diff --git a/examples/finetune/finetune.cpp b/examples/finetune/finetune.cpp
index f476813ab..260b89ce3 100644
--- a/examples/finetune/finetune.cpp
+++ b/examples/finetune/finetune.cpp
@@ -2052,6 +2052,7 @@ struct train_params {
 
     int32_t lora_r;
     int32_t lora_alpha;
+    bool custom_lora_alpha;
 
     uint32_t n_rank_attention_norm;
     uint32_t n_rank_wq;
@@ -2147,8 +2148,9 @@ struct train_params get_default_train_params() {
     params.custom_rope_freq_base  = false;
     params.custom_rope_freq_scale = false;
 
-    params.lora_alpha  = 4;
     params.lora_r      = 4;
+    params.lora_alpha  = 4;
+    params.custom_lora_alpha = false;
 
     params.n_rank_attention_norm = 1;
     params.n_rank_wq             = 4;
@@ -2406,6 +2408,7 @@ bool train_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, struct train_params * params) {
                 break;
             }
             params->lora_alpha = std::stoi(argv[i]);
+            params->custom_lora_alpha = true;
         } else if (arg == "--lora-r") {
             if (++i >= argc) {
                 invalid_param = true;
@@ -2909,7 +2912,7 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
         lora.hparams.rope_freq_scale = params.rope_freq_scale;
     }
     lora.hparams.lora_r                = params.lora_r;
-    lora.hparams.lora_alpha            = params.lora_alpha;
+    lora.hparams.lora_alpha            = params.custom_lora_alpha            ? params.lora_alpha            : params.lora_r;
     int n_rank_attention_norm          = params.custom_n_rank_attention_norm ? params.n_rank_attention_norm : 1;
     int n_rank_wq                      = params.custom_n_rank_wq             ? params.n_rank_wq             : params.lora_r;
     int n_rank_wk                      = params.custom_n_rank_wk             ? params.n_rank_wk             : params.lora_r;