diff --git a/lib/bumblebee.ex b/lib/bumblebee.ex
index 1f034e6d..2ea19fca 100644
--- a/lib/bumblebee.ex
+++ b/lib/bumblebee.ex
@@ -494,7 +494,10 @@ defmodule Bumblebee do
           model,
           input_template,
           paths,
-          [params_mapping: params_mapping] ++ Keyword.take(opts, [:backend, :log_params_diff])
+          [
+            params_mapping: params_mapping,
+            loader_fun: filename |> Path.extname() |> params_file_loader_fun()
+          ] ++ Keyword.take(opts, [:backend, :log_params_diff])
         )
 
       {:ok, params}
@@ -525,6 +528,18 @@ defmodule Bumblebee do
     end
   end
 
+  defp params_file_loader_fun(".safetensors") do
+    fn path ->
+      path
+      |> File.read!()
+      |> Safetensors.load!()
+    end
+  end
+
+  defp params_file_loader_fun(_) do
+    &Bumblebee.Conversion.PyTorch.Loader.load!/1
+  end
+
   @doc """
   Featurizes `input` with the given featurizer.
 
diff --git a/lib/bumblebee/conversion/pytorch.ex b/lib/bumblebee/conversion/pytorch.ex
index 7390c7d9..45f59a01 100644
--- a/lib/bumblebee/conversion/pytorch.ex
+++ b/lib/bumblebee/conversion/pytorch.ex
@@ -24,17 +24,28 @@ defmodule Bumblebee.Conversion.PyTorch do
       between the Axon model and the PyTorch state. For more details see
       `Bumblebee.HuggingFace.Transformers.Model.params_mapping/1`
 
+    * `:loader_fun` - a 1-arity function that takes a path argument
+      and loads the params file. Defaults to
+      `Bumblebee.Conversion.PyTorch.Loader.load!/1`
+
   """
   @spec load_params!(Axon.t(), map(), Path.t() | list(Path.t()), keyword()) :: map()
   def load_params!(model, input_template, path, opts \\ []) do
-    opts = Keyword.validate!(opts, [:log_params_diff, :backend, params_mapping: %{}])
+    opts =
+      opts
+      |> Keyword.validate!([
+        :log_params_diff,
+        :backend,
+        params_mapping: %{},
+        loader_fun: &Bumblebee.Conversion.PyTorch.Loader.load!/1
+      ])
 
     with_default_backend(opts[:backend], fn ->
       pytorch_state =
         path
         |> List.wrap()
         |> Enum.map(fn path ->
-          pytorch_state = Bumblebee.Conversion.PyTorch.Loader.load!(path)
+          pytorch_state = opts[:loader_fun].(path)
 
