diff --git a/api/types.go b/api/types.go
index a3abc5568..f8187316e 100644
--- a/api/types.go
+++ b/api/types.go
@@ -361,12 +361,13 @@ type Options struct {
 
 // Runner options which must be set when the model is loaded into memory
 type Runner struct {
-	NumCtx    int   `json:"num_ctx,omitempty"`
-	NumBatch  int   `json:"num_batch,omitempty"`
-	NumGPU    int   `json:"num_gpu,omitempty"`
-	MainGPU   int   `json:"main_gpu,omitempty"`
-	UseMMap   *bool `json:"use_mmap,omitempty"`
-	NumThread int   `json:"num_thread,omitempty"`
+	NumCtx      int   `json:"num_ctx,omitempty"`
+	NumBatch    int   `json:"num_batch,omitempty"`
+	NumGPU      int   `json:"num_gpu,omitempty"`
+	MainGPU     int   `json:"main_gpu,omitempty"`
+	UseMMap     *bool `json:"use_mmap,omitempty"`
+	NumThread   int   `json:"num_thread,omitempty"`
+	NumParallel int   `json:"num_parallel,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // EmbedRequest is the request passed to [Client.Embed].
@@ -741,11 +742,12 @@ func DefaultOptions() Options {
 
 		Runner: Runner{
 			// options set when the model is loaded
-			NumCtx:    int(envconfig.ContextLength()),
-			NumBatch:  512,
-			NumGPU:    -1, // -1 here indicates that NumGPU should be set dynamically
-			NumThread: 0,  // let the runtime decide
-			UseMMap:   nil,
+			NumCtx:      int(envconfig.ContextLength()),
+			NumBatch:    512,
+			NumGPU:      -1, // -1 here indicates that NumGPU should be set dynamically
+			NumThread:   0,  // let the runtime decide
+			UseMMap:     nil,
+			NumParallel: int(envconfig.NumParallel()),
 		},
 	}
 }
diff --git a/server/sched.go b/server/sched.go
index c501c0e85..927265fb5 100644
--- a/server/sched.go
+++ b/server/sched.go
@@ -382,7 +382,7 @@ func (pending *LlmRequest) useLoadedRunner(runner *runnerRef, finished chan *Llm
 // load creates a new model based on req and loads it. If requireFull is true then the model must be loaded fully onto GPUs
 // (if any). Returns whether the scheduler needs to evict a model to make this one fit.
 func (s *Scheduler) load(req *LlmRequest, f *ggml.GGML, gpus discover.GpuInfoList, requireFull bool) bool {
-	numParallel := int(envconfig.NumParallel())
+	numParallel := req.opts.NumParallel
 	if numParallel < 1 {
 		numParallel = 1
 	}