diff --git a/crates/milli/src/vector/embedder/hf.rs b/crates/milli/src/vector/embedder/hf.rs
index 13ec46cca..b5a3f5c45 100644
--- a/crates/milli/src/vector/embedder/hf.rs
+++ b/crates/milli/src/vector/embedder/hf.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 use candle_core::Tensor;
 use candle_nn::VarBuilder;
-use candle_transformers::models::bert::{BertModel, Config, DTYPE};
+use candle_transformers::models::bert::{BertModel, Config as BertConfig, DTYPE};
+use candle_transformers::models::modernbert::{Config as ModernConfig, ModernBert};
 // FIXME: currently we'll be using the hub to retrieve model, in the future we might want to embed it into Meilisearch itself
 use hf_hub::api::sync::Api;
 use hf_hub::{Repo, RepoType};
@@ -84,14 +85,21 @@ impl Default for EmbedderOptions {
     }
 }
 
+enum ModelKind {
+    Bert(BertModel),
+    Modern(ModernBert),
+}
+
 /// Perform embedding of documents and queries
 pub struct Embedder {
-    model: BertModel,
+    model: ModelKind,
     tokenizer: Tokenizer,
     options: EmbedderOptions,
     dimensions: usize,
     pooling: Pooling,
     cache: EmbeddingCache,
+    device: candle_core::Device,
+    max_len: usize,
 }
 
 impl std::fmt::Debug for Embedder {
@@ -220,16 +228,34 @@ impl Embedder {
             (config, tokenizer, weights, source, pooling)
         };
 
-        let config = std::fs::read_to_string(&config_filename)
+        let config_str = std::fs::read_to_string(&config_filename)
             .map_err(|inner| NewEmbedderError::open_config(config_filename.clone(), inner))?;
-        let config: Config = serde_json::from_str(&config).map_err(|inner| {
-            NewEmbedderError::deserialize_config(
-                options.model.clone(),
-                config,
-                config_filename,
-                inner,
-            )
-        })?;
+
+        let cfg_val: serde_json::Value = match serde_json::from_str(&config_str) {
+            Ok(v) => v,
+            Err(inner) => {
+                return Err(NewEmbedderError::deserialize_config(
+                    options.model.clone(),
+                    config_str.clone(),
+                    config_filename.clone(),
+                    inner,
+                ));
+            }
+        };
+
+        let model_type = cfg_val.get("model_type").and_then(|v| v.as_str()).unwrap_or_default();
+        let arch_arr = cfg_val.get("architectures").and_then(|v| v.as_array());
+        let has_arch = |needle: &str| {
+            model_type.eq_ignore_ascii_case(needle)
+                || arch_arr.is_some_and(|arr| {
+                    arr.iter().filter_map(|v| v.as_str()).any(|s| s.to_lowercase().contains(needle))
+                })
+        };
+
+        let is_modern = has_arch("modernbert");
+        tracing::debug!(is_modern, model_type, "detected HF architecture");
+        // default to BERT otherwise
+
         let mut tokenizer = Tokenizer::from_file(&tokenizer_filename)
             .map_err(|inner| NewEmbedderError::open_tokenizer(tokenizer_filename, inner))?;
 
@@ -244,7 +270,31 @@ impl Embedder {
 
         tracing::debug!(model = options.model, weight=?weight_source, pooling=?pooling, "model config");
 
-        let model = BertModel::load(vb, &config).map_err(NewEmbedderError::load_model)?;
+        // max length from config, fallback to 512
+        let max_len =
+            cfg_val.get("max_position_embeddings").and_then(|v| v.as_u64()).unwrap_or(512) as usize;
+
+        let model = if is_modern {
+            let config: ModernConfig = serde_json::from_str(&config_str).map_err(|inner| {
+                NewEmbedderError::deserialize_config(
+                    options.model.clone(),
+                    config_str.clone(),
+                    config_filename.clone(),
+                    inner,
+                )
+            })?;
+            ModelKind::Modern(ModernBert::load(vb, &config).map_err(NewEmbedderError::load_model)?)
+        } else {
+            let config: BertConfig = serde_json::from_str(&config_str).map_err(|inner| {
+                NewEmbedderError::deserialize_config(
+                    options.model.clone(),
+                    config_str.clone(),
+                    config_filename.clone(),
+                    inner,
+                )
+            })?;
+            ModelKind::Bert(BertModel::load(vb, &config).map_err(NewEmbedderError::load_model)?)
+        };
 