           unless state_dict?(pytorch_state) do
             raise "expected a serialized model state dictionary at #{path}, but got: #{inspect(pytorch_state)}"
diff --git a/mix.exs b/mix.exs
index 7daf2abc..9374b05a 100644
--- a/mix.exs
+++ b/mix.exs
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ defmodule Bumblebee.MixProject do
       {:torchx, github: "elixir-nx/nx", sparse: "torchx", override: true, only: [:dev, :test]},
       {:nx_image, "~> 0.1.0"},
       {:unpickler, "~> 0.1.0"},
+      {:safetensors, "~> 0.1.1"},
       {:castore, "~> 0.1 or ~> 1.0"},
       {:jason, "~> 1.4.0"},
       {:unzip, "0.8.0"},
diff --git a/mix.lock b/mix.lock
index ffcc214b..d03f5fa3 100644
--- a/mix.lock
+++ b/mix.lock
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
   "ranch": {:hex, :ranch, "1.8.0", "8c7a100a139fd57f17327b6413e4167ac559fbc04ca7448e9be9057311597a1d", [:make, :rebar3], [], "hexpm", "49fbcfd3682fab1f5d109351b61257676da1a2fdbe295904176d5e521a2ddfe5"},
   "rustler": {:hex, :rustler, "0.29.1", "880f20ae3027bd7945def6cea767f5257bc926f33ff50c0d5d5a5315883c084d", [:mix], [{:jason, "~> 1.0", [hex: :jason, repo: "hexpm", optional: false]}, {:toml, "~> 0.6", [hex: :toml, repo: "hexpm", optional: false]}], "hexpm", "109497d701861bfcd26eb8f5801fe327a8eef304f56a5b63ef61151ff44ac9b6"},
   "rustler_precompiled": {:hex, :rustler_precompiled, "0.6.2", "d2218ba08a43fa331957f30481d00b666664d7e3861431b02bd3f4f30eec8e5b", [:mix], [{:castore, "~> 0.1 or ~> 1.0", [hex: :castore, repo: "hexpm", optional: false]}, {:rustler, "~> 0.23", [hex: :rustler, repo: "hexpm", optional: true]}], "hexpm", "b9048eaed8d7d14a53f758c91865cc616608a438d2595f621f6a4b32a5511709"},
+  "safetensors": {:hex, :safetensors, "0.1.0", "3f0d9af32c5c2d43ad8bd483e0db2182ce539d4a16119a35d5047e5dee5a1f2f", [:mix], [{:jason, "~> 1.4", [hex: :jason, repo: "hexpm", optional: false]}, {:nx, "~> 0.5.3", [hex: :nx, repo: "hexpm", optional: false]}], "hexpm", "2bc6122b8bbeec4efbea14f2e3fe00ebeaf83773f0323af99df5d685e8e6824f"},
   "stb_image": {:hex, :stb_image, "0.6.2", "d680a418416b1d778231d1d16151be3474d187e8505e1bd524aa0d08d2de094f", [:make, :mix], [{:cc_precompiler, "~> 0.1.0", [hex: :cc_precompiler, repo: "hexpm", optional: false]}, {:elixir_make, "~> 0.7.0", [hex: :elixir_make, repo: "hexpm", optional: false]}, {:kino, "~> 0.7", [hex: :kino, repo: "hexpm", optional: true]}, {:nx, "~> 0.4", [hex: :nx, repo: "hexpm", optional: true]}], "hexpm", "231ad012f649dd2bd5ef99e9171e814f3235e8f7c45009355789ac4836044a39"},
   "telemetry": {:hex, :telemetry, "1.2.1", "68fdfe8d8f05a8428483a97d7aab2f268aaff24b49e0f599faa091f1d4e7f61c", [:rebar3], [], "hexpm", "dad9ce9d8effc621708f99eac538ef1cbe05d6a874dd741de2e689c47feafed5"},
   "tokenizers": {:git, "https://github.com/elixir-nx/tokenizers.git", "90dd590d5a64863e61666c3c5ebaec2d3e51841c", []},
diff --git a/test/bumblebee/audio/whisper_test.exs b/test/bumblebee/audio/whisper_test.exs
index 0b866d6a..7152aa27 100644
--- a/test/bumblebee/audio/whisper_test.exs
+++ b/test/bumblebee/audio/whisper_test.exs
@@ -38,6 +38,42 @@ defmodule Bumblebee.Text.WhisperTest do
       )
     end
 
+    test "base model with safetensors" do
+      assert {:ok, %{model: model, params: params, spec: spec}} =
+               Bumblebee.load_model(
+                 {:hf, "openai/whisper-tiny"},
+                 architecture: :base,
+                 params_filename: "model.safetensors"
+               )
+
+      assert %Bumblebee.Audio.Whisper{architecture: :base} = spec
+
+      input_features = Nx.sin(Nx.iota({1, 3000, 80}, type: :f32))
+      decoder_input_ids = Nx.tensor([[50258, 50259, 50359, 50363]])
+
+      inputs = %{
+        "input_features" => input_features,
+        "decoder_input_ids" => decoder_input_ids
+      }
+
+      outputs = Axon.predict(model, params, inputs)
+
+      assert Nx.shape(outputs.hidden_state) == {1, 4, 384}
+
+      assert_all_close(
+        outputs.hidden_state[[.., .., 1..3]],
+        Nx.tensor([
+          [
+            [9.1349, 0.5695, 8.7758],
+            [0.0160, -7.0785, 1.1313],
+            [6.1074, -2.0481, -1.5687],
+            [5.6247, -10.3924, 7.2008]
+          ]
+        ]),
+        atol: 1.0e-4
+      )
+    end
+
     test "for conditional generation model" do
       assert {:ok, %{model: model, params: params, spec: spec}} =
                Bumblebee.load_model({:hf, "openai/whisper-tiny"})
diff --git a/test/bumblebee_test.exs b/test/bumblebee_test.exs
index 8f8a816e..c689d938 100644
--- a/test/bumblebee_test.exs
+++ b/test/bumblebee_test.exs
@@ -19,5 +19,17 @@ defmodule BumblebeeTest do
 
       assert Enum.sort(Map.keys(params)) == Enum.sort(Map.keys(sharded_params))
     end
+
+    test "supports .safetensors params file" do
+      assert {:ok, %{params: params}} = Bumblebee.load_model({:hf, "openai/whisper-tiny"})
+
+      assert {:ok, %{params: safetensors_params}} =
+               Bumblebee.load_model(
+                 {:hf, "openai/whisper-tiny"},
+                 params_filename: "model.safetensors"
+               )
+
+      assert Enum.sort(Map.keys(params)) == Enum.sort(Map.keys(safetensors_params))
+    end
   end
 end