diff --git a/examples/llava/llava-utils.h b/examples/llava/llava-utils.h
index 79e237c86..db8af6d6c 100644
--- a/examples/llava/llava-utils.h
+++ b/examples/llava/llava-utils.h
@@ -143,3 +143,55 @@ inline const char * sample(struct llama_context * ctx_llama, gpt_params & params
     eval_id(ctx_llama, id, n_past);
     return ret.c_str();
 }
+
+static const char* IMG_BASE64_TAG_BEGIN = "<img src=\"data:image/jpeg;base64,";
+static const char* IMG_BASE64_TAG_END = "\">";
+
+static void find_image_tag_in_prompt(const std::string& prompt, size_t& begin_out, size_t& end_out) {
+    begin_out = prompt.find(IMG_BASE64_TAG_BEGIN);
+    end_out = prompt.find(IMG_BASE64_TAG_END, (begin_out == std::string::npos) ? 0UL : begin_out);
+}
+
+static bool prompt_contains_image(const std::string& prompt) {
+    size_t begin, end;
+    find_image_tag_in_prompt(prompt, begin, end);
+    return (begin != std::string::npos);
+}
+
+// replaces the base64 image tag in the prompt with `replacement`
+static bool get_image_from_prompt(const std::string& prompt, clip_image_u8 * img) {    
+    size_t img_base64_str_start, img_base64_str_end;
+    find_image_tag_in_prompt(prompt, img_base64_str_start, img_base64_str_end);
+    if (img_base64_str_start == std::string::npos || img_base64_str_end == std::string::npos) {
+        fprintf(stderr, "%s: invalid base64 image tag. must be %s<base64 byte string>%s\n", __func__, IMG_BASE64_TAG_BEGIN, IMG_BASE64_TAG_END);
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    auto base64_bytes_start = img_base64_str_start + strlen(IMG_BASE64_TAG_BEGIN);
+    auto base64_bytes_count = img_base64_str_end - base64_bytes_start;
+    auto base64_str = prompt.substr(base64_bytes_start, base64_bytes_count );
+
+    auto required_bytes = base64::required_encode_size(base64_str.size());
+    auto img_bytes = std::vector<unsigned char>(required_bytes);
+    auto img_bytes_end = base64::decode(base64_str.begin(), base64_str.end(), img_bytes.begin());
+    auto img_bytes_len = img_bytes_end - img_bytes.begin();
+
+    auto img_loaded_ok = clip_image_load_from_bytes(img_bytes.data(), img_bytes_len, img);
+    if (!img_loaded_ok) {
+        fprintf(stderr, "%s: could not load image from base64 string.\n", __func__);
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    return true;
+}
+
+static std::string remove_image_from_prompt(const std::string& prompt, const char * replacement = "") {
+    size_t begin, end;
+    find_image_tag_in_prompt(prompt, begin, end);
+    if (begin == std::string::npos || end == std::string::npos) {
+        return prompt;
+    }
+    auto pre = prompt.substr(0, begin);
+    auto post = prompt.substr(end+1);
+    return pre + replacement + post;
+}
diff --git a/examples/llava/llava.cpp b/examples/llava/llava.cpp
index bfa2f72a5..7781d4222 100644
--- a/examples/llava/llava.cpp
+++ b/examples/llava/llava.cpp
@@ -37,58 +37,28 @@ static bool encode_image_with_clip(clip_ctx * ctx_clip, int n_threads, const cli
     return true;
 }
 
-static const char* IMG_BASE64_TAG_BEGIN = "<img src=\"data:image/jpeg;base64,";
-static const char* IMG_BASE64_TAG_END = "\">";
+bool llava_build_img_embed(struct llava_context * ctx_llava, const clip_image_u8 * img) {
 
-static void find_image_tag_in_prompt(const std::string& prompt, size_t& begin_out, size_t& end_out) {
-    begin_out = prompt.find(IMG_BASE64_TAG_BEGIN);
-    end_out = prompt.find(IMG_BASE64_TAG_END, (begin_out == std::string::npos) ? 0UL : begin_out);
-}
-
-static bool prompt_contains_image(const std::string& prompt) {
-    size_t begin, end;
-    find_image_tag_in_prompt(prompt, begin, end);
-    return (begin != std::string::npos);
-}
-
-// replaces the base64 image tag in the prompt with `replacement`
-static bool get_image_from_prompt(const std::string& prompt, clip_image_u8 * img) {    
-    size_t img_base64_str_start, img_base64_str_end;
-    find_image_tag_in_prompt(prompt, img_base64_str_start, img_base64_str_end);
-    if (img_base64_str_start == std::string::npos || img_base64_str_end == std::string::npos) {
-        fprintf(stderr, "%s: invalid base64 image tag. must be %s<base64 byte string>%s\n", __func__, IMG_BASE64_TAG_BEGIN, IMG_BASE64_TAG_END);
+    float * image_embd = (float *)malloc(clip_embd_nbytes(ctx_clip));
+    if (!image_embd) {
+        fprintf(stderr, "Unable to allocate memory for image embeddings\n");
+        free(image_embd);
         return false;
     }
 
