diff --git a/brainscore_language/model_helpers/huggingface.py b/brainscore_language/model_helpers/huggingface.py
index 7f98b24b..6a7fd855 100644
--- a/brainscore_language/model_helpers/huggingface.py
+++ b/brainscore_language/model_helpers/huggingface.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 from numpy.core import defchararray
 from torch.utils.hooks import RemovableHandle
 from tqdm import tqdm
-from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer, BatchEncoding
+from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer, BatchEncoding, DynamicCache
 from transformers.modeling_outputs import CausalLMOutput
 from typing import Union, List, Tuple, Dict, Callable
 
@@ -55,10 +55,10 @@ def __init__(
             self.basemodel = model
         elif multi_gpu:
             self.basemodel = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
-                self.model_id, low_cpu_mem_usage=True, device_map='auto')
+                self.model_id, low_cpu_mem_usage=True, device_map='auto', use_safetensors=True)
         else:
             self.basemodel = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
-                self.model_id, low_cpu_mem_usage=True)
+                self.model_id, low_cpu_mem_usage=True, use_safetensors=True)
 
         if multi_gpu:
             # With device_map='auto', model is split across GPUs. Inputs must go to
@@ -126,6 +126,11 @@ def digest_text(self, text: Union[str, List[str]]) -> Dict[str, DataAssembly]:
         output = {'behavior': [], 'neural': []}
         number_of_tokens = 0
 
+        # KV cache state: only used for behavioral-only tasks (no layer activations needed)
+        _use_kv = self.behavioral_task is not None and not self.neural_recordings
+        _past_kv = None
+        _last_logit = None  # last-position logit from previous step, shape [1, 1, vocab]
+
         text_iterator = tqdm(text, desc='digest text') if len(text) > 100 else text  # show progress bar if many parts
         for part_number, text_part in enumerate(text_iterator):
             # prepare string representation of context
@@ -137,7 +142,55 @@ def digest_text(self, text: Union[str, List[str]]) -> Dict[str, DataAssembly]:
 
             # run and remove hooks
             with torch.no_grad():
-                base_output = self.basemodel(**context_tokens)
+                if _use_kv and _past_kv is not None:
+                    # Slide the KV cache if adding new tokens would exceed the model's context window.
+                    # Drop the oldest entries so the cache stays at max_position_embeddings - new_len,
+                    # keeping attention map size constant at O(max_len) forever.
+                    _max_len = getattr(self.basemodel.config, 'max_position_embeddings', None)
+                    _past_len = _past_kv.get_seq_length() if hasattr(_past_kv, 'get_seq_length') \
+                        else _past_kv[0][0].shape[2]
+                    _new_len = self.current_tokens['input_ids'].shape[1]
+                    if _max_len is not None and _past_len + _new_len > _max_len:
+                        _keep = _max_len - _new_len
+                        if hasattr(_past_kv, 'get_seq_length'):
+                            # DynamicCache: use public to_legacy_cache/from_legacy_cache API
+                            # to avoid depending on internal attributes (key_cache/value_cache)
+                            # which have changed across transformers versions
+                            _legacy = _past_kv.to_legacy_cache()
+                            _sliced = tuple(
+                                (k[:, :, -_keep:, :], v[:, :, -_keep:, :])
+                                for k, v in _legacy
+                            )
+                            _past_kv = DynamicCache.from_legacy_cache(_sliced)
+                        else:
+                            # legacy tuple-of-tuples format (transformers < 4.36)
+                            _past_kv = tuple(
+                                (k[:, :, -_keep:, :], v[:, :, -_keep:, :])
+                                for k, v in _past_kv
+                            )
+
+                if _use_kv and _past_kv is not None:
+                    # Feed only new tokens; the KV cache covers the prefix
+                    new_tok = {k: v.to(self.device) for k, v in self.current_tokens.items()}
+                    # Attention mask must span past + new tokens
+                    past_len = _past_kv.get_seq_length() if hasattr(_past_kv, 'get_seq_length') \
+                        else _past_kv[0][0].shape[2]
+                    new_len = new_tok['input_ids'].shape[1]
+                    new_tok['attention_mask'] = torch.ones(
+                        1, past_len + new_len, dtype=torch.long, device=self.device)
+                    base_output = self.basemodel(**new_tok, past_key_values=_past_kv, use_cache=True)
+                    # Prepend last step's final logit so estimate_reading_times slicing is unchanged:
+                    # it expects logits[-new_len-1:-1], which needs the "bridge" logit from prior context
+                    base_output.logits = torch.cat(
+                        [_last_logit.to(base_output.logits.device), base_output.logits], dim=1)
+                else:
+                    base_output = self.basemodel(**context_tokens, use_cache=_use_kv)
+
+            # Update KV cache state after each step
+            if _use_kv:
+                _past_kv = base_output.past_key_values
+                _last_logit = base_output.logits[:, -1:, :].detach()
+
             for hook in hooks:
                 hook.remove()