diff --git a/router/src/lib.rs b/router/src/lib.rs
index efc4d3ae..9fcc5085 100644
--- a/router/src/lib.rs
+++ b/router/src/lib.rs
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ pub(crate) struct GenerateParameters {
     pub stop: Vec<String>,
     #[serde(default)]
     #[schema(default = "null", example = "null")]
-    pub truncate: Option<i32>,
+    pub truncate: Option<usize>,
     #[serde(default)]
     #[schema(default = "false", example = true)]
     pub watermark: bool,
diff --git a/router/src/validation.rs b/router/src/validation.rs
index 1a247caa..42af0169 100644
--- a/router/src/validation.rs
+++ b/router/src/validation.rs
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ use rand::Rng;
 use text_generation_client::{NextTokenChooserParameters, StoppingCriteriaParameters};
 use thiserror::Error;
 use tokenizers::tokenizer::Tokenizer;
+use tokenizers::TruncationDirection;
 use tokio::sync::{mpsc, oneshot};
 use tracing::{instrument, Span};
 
@@ -157,6 +158,7 @@ fn validate(
         do_sample,
         max_new_tokens,
         stop: stop_sequences,
+        truncate,
         seed,
         watermark,
         ..
@@ -223,52 +225,70 @@ fn validate(
         return Err(EmptyInput);
     }
 
-    // Get the number of tokens in the input
-    match tokenizer.encode(request.inputs.clone(), true) {
-        Ok(mut encoding) => {
-            encoding.truncate()
-
-            let input_length = encoding.len();
-            let total_tokens = input_length + max_new_tokens as usize;
-
-            if input_length > max_input_length {
-                Err(ValidationError::InputLength(max_input_length, input_length))
-            } else if total_tokens > max_total_tokens {
-                Err(ValidationError::MaxTotalTokens(
-                    max_total_tokens,
-                    input_length,
-                    max_new_tokens,
-                ))
-            } else {
-                // Return ValidGenerateRequest
-                let parameters = NextTokenChooserParameters {
-                    temperature,
-                    repetition_penalty,
-                    top_k,
-                    top_p,
-                    typical_p,
-                    do_sample,
-                    seed,
-                    watermark,
-                };
-                let stopping_parameters = StoppingCriteriaParameters {
-                    max_new_tokens,
-                    stop_sequences,
-                };
-
-                metrics::histogram!("tgi_request_input_length", input_length as f64);
-                metrics::histogram!("tgi_request_max_new_tokens", max_new_tokens as f64);
-
-                Ok(ValidGenerateRequest {
-                    inputs: request.inputs,
-                    input_length: input_length as u32,
-                    parameters,
-                    stopping_parameters,
-                })
+    // Check if truncate is strictly positive and less than max_input_length
+    let truncate = truncate
+        .map(|value| {
+            if value == 0 || value > max_input_length {
+                return Err(ValidationError::Truncate(max_input_length, value));
             }
-        }
-        Err(err) => Err(ValidationError::Tokenizer(err.to_string())),
+            Ok(Some(value))
+        })
+        .unwrap_or(Ok(None))?;
+
+    // Get the number of tokens in the input
+    let mut encoding = tokenizer
+        .encode(request.inputs.clone(), true)
+        .map_err(|err| ValidationError::Tokenizer(err.to_string()))?;
+
+    let (inputs, input_length) = if let Some(truncate) = truncate {
+        // truncate encoding and decode new inputs
+        encoding.truncate(truncate, 0, TruncationDirection::Left);
+        let inputs = tokenizer
+            .decode(Vec::from(encoding.get_ids()), false)
+            .map_err(|err| ValidationError::Tokenizer(err.to_string()))?;
+        (inputs, encoding.len())
+    } else {
+        (request.inputs, encoding.len())
+    };
+
+    if input_length > max_input_length {
+        return Err(ValidationError::InputLength(max_input_length, input_length));
     }
+
+    let total_tokens = input_length + max_new_tokens as usize;
+    if total_tokens > max_total_tokens {
+        return Err(ValidationError::MaxTotalTokens(
+            max_total_tokens,
+            input_length,
+            max_new_tokens,
+        ));
+    }
+
+    // Return ValidGenerateRequest
+    let parameters = NextTokenChooserParameters {
+        temperature,
+        repetition_penalty,
+        top_k,
+        top_p,
+        typical_p,
+        do_sample,
+        seed,
+        watermark,
+    };
+    let stopping_parameters = StoppingCriteriaParameters {
+        max_new_tokens,
+        stop_sequences,
+    };
+
+    metrics::histogram!("tgi_request_input_length", input_length as f64);
+    metrics::histogram!("tgi_request_max_new_tokens", max_new_tokens as f64);
+
+    Ok(ValidGenerateRequest {
+        inputs,
+        input_length: input_length as u32,
+        parameters,
+        stopping_parameters,
+    })
 }
 
 type ValidationRequest = (
@@ -295,6 +315,8 @@ pub enum ValidationError {
     TopP,
     #[error("`top_k` must be strictly positive")]
     TopK,
+    #[error("`truncate` must be strictly positive and less than {0}. Given: {1}")]
+    Truncate(usize, usize),
     #[error("`typical_p` must be > 0.0 and < 1.0")]
     TypicalP,
     #[error("`max_new_tokens` must be strictly positive")]