diff --git a/common/arg.cpp b/common/arg.cpp
index 85ba41114..9cbf98571 100644
--- a/common/arg.cpp
+++ b/common/arg.cpp
@@ -2140,6 +2140,13 @@ common_params_context common_params_parser_init(common_params & params, llama_ex
             params.no_mmproj = true;
         }
     ).set_examples(mmproj_examples));
+    add_opt(common_arg(
+        {"--no-mmproj-offload"},
+        "do not offload multimodal projector to GPU",
+        [](common_params & params) {
+            params.mmproj_use_gpu = false;
+        }
+    ).set_examples(mmproj_examples));
     add_opt(common_arg(
         {"--image"}, "FILE",
         "path to an image file. use with multimodal models. Specify multiple times for batching",
diff --git a/common/common.h b/common/common.h
index 70d3ef8f2..0a9dc0599 100644
--- a/common/common.h
+++ b/common/common.h
@@ -342,6 +342,7 @@ struct common_params {
 
     // multimodal models (see examples/llava)
     struct common_params_model mmproj;
+    bool mmproj_use_gpu = true;     // use GPU for multimodal model
     bool no_mmproj = false;         // explicitly disable multimodal model
     std::vector<std::string> image; // path to image file(s)
 
diff --git a/examples/llava/mtmd-cli.cpp b/examples/llava/mtmd-cli.cpp
index 193737605..250e8c9a9 100644
--- a/examples/llava/mtmd-cli.cpp
+++ b/examples/llava/mtmd-cli.cpp
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@ static void show_additional_info(int /*argc*/, char ** argv) {
         "Usage: %s [options] -m <model> --mmproj <mmproj> --image <image> -p <prompt>\n\n"
         "  -m and --mmproj are required\n"
         "  -hf user/repo can replace both -m and --mmproj in most cases\n"
-        "  --image and -p are optional, if NOT provided, the CLI will run in chat mode\n",
+        "  --image and -p are optional, if NOT provided, the CLI will run in chat mode\n"
+        "  to disable using GPU for mmproj model, add --no-mmproj-offload\n",
         argv[0]
     );
 }
@@ -112,10 +113,10 @@ struct mtmd_cli_context {
     void init_vision_context(common_params & params) {
         const char * clip_path = params.mmproj.path.c_str();
         ctx_vision.reset(mtmd_init_from_file(clip_path, model, mtmd_context_params{
-            /* use_gpu */   true,
+            /* use_gpu */   params.mmproj_use_gpu,
             /* timings */   true,
             /* n_threads */ params.cpuparams.n_threads,
-            /* verbosity */ GGML_LOG_LEVEL_INFO,
+            /* verbosity */ params.verbosity > 0 ? GGML_LOG_LEVEL_DEBUG : GGML_LOG_LEVEL_INFO,
         }));
         if (!ctx_vision.get()) {
             LOG_ERR("Failed to load vision model from %s\n", clip_path);