diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2ea99b8f1..89cf1ef36 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -618,6 +618,9 @@ push_dataset_to_hub: # repo path
 # The maximum number of processes to use while preprocessing your input dataset. This defaults to `os.cpu_count()`
 # if not set.
 dataset_processes: # defaults to os.cpu_count() if not set
+# Keep dataset in memory while preprocessing
+# Only needed if cached dataset is taking too much storage
+dataset_keep_in_memory:
 # push checkpoints to hub
 hub_model_id: # repo path to push finetuned model
 # how to push checkpoints to hub
diff --git a/src/axolotl/datasets.py b/src/axolotl/datasets.py
index c9181bdab..837b0d674 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/datasets.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/datasets.py
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ class TokenizedPromptDataset(Dataset):
         Args:
             prompt_tokenizer (PromptTokenizingStrategy): The prompt tokenizing method for processing the data.
             dataset (dataset.Dataset): Dataset with text files.
+            process_count (int): Number of processes to use for tokenizing.
+            keep_in_memory (bool): Whether to keep the tokenized dataset in memory.
     """
 
     def __init__(  # pylint: disable=super-init-not-called
@@ -31,10 +33,12 @@ class TokenizedPromptDataset(Dataset):
         prompt_tokenizer: PromptTokenizingStrategy,
         dataset: IterableDataset,
         process_count: Optional[int] = None,
+        keep_in_memory: Optional[bool] = False,
         **kwargs,
     ):
         self.prompt_tokenizer = prompt_tokenizer
         self.process_count = process_count
+        self.keep_in_memory = keep_in_memory
         super().__init__(
             self.process(dataset).data,
             **kwargs,
@@ -42,11 +46,8 @@ class TokenizedPromptDataset(Dataset):
 
     def process(self, dataset):
         features = dataset.features.keys()
-        num_proc = (
-            min(64, self.process_count)
-            if self.process_count
-            else min(64, os.cpu_count())
-        )
+        num_proc = min(64, self.process_count if self.process_count else os.cpu_count())
+
         map_kwargs = {}
         if self.prompt_tokenizer.supports_batched:
             map_kwargs["batched"] = True
@@ -55,7 +56,7 @@ class TokenizedPromptDataset(Dataset):
             self.prompt_tokenizer.tokenize_prompt,
             num_proc=num_proc,
             remove_columns=features,
-            keep_in_memory=True,
+            keep_in_memory=self.keep_in_memory,
             **map_kwargs,
         )
 
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/data.py b/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
index 15ae8d5a5..1eff82694 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
@@ -588,6 +588,11 @@ def get_dataset_wrapper(
     dataset_wrapper = None
     dataset_prompter = None
 
+    ds_kwargs = {
+        "process_count": cfg.dataset_processes,
+        "keep_in_memory": cfg.dataset_keep_in_memory is True,
+    }
+
     if (
         "input_ids" in dataset.features
         and "attention_mask" in dataset.features
@@ -604,14 +609,14 @@ def get_dataset_wrapper(
         dataset_wrapper = TokenizedPromptDataset(
             ds_strategy,
             dataset,
-            process_count=cfg.dataset_processes,
+            **ds_kwargs,
         )
     elif ds_strategy := load(config_dataset.type, tokenizer, cfg, config_dataset):
         dataset_prompter = UnsupportedPrompter()
         dataset_wrapper = TokenizedPromptDataset(
             ds_strategy,
             dataset,
-            process_count=cfg.dataset_processes,
+            **ds_kwargs,
         )
     elif d_base_type == "alpaca":
         dataset_prompter = AlpacaPrompter(d_prompt_style)
@@ -624,7 +629,7 @@ def get_dataset_wrapper(
         ds_wrapper = TokenizedPromptDataset(
             ds_strategy,
             dataset,
-            process_count=cfg.dataset_processes,
+            **ds_kwargs,
         )
         dataset_wrapper = ds_wrapper
     elif d_base_type == "explainchoice":
@@ -638,7 +643,7 @@ def get_dataset_wrapper(
         ds_wrapper = TokenizedPromptDataset(
             ds_strategy,
             dataset,
-            process_count=cfg.dataset_processes,
+            **ds_kwargs,
         )
         dataset_wrapper = ds_wrapper
     elif d_base_type == "concisechoice":
@@ -652,7 +657,7 @@ def get_dataset_wrapper(
         ds_wrapper = TokenizedPromptDataset(
             ds_strategy,
             dataset,
-            process_count=cfg.dataset_processes,
+            **ds_kwargs,
         )
         dataset_wrapper = ds_wrapper
     elif d_base_type == "summarizetldr":
@@ -666,7 +671,7 @@ def get_dataset_wrapper(
         ds_wrapper = TokenizedPromptDataset(
             ds_strategy,
             dataset,
-            process_count=cfg.dataset_processes,
+            **ds_kwargs,
         )
         dataset_wrapper = ds_wrapper
     elif d_base_type == "jeopardy":
@@ -680,7 +685,7 @@ def get_dataset_wrapper(
         ds_wrapper = TokenizedPromptDataset(
             ds_strategy,
             dataset,
-            process_count=cfg.dataset_processes,
+            **ds_kwargs,
         )
         dataset_wrapper = ds_wrapper
     elif d_base_type == "oasst":
@@ -694,7 +699,7 @@ def get_dataset_wrapper(
         ds_wrapper = TokenizedPromptDataset(
             ds_strategy,
             dataset,
-            process_count=cfg.dataset_processes,
+            **ds_kwargs,
         )
         dataset_wrapper = ds_wrapper
     elif d_base_type == "gpteacher":
@@ -708,7 +713,7 @@ def get_dataset_wrapper(
         ds_wrapper = TokenizedPromptDataset(
             ds_strategy,
             dataset,
-            process_count=cfg.dataset_processes,
+            **ds_kwargs,
         )
         dataset_wrapper = ds_wrapper
     elif d_base_type == "reflection":
@@ -722,7 +727,7 @@ def get_dataset_wrapper(
         ds_wrapper = TokenizedPromptDataset(
             ds_strategy,
             dataset,
-            process_count=cfg.dataset_processes,
+            **ds_kwargs,
         )
         dataset_wrapper = ds_wrapper
     else: