diff --git a/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/pretrain.py b/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/pretrain.py
index 8430a7fca..ecf3c2d62 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/pretrain.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/pretrain.py
@@ -49,12 +49,16 @@ class PretrainTokenizationStrategy(PromptTokenizingStrategy):
 
 
 def load(tokenizer, cfg):
+    if cfg.pretraining_dataset:
+        cfg_ds = cfg.pretraining_dataset
+    else:
+        cfg_ds = cfg.dataset
     strat = PretrainTokenizationStrategy(
         PretrainTokenizer(),
         tokenizer,
         cfg.train_on_inputs,
         cfg.sequence_len,
-        text_column=cfg.pretraining_dataset[0]["text_column"] or "text",
+        text_column=cfg_ds[0]["text_column"] or "text",
         max_length=cfg.sequence_len * 64,
     )
     return strat