-    auto base64_bytes_start = img_base64_str_start + strlen(IMG_BASE64_TAG_BEGIN);
-    auto base64_bytes_count = img_base64_str_end - base64_bytes_start;
-    auto base64_str = prompt.substr(base64_bytes_start, base64_bytes_count );
-    printf("base64_str: '%s'\n", base64_str.c_str());
-
-    auto required_bytes = base64::required_encode_size(base64_str.size());
-    auto img_bytes = std::vector<unsigned char>(required_bytes);
-    auto img_bytes_end = base64::decode(base64_str.begin(), base64_str.end(), img_bytes.begin());
-    auto img_bytes_len = img_bytes_end - img_bytes.begin();
-
-    auto img_loaded_ok = clip_image_load_from_bytes(img_bytes.data(), img_bytes_len, img);
-    if (!img_loaded_ok) {
-        fprintf(stderr, "%s: could not load image from base64 string.\n", __func__);
+    int n_img_embd;
+    int n_img_pos;
+    float t_img_enc_ms;
+    if (!encode_image_with_clip(ctx_clip, params->n_threads, &img, image_embd, &n_img_embd, &n_img_pos, &t_img_enc_ms)) {
+        fprintf(stderr, "%s: cannot encode image, aborting\n", __func__);
+        free(image_embd);
         return false;
     }
 
-    return true;
+    ctx_llava->image_embd = image_embd;
+    retur true;
 }
 
-static std::string remove_image_from_prompt(const std::string& prompt, const char * replacement = "") {
-    size_t begin, end;
-    find_image_tag_in_prompt(prompt, begin, end);
-    if (begin == std::string::npos || end == std::string::npos) {
-        return prompt;
-    }
-    auto pre = prompt.substr(0, begin);
-    auto post = prompt.substr(end+1);
-    return pre + replacement + post;
-}
 
 struct llava_context * llava_init(gpt_params * params) {
 
@@ -102,46 +72,6 @@ struct llava_context * llava_init(gpt_params * params) {
     
     auto ctx_clip = clip_model_load(clip_path, /*verbosity=*/ 1);
 
-    // load and preprocess the image
-    clip_image_u8 img;
-
-    if (prompt_contains_image(prompt)) {
-        if (img_path) {
-            printf("using base64 encoded image instead of command line image path\n");
-        }
-        if (!get_image_from_prompt(prompt, &img)) {
-            fprintf(stderr, "%s: can't load image from prompt\n", __func__);
-            clip_free(ctx_clip);
-            return NULL;
-        }
-        prompt = remove_image_from_prompt(prompt);
-    } else {
-        if (!clip_image_load_from_file(img_path, &img)) {
-            fprintf(stderr, "%s: is %s really an image file?\n", __func__, img_path);
-            clip_free(ctx_clip);
-            return NULL;
-        }
-    }
-
-    float * image_embd = (float *)malloc(clip_embd_nbytes(ctx_clip));
-    if (!image_embd) {
-        fprintf(stderr, "Unable to allocate memory for image embeddings\n");
-        return NULL;
-    }
-
-    int n_img_embd;
-    int n_img_pos;
-    float t_img_enc_ms;
-    if (!encode_image_with_clip(ctx_clip, params->n_threads, &img, image_embd, &n_img_embd, &n_img_pos, &t_img_enc_ms)) {
-        fprintf(stderr, "%s: cannot encode image, aborting\n", __func__);
-        clip_free(ctx_clip);
-        return NULL;
-    }
-
-    // we get the embeddings, free up the memory required for CLIP
-    clip_free(ctx_clip);
-    ctx_clip = NULL;
-
     llama_backend_init(params->numa);
 
     llama_model_params model_params = llama_model_default_params();
@@ -194,6 +124,11 @@ struct llava_context * llava_init(gpt_params * params) {
 }
 
 void llava_free(struct llava_context * ctx_llava) {
+    if (ctx_llava->ctx_clip) {
+        clip_free(ctx_clip);
+        ctx_llava->ctx_clip = NULL;
+    }
+
     llama_free(ctx_llava->ctx_llama);
     llama_free_model(ctx_llava->model);
     llama_backend_free();
@@ -249,6 +184,27 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
         return 1;
     }
 
+    // load and preprocess the image
+    clip_image_u8 img;
+    if (prompt_contains_image(prompt)) {
+        if (img_path) {
+            printf("using base64 encoded image instead of command line image path\n");
+        }
+        if (!get_image_from_prompt(prompt, &img)) {
+            fprintf(stderr, "%s: can't load image from prompt\n", __func__);
+            clip_free(ctx_clip);
+            return NULL;
+        }
+        prompt = remove_image_from_prompt(prompt);
+    } else {
+        if (!clip_image_load_from_file(img_path, &img)) {
+            fprintf(stderr, "%s: is %s really an image file?\n", __func__, img_path);
+            clip_free(ctx_clip);
+            return NULL;
+        }
+    }
+    llava_build_img_embed(ctx_llava, &img);
+
     // process the prompt
     // llava chat format is "<system_prompt>USER: <image_embeddings>\n<textual_prompt>\nASSISTANT:"
     llava_process_prompt(ctx_llava, &params, params.prompt.c_str());