diff --git a/backends/exllamav2/model.py b/backends/exllamav2/model.py
index 047cea27..2da49e41 100644
--- a/backends/exllamav2/model.py
+++ b/backends/exllamav2/model.py
@@ -399,19 +399,7 @@ def progress(loaded_modules: int, total_modules: int)
         ExLlamaV2Tokenizer.extended_id_to_piece = {}
         ExLlamaV2Tokenizer.extended_piece_to_id = {}
 
-        try:
-            self.tokenizer = ExLlamaV2Tokenizer(self.config)
-        except AssertionError as exc:
-            if "HF tokenizer" in str(exc):
-                raise ImportError(
-                    "Could not create ExllamaV2's tokenizer for this model "
-                    "because tokenizers is not installed.\n"
-                    "Please run the following command in your environment "
-                    "to install extra packages:\n"
-                    "pip install -U .[extras]"
-                ) from exc
-            else:
-                raise exc
+        self.tokenizer = ExLlamaV2Tokenizer(self.config)
 
         # Calculate autosplit reserve for all GPUs
         gpu_count = torch.cuda.device_count()
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index c4e0459d..00cda211 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "loguru",
     "sse-starlette",
     "packaging",
+    "tokenizers",
 ]
 
 [project.urls]
@@ -32,7 +33,6 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
 extras = [
-    "tokenizers",
     "outlines",
     "lm-format-enforcer",
 ]