diff --git a/router/src/lib.rs b/router/src/lib.rs
index fc5670a0..07360e78 100644
--- a/router/src/lib.rs
+++ b/router/src/lib.rs
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ pub struct HubTokenizerConfig {
 }
 
 impl HubTokenizerConfig {
-    pub fn from_file(filename: &str) -> Self {
+    pub fn from_file(filename: &std::path::Path) -> Self {
         let content = std::fs::read_to_string(filename).unwrap();
         serde_json::from_str(&content).unwrap_or_default()
     }
diff --git a/router/src/main.rs b/router/src/main.rs
index 495fd5bc..9afa5727 100644
--- a/router/src/main.rs
+++ b/router/src/main.rs
@@ -156,9 +156,14 @@ async fn main() -> Result<(), RouterError> {
 
     // Load tokenizer config
     // This will be used to format the chat template
-    let local_tokenizer_config_path =
-        tokenizer_config_path.unwrap_or("tokenizer_config.json".to_string());
-    let local_tokenizer_config = Path::new(&local_tokenizer_config_path).exists();
+    let tokenizer_config_full_path = if tokenizer_config_path.is_none() && local_model {
+        // if no tokenizer config path is provided, we default to the local tokenizer config
+        Some(local_path.join("tokenizer_config.json"))
+    } else if let Some(tokenizer_config_path) = tokenizer_config_path {
+        Some(std::path::PathBuf::from(tokenizer_config_path))
+    } else {
+        None
+    };
 
     // Shared API builder initialization
     let api_builder = || {
@@ -230,24 +235,33 @@ async fn main() -> Result<(), RouterError> {
     };
 
     // Load tokenizer config if found locally, or check if we can get it from the API if needed
-    let tokenizer_config = if local_tokenizer_config {
-        tracing::info!("Using local tokenizer config");
-        HubTokenizerConfig::from_file(&local_tokenizer_config_path)
-    } else if let Some(api) = api {
-        tracing::info!("Using the Hugging Face API to retrieve tokenizer config");
-        get_tokenizer_config(&api.repo(Repo::with_revision(
-            tokenizer_name.to_string(),
-            RepoType::Model,
-            revision.unwrap_or_else(|| "main".to_string()),
-        )))
-        .await
-        .unwrap_or_else(|| {
-            tracing::warn!("Could not retrieve tokenizer config from the Hugging Face hub.");
-            HubTokenizerConfig::default()
-        })
-    } else {
-        tracing::warn!("Could not find tokenizer config locally and no revision specified");
-        HubTokenizerConfig::default()
+    let tokenizer_config = match tokenizer_config_full_path {
+        Some(path) => {
+            tracing::info!("Using local tokenizer config");
+            HubTokenizerConfig::from_file(&path)
+        }
+        None => match api {
+            Some(api) => {
+                tracing::info!("Using the Hugging Face API to retrieve tokenizer config");
+                let repo = Repo::with_revision(
+                    tokenizer_name.to_string(),
+                    RepoType::Model,
+                    revision.unwrap_or("main".to_string()),
+                );
+                get_tokenizer_config(&api.repo(repo))
+                    .await
+                    .unwrap_or_else(|| {
+                        tracing::warn!(
+                            "Could not retrieve tokenizer config from the Hugging Face hub."
+                        );
+                        HubTokenizerConfig::default()
+                    })
+            }
+            None => {
+                tracing::warn!("Could not find tokenizer config locally and no API specified");
+                HubTokenizerConfig::default()
+            }
+        },
     };
 
     if tokenizer.is_none() {