diff --git a/src-tauri/plugins/tauri-plugin-llamacpp/src/gguf/utils.rs b/src-tauri/plugins/tauri-plugin-llamacpp/src/gguf/utils.rs
index 50e3f4a14..cdbbf92d5 100644
--- a/src-tauri/plugins/tauri-plugin-llamacpp/src/gguf/utils.rs
+++ b/src-tauri/plugins/tauri-plugin-llamacpp/src/gguf/utils.rs
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ pub async fn estimate_kv_cache_internal(
     ctx_size: Option<u64>,
 ) -> Result<KVCacheEstimate, KVCacheError> {
     log::info!("Received ctx_size parameter: {:?}", ctx_size);
+    log::info!("Received model metadata:\n{:?}", &meta);
     let arch = meta
         .get("general.architecture")
         .ok_or(KVCacheError::ArchitectureNotFound)?;
@@ -94,15 +95,43 @@ pub async fn estimate_kv_cache_internal(
     let key_len_key = format!("{}.attention.key_length", arch);
     let val_len_key = format!("{}.attention.value_length", arch);
 
-    let key_len = meta
+    let mut key_len = meta
         .get(&key_len_key)
         .and_then(|s| s.parse::<u64>().ok())
         .unwrap_or(0);
-    let val_len = meta
+    let mut val_len = meta
         .get(&val_len_key)
         .and_then(|s| s.parse::<u64>().ok())
         .unwrap_or(0);
 
+    // Fallback: calculate from embedding_length if key/val lengths not found
+    if key_len == 0 || val_len == 0 {
+        let emb_len_key = format!("{}.embedding_length", arch);
+        let emb_len = meta
+            .get(&emb_len_key)
+            .and_then(|s| s.parse::<u64>().ok())
+            .unwrap_or(0);
+
+        if emb_len > 0 && n_head > 0 {
+            // For most transformers: head_dim = embedding_length / total_heads
+            let total_heads = meta
+                .get(&n_head_key)
+                .and_then(|s| s.parse::<u64>().ok())
+                .unwrap_or(n_head);
+
+            let head_dim = emb_len / total_heads;
+            key_len = head_dim;
+            val_len = head_dim;
+
+            log::info!(
+                "Calculated key_len and val_len from embedding_length: {} / {} heads = {} per head",
+                emb_len,
+                total_heads,
+                head_dim
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
     if key_len == 0 || val_len == 0 {
         return Err(KVCacheError::EmbeddingLengthInvalid);
     }