diff --git a/llama_cpp/llama_tokenizer.py b/llama_cpp/llama_tokenizer.py
index 1375e1392..fc81b30be 100644
--- a/llama_cpp/llama_tokenizer.py
+++ b/llama_cpp/llama_tokenizer.py
@@ -81,9 +81,22 @@ def __init__(self, hf_tokenizer: Any):
     def tokenize(
         self, text: bytes, add_bos: bool = True, special: bool = True
     ) -> List[int]:
-        return self.hf_tokenizer.encode(
-            text.decode("utf-8", errors="ignore"), add_special_tokens=special
-        )
+        text = text.decode("utf-8", errors="ignore")
+        tokens = self.hf_tokenizer.encode(text, add_special_tokens=special)
+        bos_token_id = getattr(self.hf_tokenizer, "bos_token_id", None)
+        if bos_token_id is None:
+            return tokens
+
+        if add_bos:
+            if not tokens or tokens[0] != bos_token_id:
+                tokens.insert(0, bos_token_id)
+        elif special and tokens and tokens[0] == bos_token_id:
+            raw_tokens = self.hf_tokenizer.encode(text, add_special_tokens=False)
+            # Preserve a BOS token from the input; remove only a prefixed one.
+            if tokens[1 : len(raw_tokens) + 1] == raw_tokens:
+                tokens = tokens[1:]
+
+        return tokens
 
     def detokenize(
         self,
diff --git a/tests/test_llama_tokenizer.py b/tests/test_llama_tokenizer.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..dfd423f89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_llama_tokenizer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+from llama_cpp.llama_tokenizer import LlamaHFTokenizer
+
+
+class SyntheticHFTokenizer:
+    bos_token_id = 1
+    eos_token_id = 2
+
+    def encode(self, text, add_special_tokens=True):
+        tokens = [self.bos_token_id, 3] if text.startswith("<bos>") else [3]
+        if add_special_tokens:
+            return [self.bos_token_id] + tokens + [self.eos_token_id]
+        return tokens
+
+
+def test_hf_tokenizer_respects_add_bos_false():
+    tokenizer = LlamaHFTokenizer(SyntheticHFTokenizer())
+
+    assert tokenizer.tokenize(b"prompt", add_bos=False, special=True) == [3, 2]
+
+
+def test_hf_tokenizer_adds_bos_when_special_tokens_are_disabled():
+    tokenizer = LlamaHFTokenizer(SyntheticHFTokenizer())
+
+    assert tokenizer.tokenize(b"prompt", add_bos=True, special=False) == [1, 3]
+
+
+def test_hf_tokenizer_preserves_explicit_bos_when_add_bos_is_false():
+    tokenizer = LlamaHFTokenizer(SyntheticHFTokenizer())
+
+    assert tokenizer.tokenize(b"<bos>prompt", add_bos=False, special=True) == [1, 3, 2]
+
+
+def test_hf_tokenizer_does_not_duplicate_bos_when_special_tokens_add_it():
+    tokenizer = LlamaHFTokenizer(SyntheticHFTokenizer())
+
+    assert tokenizer.tokenize(b"prompt", add_bos=True, special=True) == [1, 3, 2]