diff --git a/tools/server/server.cpp b/tools/server/server.cpp
index 0f39def3794..4f9b78b48ae 100644
--- a/tools/server/server.cpp
+++ b/tools/server/server.cpp
@@ -3657,6 +3657,15 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
         return 1;
     }
 
+    // validate batch size for embeddings
+    // embeddings require all tokens to be processed in a single ubatch
+    // see https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/issues/12836
+    if (params.embedding && params.n_batch > params.n_ubatch) {
+        LOG_WRN("%s: embeddings enabled with n_batch (%d) > n_ubatch (%d)\n", __func__, params.n_batch, params.n_ubatch);
+        LOG_WRN("%s: setting n_batch = n_ubatch = %d to avoid assertion failure\n", __func__, params.n_ubatch);
+        params.n_batch = params.n_ubatch;
+    }
+
     // TODO: should we have a separate n_parallel parameter for the server?
     //       https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/16736#discussion_r2483763177
     // TODO: this is a common configuration that is suitable for most local use cases