diff --git a/src/engine.ts b/src/engine.ts
index 82df2127..c2fc3069 100644
--- a/src/engine.ts
+++ b/src/engine.ts
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ import {
 } from "./error";
 import { asyncLoadTokenizer } from "./cache_util";
 import { EmbeddingPipeline } from "./embedding";
+import { Tokenizer } from "@mlc-ai/web-tokenizers";
 
 /**
  * Creates `MLCEngine`, and loads `modelId` onto WebGPU.
@@ -131,6 +132,7 @@ export class MLCEngine implements MLCEngineInterface {
   private logitProcessorRegistry?: Map<string, LogitProcessor>;
   private initProgressCallback?: InitProgressCallback;
   private appConfig: AppConfig;
+  private tokenizer: Tokenizer | null = null;
 
   // Signals and flags
   private interruptSignal = false;
@@ -359,7 +361,7 @@ export class MLCEngine implements MLCEngineInterface {
     });
     tvm.initWebGPU(gpuDetectOutput.device);
 
-    const tokenizer = await asyncLoadTokenizer(
+    this.tokenizer = await asyncLoadTokenizer(
       modelUrl,
       curModelConfig,
       this.appConfig,
@@ -379,11 +381,11 @@ export class MLCEngine implements MLCEngineInterface {
     // embedding model, and prompt user to use ModelRecord.model_type
     let newPipeline: LLMChatPipeline | EmbeddingPipeline;
     if (modelRecord.model_type === ModelType.embedding) {
-      newPipeline = new EmbeddingPipeline(tvm, tokenizer, curModelConfig);
+      newPipeline = new EmbeddingPipeline(tvm, this.tokenizer, curModelConfig);
     } else {
       newPipeline = new LLMChatPipeline(
         tvm,
-        tokenizer,
+        this.tokenizer,
         curModelConfig,
         logitProcessor,
       );
@@ -1333,4 +1335,16 @@ export class MLCEngine implements MLCEngineInterface {
   async decode(pipeline: LLMChatPipeline, genConfig?: GenerationConfig) {
     return pipeline.decodeStep(genConfig);
   }
+
+  //-----------------------------------------------
+  // 8. Expose tokenizer
+  //-----------------------------------------------
+
+  async tokenize(text: string) {
+    return this.tokenizer!.encode(text);
+  }
+
+  async decodeTokens(ids: Int32Array) {
+    return this.tokenizer!.decode(ids);
+  }
 }
diff --git a/src/message.ts b/src/message.ts
index 8be38bb7..913d64d1 100644
--- a/src/message.ts
+++ b/src/message.ts
@@ -34,7 +34,9 @@ type RequestKind =
   | "customRequest"
   | "keepAlive"
   | "setLogLevel"
-  | "setAppConfig";
+  | "setAppConfig"
+  | "tokenize"
+  | "decodeTokens";
 
 // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars
 type ResponseKind = "return" | "throw" | "initProgressCallback";
@@ -58,6 +60,12 @@ export interface ForwardTokensAndSampleParams {
   isPrefill: boolean;
   modelId?: string;
 }
+export interface TokenizeParams {
+  text: string;
+}
+export interface DecodeTokensParams {
+  inputIds: Int32Array;
+}
 
 // Notes on the following Params with modelId and chatOpts:
 // These fields are the model and chatOpts that the frontend engine expects the backend
@@ -128,6 +136,7 @@ export type MessageContent =
   | CreateEmbeddingResponse
   | Completion
   | AppConfig
+  | Int32Array
   | void;
 /**
  * The message used in exchange between worker
diff --git a/src/types.ts b/src/types.ts
index 4d4522c0..c831b0aa 100644
--- a/src/types.ts
+++ b/src/types.ts
@@ -172,6 +172,12 @@ export interface MLCEngineInterface {
    */
   embedding(request: EmbeddingCreateParams): Promise<CreateEmbeddingResponse>;
 
+  /**
+   * Exposes the tokenizer for clients to avoid needing to load it twice
+   */
+  tokenize(input: string): Promise<Int32Array>;
+  decodeTokens(input: Int32Array): Promise<string>;
+
   /**
    * @returns A text summarizing the runtime stats.
    * @param modelId Only required when multiple models are loaded.
diff --git a/src/web_worker.ts b/src/web_worker.ts
index c683c004..9807b6f8 100644
--- a/src/web_worker.ts
+++ b/src/web_worker.ts
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ import {
   MessageContent,
   ReloadParams,
   ForwardTokensAndSampleParams,
+  TokenizeParams,
+  DecodeTokensParams,
   ChatCompletionNonStreamingParams,
   ChatCompletionStreamInitParams,
   ResetChatParams,
@@ -345,6 +347,24 @@ export class WebWorkerMLCEngineHandler {
         onComplete?.(null);
         return;
       }
+      case "decodeTokens": {
+        this.handleTask(msg.uuid, async () => {
+          const params = msg.content as DecodeTokensParams;
+          const res = await this.engine.decodeTokens(params.inputIds);
+          onComplete?.(res);
+          return res;
+        });
+        return;
+      }
+      case "tokenize": {
+        this.handleTask(msg.uuid, async () => {
+          const params = msg.content as TokenizeParams;
+          const res = await this.engine.tokenize(params.text);
+          onComplete?.(res);
+          return res;
+        });
+        return;
+      }
       default: {
         if (msg.kind && msg.content) {
           onError?.();
@@ -633,6 +653,30 @@ export class WebWorkerMLCEngine implements MLCEngineInterface {
     return await this.getPromise<number>(msg);
   }
 
+  async tokenize(text: string, modelId?: string) {
+    const msg: WorkerRequest = {
+      kind: "tokenize",
+      uuid: crypto.randomUUID(),
+      content: {
+        text,
+        modelId: modelId,
+      },
+    };
+    return await this.getPromise<Int32Array>(msg);
+  }
+
+  async decodeTokens(ids: Int32Array, modelId?: string) {
+    const msg: WorkerRequest = {
+      kind: "decodeTokens",
+      uuid: crypto.randomUUID(),
+      content: {
+        inputIds: Array.from(ids),
+        modelId: modelId,
+      },
+    };
+    return await this.getPromise<string>(msg);
+  }
+
   /**
    * Every time the generator is called, we post a message to the worker asking it to
    * decode one step, and we expect to receive a message of `ChatCompletionChunk` from