});
+
 		it('suggests --input-file when given a file path', async () => {
 			const result = await runCli('apify', ['run', '--input=./my-path/file.json'], { cwd: actor.dir });
 
diff --git a/test/local/lib/resolve-input.test.ts b/test/local/lib/resolve-input.test.ts
index 0213865f4..bad4e428f 100644
--- a/test/local/lib/resolve-input.test.ts
+++ b/test/local/lib/resolve-input.test.ts
@@ -52,4 +52,43 @@ describe('getInputOverride', () => {
 		expect(stderr).toContain('It should be an object, not an array.');
 		expect(stderr).toContain(SCHEMA_HINT);
 	});
+
+	it.each([
+		['actor ID separator', '{"standbyActorId":"some-user~some-actor"}', { standbyActorId: 'some-user~some-actor' }],
+		['object key', '{"some~key":"value"}', { 'some~key': 'value' }],
+		[
+			'nested object and array values',
+			'{"actor":{"id":"some-user~some-actor"},"aliases":["one~two"]}',
+			{ actor: { id: 'some-user~some-actor' }, aliases: ['one~two'] },
+		],
+	])('accepts inline JSON containing ~ in %s', async (_description, inputFlag, expectedInput) => {
+		const result = await getInputOverride(process.cwd(), inputFlag, undefined);
+
+		expect(result).toEqual({
+			input: expectedInput,
+			source: 'input',
+		});
+		expect(process.exitCode).toBeUndefined();
+	});
+
+	it('reports malformed inline JSON containing ~ as a JSON parse error', async () => {
+		const result = await getInputOverride(process.cwd(), '{"standbyActorId":"some-user~some-actor"', undefined);
+
+		expect(result).toBe(false);
+		expect(process.exitCode).toBe(CommandExitCodes.InvalidInput);
+		const stderr = logMessages.error.join('\n');
+		expect(stderr).toContain('Cannot parse JSON input.');
+		expect(stderr).not.toContain('Use the "--input-file=" flag instead');
+	});
+
+	it.each(['~/input.json', '~some-user/input.json'])(
+		'still rejects a home-directory path starting with ~: %s',
+		async (inputFlag) => {
+			const result = await getInputOverride(process.cwd(), inputFlag, undefined);
+
+			expect(result).toBe(false);
+			expect(process.exitCode).toBe(CommandExitCodes.InvalidInput);
+			expect(logMessages.error.join('\n')).toContain('Use the "--input-file=" flag instead');
+		},
+	);
 });