diff --git a/pywhispercpp/constants.py b/pywhispercpp/constants.py
index 5809863..903d367 100644
--- a/pywhispercpp/constants.py
+++ b/pywhispercpp/constants.py
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@
     },
     'max_len': {
             'type': int,
-            'description': "max segment length in characters",
+            'description': "max segment length in characters, note: token_timestamps needs to be set to True for this to work",
             'options': None,
             'default': 0
     },
diff --git a/pywhispercpp/model.py b/pywhispercpp/model.py
index 7c81ea9..9f4281e 100644
--- a/pywhispercpp/model.py
+++ b/pywhispercpp/model.py
@@ -70,6 +70,10 @@ def __init__(self,
                  models_dir: str = None,
                  params_sampling_strategy: int = 0,
                  redirect_whispercpp_logs_to: Union[bool, TextIO, str, None] = False,
+                 use_openvino: bool = False,
+                 openvino_model_path: str = None,
+                 openvino_device: str = 'CPU',
+                 openvino_cache_dir: str = None,
                  **params):
         """
         :param model: The name of the model, one of the [AVAILABLE_MODELS](/pywhispercpp/#pywhispercpp.constants.AVAILABLE_MODELS),
@@ -78,6 +82,10 @@ def __init__(self,
                             exist, default to [MODELS_DIR](/pywhispercpp/#pywhispercpp.constants.MODELS_DIR) <user_data_dir/pywhsipercpp/models>
         :param params_sampling_strategy: 0 -> GREEDY, else BEAM_SEARCH
         :param redirect_whispercpp_logs_to: where to redirect the whisper.cpp logs, default to False (no redirection), accepts str file path, sys.stdout, sys.stderr, or use None to redirect to devnull
+        :param use_openvino: whether to use OpenVINO or not
+        :param openvino_model_path: path to the OpenVINO model
+        :param openvino_device: OpenVINO device, default to CPU
+        :param openvino_cache_dir: OpenVINO cache directory
         :param params: keyword arguments for different whisper.cpp parameters,
                         see [PARAMS_SCHEMA](/pywhispercpp/#pywhispercpp.constants.PARAMS_SCHEMA)
         """
@@ -90,8 +98,13 @@ def __init__(self,
             pw.whisper_sampling_strategy.WHISPER_SAMPLING_BEAM_SEARCH
         self._params = pw.whisper_full_default_params(self._sampling_strategy)
         # assign params
+        self.params = params
         self._set_params(params)
         self.redirect_whispercpp_logs_to = redirect_whispercpp_logs_to
+        self.use_openvino = use_openvino
+        self.openvino_model_path = openvino_model_path
+        self.openvino_device = openvino_device
+        self.openvino_cache_dir = openvino_cache_dir
         # init the model
         self._init_model()
 
@@ -228,6 +241,10 @@ def _init_model(self) -> None:
         logger.info("Initializing the model ...")
         with utils.redirect_stderr(to=self.redirect_whispercpp_logs_to):
             self._ctx = pw.whisper_init_from_file(self.model_path)
+            if self.use_openvino:
+                pw.whisper_ctx_init_openvino_encoder(self._ctx, self.openvino_model_path, self.openvino_device, self.openvino_cache_dir)
+
+
 
     def _set_params(self, kwargs: dict) -> None:
         """
diff --git a/src/main.cpp b/src/main.cpp
index 91b7670..e43490e 100644
--- a/src/main.cpp
+++ b/src/main.cpp
@@ -276,6 +276,12 @@ float whisper_full_get_token_p_wrapper(struct whisper_context_wrapper * ctx, int
     return whisper_full_get_token_p(ctx->ptr, i_segment, i_token);
 }
 
+int whisper_ctx_init_openvino_encoder_wrapper(struct whisper_context_wrapper * ctx, const char * model_path,
+                    const char * device,
+                    const char * cache_dir){
+    return whisper_ctx_init_openvino_encoder(ctx->ptr, model_path, device, cache_dir);
+}
+
 class WhisperFullParamsWrapper : public whisper_full_params {
     std::string initial_prompt_str;   
     std::string suppress_regex_str;      
@@ -656,6 +662,9 @@ PYBIND11_MODULE(_pywhispercpp, m) {
 
     m.def("whisper_full_get_token_p", &whisper_full_get_token_p_wrapper, "Get the probability of the specified token in the specified segment.");
 
+    m.def("whisper_ctx_init_openvino_encoder", &whisper_ctx_init_openvino_encoder_wrapper, "Given a context, enable use of OpenVINO for encode inference.");
+
+
     ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 
     m.def("whisper_bench_memcpy", &whisper_bench_memcpy, "Temporary helpers needed for exposing ggml interface");