diff --git a/examples/common.cpp b/examples/common.cpp
index f3085b08e5b25..c19cf92feb9b1 100644
--- a/examples/common.cpp
+++ b/examples/common.cpp
@@ -285,6 +285,12 @@ bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
                 break;
             }
             params.antiprompt.push_back(argv[i]);
+        } else if (arg == "--stop") {
+            if (++i >= argc) {
+                invalid_param = true;
+                break;
+            }
+            params.stop_keywords.push_back(argv[i]);
         } else if (arg == "--perplexity") {
             params.perplexity = true;
         } else if (arg == "--ignore-eos") {
@@ -370,6 +376,8 @@ void gpt_print_usage(int /*argc*/, char ** argv, const gpt_params & params) {
     fprintf(stderr, "  -r PROMPT, --reverse-prompt PROMPT\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "                        run in interactive mode and poll user input upon seeing PROMPT (can be\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "                        specified more than once for multiple prompts).\n");
+    fprintf(stderr, "  --stop KEYWORD        a string that, when output by the model, will stop generation\n");
+    fprintf(stderr, "                        (can be specified more than once for multiple keywords).\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  --color               colorise output to distinguish prompt and user input from generations\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  -s SEED, --seed SEED  RNG seed (default: -1, use random seed for < 0)\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  -t N, --threads N     number of threads to use during computation (default: %d)\n", params.n_threads);
diff --git a/examples/common.h b/examples/common.h
index 499671b2e8d6d..0c8d95ccf63c1 100644
--- a/examples/common.h
+++ b/examples/common.h
@@ -46,10 +46,12 @@ struct gpt_params {
 
     std::string model  = "models/lamma-7B/ggml-model.bin"; // model path
     std::string prompt = "";
-    std::string path_prompt_cache = "";  // path to file for saving/loading prompt eval state
-    std::string input_prefix      = "";  // string to prefix user inputs with
-    std::string input_suffix      = "";  // string to suffix user inputs with
-    std::vector<std::string> antiprompt; // string upon seeing which more user input is prompted
+
+    std::string path_prompt_cache = "";     // path to file for saving/loading prompt eval state
+    std::string input_prefix      = "";     // string to prefix user inputs with
+    std::string input_suffix      = "";     // string to suffix user inputs with
+    std::vector<std::string> antiprompt;    // string upon seeing which more user input is prompted
+    std::vector<std::string> stop_keywords; // string upon seeing which the model will stop
 
     std::string lora_adapter = "";  // lora adapter path
     std::string lora_base = "";     // base model path for the lora adapter
diff --git a/examples/main/main.cpp b/examples/main/main.cpp
index bd1c4ab558521..11827157b40cc 100644
--- a/examples/main/main.cpp
+++ b/examples/main/main.cpp
@@ -264,6 +264,13 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
             fprintf(stderr, "Input suffix: '%s'\n", params.input_suffix.c_str());
         }
     }
+
+    if (params.stop_keywords.size()) {
+      for (auto & stop_keyword : params.stop_keywords) {
+        fprintf(stderr, "Stop keyword: '%s'\n", stop_keyword.c_str());
+      }
+    }
+
     fprintf(stderr, "sampling: repeat_last_n = %d, repeat_penalty = %f, presence_penalty = %f, frequency_penalty = %f, top_k = %d, tfs_z = %f, top_p = %f, typical_p = %f, temp = %f, mirostat = %d, mirostat_lr = %f, mirostat_ent = %f\n",
             params.repeat_last_n, params.repeat_penalty, params.presence_penalty, params.frequency_penalty, params.top_k, params.tfs_z, params.top_p, params.typical_p, params.temp, params.mirostat, params.mirostat_eta, params.mirostat_tau);
     fprintf(stderr, "generate: n_ctx = %d, n_batch = %d, n_predict = %d, n_keep = %d\n", n_ctx, params.n_batch, params.n_predict, params.n_keep);
@@ -504,6 +511,26 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
             console_set_color(con_st, CONSOLE_COLOR_DEFAULT);
         }
 
+        // check for stop keywords if we're processing generations
+        if (params.stop_keywords.size() && (int) embd_inp.size() <= n_consumed) {
+            std::string last_output;
+            for (auto id : last_n_tokens) {
+                last_output += llama_token_to_str(ctx, id);
+            }
+            bool stop = false;
+            for (auto & stop_keyword : params.stop_keywords) {
+                const size_t stop_pos = last_output.find(stop_keyword.c_str(),
+                    last_output.length() - stop_keyword.length(), stop_keyword.length());
+                if (stop_pos != std::string::npos) {
+                    stop = true;
+                    break;
+                }
+            }
+            if (stop) {
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+
         // in interactive mode, and not currently processing queued inputs;
         // check if we should prompt the user for more
         if (params.interactive && (int) embd_inp.size() <= n_consumed) {