diff --git a/common/common.cpp b/common/common.cpp
index cdcb352b5..7a21081c1 100644
--- a/common/common.cpp
+++ b/common/common.cpp
@@ -191,6 +191,15 @@ int32_t cpu_get_num_math() {
 // CLI argument parsing
 //
 
+static std::string get_cached_file(const std::string & path) {
+    std::string cache_directory = fs_get_cache_directory();
+    const bool success = fs_create_directory_with_parents(cache_directory);
+    if (!success) {
+        throw std::runtime_error("failed to create cache directory: " + cache_directory);
+    }
+    return cache_directory + string_split(path, '/').back();
+}
+
 void gpt_params_handle_model_default(gpt_params & params) {
     if (!params.hf_repo.empty()) {
         // short-hand to avoid specifying --hf-file -> default it to --model
@@ -200,19 +209,13 @@ void gpt_params_handle_model_default(gpt_params & params) {
             }
             params.hf_file = params.model;
         } else if (params.model.empty()) {
-            std::string cache_directory = fs_get_cache_directory();
-            const bool success = fs_create_directory_with_parents(cache_directory);
-            if (!success) {
-                throw std::runtime_error("failed to create cache directory: " + cache_directory);
-            }
-            params.model = cache_directory + string_split(params.hf_file, '/').back();
+            params.model = get_cached_file(params.hf_file);
         }
     } else if (!params.model_url.empty()) {
         if (params.model.empty()) {
             auto f = string_split(params.model_url, '#').front();
             f = string_split(f, '?').front();
-            f = string_split(f, '/').back();
-            params.model =  "models/" + f;
+            params.model = get_cached_file(f);
         }
     } else if (params.model.empty()) {
         params.model = DEFAULT_MODEL_PATH;