diff --git a/stt-server.py b/stt-server.py
index d83c885..edfa472 100755
--- a/stt-server.py
+++ b/stt-server.py
@@ -123,8 +123,15 @@ parser.add_argument('--verbose', '-v', action='store_true')
 args    = parser.parse_args()
 verbose = args.verbose
 
-log(f'loading faster-whisper {args.model} ({args.device}, {args.compute_type})...')
 from faster_whisper import WhisperModel
+from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download
+
+try:
+	snapshot_download(f'Systran/faster-whisper-{args.model}', local_files_only=True)
+except Exception:
+	log(f'downloading model {args.model}...', error=True)
+
+log(f'loading faster-whisper {args.model} ({args.device}, {args.compute_type})...')
 try:
 	model = WhisperModel(args.model, device=args.device, compute_type=args.compute_type)
 	log(f'model ready on {args.device}')