         if let Some(pp) = tokenizer.get_padding_mut() {
             pp.strategy = tokenizers::PaddingStrategy::BatchLongest
@@ -263,6 +313,8 @@ impl Embedder {
             dimensions: 0,
             pooling,
             cache: EmbeddingCache::new(cache_cap),
+            device,
+            max_len,
         };
 
         let embeddings = this
@@ -321,15 +373,29 @@ impl Embedder {
     pub fn embed_one(&self, text: &str) -> std::result::Result<Embedding, EmbedError> {
         let tokens = self.tokenizer.encode(text, true).map_err(EmbedError::tokenize)?;
         let token_ids = tokens.get_ids();
-        let token_ids = if token_ids.len() > 512 { &token_ids[..512] } else { token_ids };
         let token_ids =
-            Tensor::new(token_ids, &self.model.device).map_err(EmbedError::tensor_shape)?;
+            if token_ids.len() > self.max_len { &token_ids[..self.max_len] } else { token_ids };
+        let token_ids = Tensor::new(token_ids, &self.device).map_err(EmbedError::tensor_shape)?;
         let token_ids = Tensor::stack(&[token_ids], 0).map_err(EmbedError::tensor_shape)?;
-        let token_type_ids = token_ids.zeros_like().map_err(EmbedError::tensor_shape)?;
-        let embeddings = self
-            .model
-            .forward(&token_ids, &token_type_ids, None)
-            .map_err(EmbedError::model_forward)?;
+
+        let embeddings = match &self.model {
+            ModelKind::Bert(model) => {
+                let token_type_ids = token_ids.zeros_like().map_err(EmbedError::tensor_shape)?;
+                model
+                    .forward(&token_ids, &token_type_ids, None)
+                    .map_err(EmbedError::model_forward)?
+            }
+            ModelKind::Modern(model) => {
+                let mut mask_vec = tokens.get_attention_mask().to_vec();
+                if mask_vec.len() > self.max_len {
+                    mask_vec.truncate(self.max_len);
+                }
+                let mask = Tensor::new(mask_vec.as_slice(), &self.device)
+                    .map_err(EmbedError::tensor_shape)?;
+                let mask = Tensor::stack(&[mask], 0).map_err(EmbedError::tensor_shape)?;
+                model.forward(&token_ids, &mask).map_err(EmbedError::model_forward)?
+            }
+        };
 
         let embedding = Self::pooling(embeddings, self.pooling)?;
 
diff --git a/crates/milli/src/vector/error.rs b/crates/milli/src/vector/error.rs
index b4b90b24b..f65d69057 100644
--- a/crates/milli/src/vector/error.rs
+++ b/crates/milli/src/vector/error.rs
@@ -550,9 +550,9 @@ pub struct DeserializePoolingConfig {
 #[derive(Debug, thiserror::Error)]
 #[error("model `{model_name}` appears to be unsupported{}\n  - inner error: {inner}",
 if architectures.is_empty() {
-    "\n  - Note: only models with architecture \"BertModel\" are supported.".to_string()
+    "\n  - Note: only models with architecture \"BertModel\" or \"ModernBert\" are supported.".to_string()
 } else {
-    format!("\n  - Note: model has declared architectures `{architectures:?}`, only models with architecture `\"BertModel\"` are supported.")
+    format!("\n  - Note: model has declared architectures `{architectures:?}`, only models with architecture `\"BertModel\"` or `\"ModernBert\"` are supported.")
 })]
 pub struct UnsupportedModel {
     pub model_name: String,