diff --git a/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/chat_template.py b/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/chat_template.py
index a7f749f3b..a943a1448 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/chat_template.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/chat_template.py
@@ -315,6 +315,13 @@ class ChatTemplateStrategy(PromptTokenizingStrategy):
 
         self._validate_eot_and_eos_tokens()
 
+        # Pre-cache EOT token IDs to avoid re-encoding on every call
+        self._eot_token_ids = set()
+        for token in self.eot_tokens:
+            token_ids = self.tokenizer.encode(token, add_special_tokens=False)
+            if len(token_ids) == 1:
+                self._eot_token_ids.add(token_ids[0])
+
     def _validate_eot_and_eos_tokens(self):
         """
         - Validates that EOT tokens (or eos_token) are in the chat_template
@@ -632,20 +639,9 @@ class ChatTemplateStrategy(PromptTokenizingStrategy):
 
     def find_first_eot_token(self, input_ids, start_idx):
         """Find the first EOT token in the input_ids starting from start_idx."""
-        # Get token IDs for all EOT tokens
-        eot_token_ids = []
-        for token in self.eot_tokens:
-            token_ids = self.tokenizer.encode(token, add_special_tokens=False)
-            if len(token_ids) != 1:
-                raise ValueError(
-                    f"EOT token '{token}' is encoded as multiple tokens: {token_ids}. Please add it under `tokens: ` in the config."
-                )
-
-            eot_token_ids.append(token_ids[0])  # Use the last token ID if multiple
-
-        # Search for any of the EOT token IDs
+        # Use pre-cached EOT token IDs (computed once in __init__)
         for i in range(start_idx, len(input_ids)):
-            if input_ids[i] in eot_token_ids:
+            if input_ids[i] in self._eot_token_ids:
                 return i
         return -1