diff --git a/machine-learning/Dockerfile b/machine-learning/Dockerfile
index 25f3c44d9e..9f70998a45 100644
--- a/machine-learning/Dockerfile
+++ b/machine-learning/Dockerfile
@@ -65,7 +65,8 @@ RUN if [ "$DEVICE" = "rocm" ]; then \
 
 FROM python:3.11-slim-bookworm@sha256:49d73c49616929b0a4f37c50fee0056eb4b0f15de624591e8d9bf84b4dfdd3ce AS prod-cpu
 
-ENV LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libmimalloc.so.2
+ENV LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libmimalloc.so.2 \
+    MACHINE_LEARNING_MODEL_ARENA=false
 
 FROM python:3.11-slim-bookworm@sha256:49d73c49616929b0a4f37c50fee0056eb4b0f15de624591e8d9bf84b4dfdd3ce AS prod-openvino
 
@@ -82,7 +83,8 @@ RUN apt-get update && \
 
 FROM nvidia/cuda:12.2.2-runtime-ubuntu22.04@sha256:94c1577b2cd9dd6c0312dc04dff9cb2fdce2b268018abc3d7c2dbcacf1155000 AS prod-cuda
 
-ENV LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libmimalloc.so.2
+ENV LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libmimalloc.so.2 \
+    MACHINE_LEARNING_MODEL_ARENA=false
 
 RUN apt-get update && \
     apt-get install --no-install-recommends -yqq libcudnn9-cuda-12 && \
@@ -98,7 +100,8 @@ FROM rocm/dev-ubuntu-22.04:6.3.4-complete@sha256:1f7e92ca7e3a3785680473329ed1091
 FROM prod-cpu AS prod-armnn
 
 ENV LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/armnn \
-    LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libmimalloc.so.2
+    LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libmimalloc.so.2 \
+    MACHINE_LEARNING_MODEL_ARENA=false
 
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends ocl-icd-libopencl1 mesa-opencl-icd libgomp1 && \
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
@@ -118,7 +121,8 @@ COPY --from=builder-armnn \
 
 FROM prod-cpu AS prod-rknn
 
-ENV LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libmimalloc.so.2
+ENV LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libmimalloc.so.2 \
+    MACHINE_LEARNING_MODEL_ARENA=false
 
 ADD --checksum=sha256:73993ed4b440460825f21611731564503cc1d5a0c123746477da6cd574f34885 https://github.com/airockchip/rknn-toolkit2/raw/refs/tags/v2.3.0/rknpu2/runtime/Linux/librknn_api/aarch64/librknnrt.so /usr/lib/
 
diff --git a/machine-learning/immich_ml/config.py b/machine-learning/immich_ml/config.py
index 939afbc98b..d9edd88a8c 100644
--- a/machine-learning/immich_ml/config.py
+++ b/machine-learning/immich_ml/config.py
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
     request_threads: int = os.cpu_count() or 4
     model_inter_op_threads: int = 0
     model_intra_op_threads: int = 0
+    model_arena: bool = True
     ann: bool = True
     ann_fp16_turbo: bool = False
     ann_tuning_level: int = 2
diff --git a/machine-learning/immich_ml/sessions/ort.py b/machine-learning/immich_ml/sessions/ort.py
index 42ceddf4bf..d18aae751a 100644
--- a/machine-learning/immich_ml/sessions/ort.py
+++ b/machine-learning/immich_ml/sessions/ort.py
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ class OrtSession:
     @property
     def _sess_options_default(self) -> ort.SessionOptions:
         sess_options = ort.SessionOptions()
-        sess_options.enable_cpu_mem_arena = False
+        sess_options.enable_cpu_mem_arena = settings.model_arena
 
         # avoid thread contention between models
         if settings.model_inter_op_threads > 0:
diff --git a/machine-learning/test_main.py b/machine-learning/test_main.py
index f8027f477a..0d02ef7466 100644
--- a/machine-learning/test_main.py
+++ b/machine-learning/test_main.py
@@ -309,6 +309,22 @@ class TestOrtSession:
         assert session.sess_options.inter_op_num_threads == 2
         assert session.sess_options.intra_op_num_threads == 4
 
+    def test_uses_arena_if_enabled(self, mocker: MockerFixture) -> None:
+        mock_settings = mocker.patch("immich_ml.sessions.ort.settings", autospec=True)
+        mock_settings.model_arena = True
+
+        session = OrtSession("ViT-B-32__openai", providers=["CPUExecutionProvider"])
+
+        assert session.sess_options.enable_cpu_mem_arena
+
+    def test_does_not_use_arena_if_disabled(self, mocker: MockerFixture) -> None:
+        mock_settings = mocker.patch("immich_ml.sessions.ort.settings", autospec=True)
+        mock_settings.model_arena = False
+
+        session = OrtSession("ViT-B-32__openai", providers=["CPUExecutionProvider"])
+
+        assert not session.sess_options.enable_cpu_mem_arena
+
     def test_sets_sess_options_kwarg(self) -> None:
         sess_options = ort.SessionOptions()
         session = OrtSession(