diff --git a/backends/candle/src/lib.rs b/backends/candle/src/lib.rs
index ff824f555..9348000df 100644
--- a/backends/candle/src/lib.rs
+++ b/backends/candle/src/lib.rs
@@ -115,6 +115,23 @@ enum Config {
     XlmRoberta(BertConfig),
 }
 
+/// Helper function to check if flash attention should be used
+/// require_fa2_capabilities: true for models that need flash attention v2, false for v1/v2 compatible models
+fn should_use_flash_attention(require_fa2_capabilities: bool) -> bool {
+    if cfg!(not(feature = "cuda")) {
+        // if not cuda support, always false for now.
+        return false;
+    };
+
+    let flash_attn_enabled = &std::env::var("USE_FLASH_ATTENTION").unwrap_or("true".to_string()).to_lowercase() == "true";
+    // cuda
+    if require_fa2_capabilities {
+        cfg!(feature = "flash-attn") && flash_attn_enabled
+    } else {
+        cfg!(any(feature = "flash-attn", feature = "flash-attn-v1")) && flash_attn_enabled
+    }
+}
+
 pub struct CandleBackend {
     device: Device,
     model: Box<dyn Model + Send>,
@@ -307,12 +324,7 @@ impl CandleBackend {
             }
             #[cfg(feature = "cuda")]
             (Config::Bert(config), Device::Cuda(_)) => {
-                if cfg!(any(feature = "flash-attn", feature = "flash-attn-v1"))
-                    && dtype == DType::F16
-                    // Allow disabling because of flash attention v1 precision problems
-                    // See: https://github.com/huggingface/text-embeddings-inference/issues/37
-                    && &std::env::var("USE_FLASH_ATTENTION").unwrap_or("True".to_string()).to_lowercase() == "true"
-                {
+                if dtype == DType::F16 && should_use_flash_attention(false) {
                     match config {
                         BertConfigWrapper::JinaBert(config) => {
                             tracing::info!("Starting FlashJinaBert model on {:?}", device);
@@ -354,13 +366,8 @@ impl CandleBackend {
             (
                 Config::Camembert(config) | Config::Roberta(config) | Config::XlmRoberta(config),
                 Device::Cuda(_),
-            ) => {
-                if cfg!(any(feature = "flash-attn", feature = "flash-attn-v1"))
-                    && dtype == DType::F16
-                    // Allow disabling because of flash attention v1 precision problems
-                    // See: https://github.com/huggingface/text-embeddings-inference/issues/37
-                    && &std::env::var("USE_FLASH_ATTENTION").unwrap_or("True".to_string()).to_lowercase() == "true"
-                {
+) => {
+                if dtype == DType::F16 && should_use_flash_attention(false) {
                     tracing::info!("Starting FlashBert model on {:?}", device);
                     Ok(Box::new(
                         FlashBertModel::load_roberta(vb, &config, model_type).s()?,
@@ -374,12 +381,7 @@ impl CandleBackend {
             }
             #[cfg(feature = "cuda")]
             (Config::DistilBert(config), Device::Cuda(_)) => {
-                if cfg!(feature = "flash-attn")
-                    && dtype == DType::F16
-                    && &std::env::var("USE_FLASH_ATTENTION")
-                        .unwrap_or("True".to_string())
-                        .to_lowercase()
-                        == "true"
+                if dtype == DType::F16 && should_use_flash_attention(true)
                 {
                     tracing::info!("Starting FlashDistilBert model on {:?}", device);
                     Ok(Box::new(
@@ -405,12 +407,7 @@ impl CandleBackend {
             }
             #[cfg(feature = "cuda")]
             (Config::Gte(config), Device::Cuda(_)) => {
-                if dtype != DType::F16
-                    || !cfg!(any(feature = "flash-attn", feature = "flash-attn-v1"))
-                    || &std::env::var("USE_FLASH_ATTENTION")
-                        .unwrap_or("True".to_string())
-                        .to_lowercase()
-                        != "true"
+                if dtype != DType::F16 || !should_use_flash_attention(false)
                 {
                     tracing::info!("Starting GTE model on {:?}", device);
                     Ok(Box::new(GTEModel::load(vb, &config, model_type).s()?))
@@ -421,13 +418,7 @@ impl CandleBackend {
             }
             #[cfg(feature = "cuda")]
             (Config::Mistral(config), Device::Cuda(_)) => {
-                if dtype != DType::F16
-                    || !cfg!(feature = "flash-attn")
-                    || get_runtime_compute_cap().unwrap() < 80
-                    || &std::env::var("USE_FLASH_ATTENTION")
-                        .unwrap_or("True".to_string())
-                        .to_lowercase()
-                        != "true"
+                if dtype != DType::F16 || !should_use_flash_attention(true)
                 {
                     return Err(BackendError::Start("Mistral is only supported on Cuda devices in fp16 with flash attention v2 enabled".to_string()));
                 }
@@ -438,11 +429,7 @@ impl CandleBackend {
             }
             #[cfg(feature = "cuda")]
             (Config::ModernBert(config), Device::Cuda(_)) => {
-                if cfg!(feature = "flash-attn")
-                    && dtype == DType::F16
-                    // Allow disabling because of flash attention v1 precision problems
-                    // See: https://github.com/huggingface/text-embeddings-inference/issues/37
-                    && &std::env::var("USE_FLASH_ATTENTION").unwrap_or("True".to_string()).to_lowercase() == "true"
+                if dtype == DType::F16 && should_use_flash_attention(true)
                 {
                     tracing::info!("Starting FlashModernBert model on {:?}", device);
                     Ok(Box::new(
@@ -459,12 +446,7 @@ impl CandleBackend {
             }
             #[cfg(feature = "cuda")]
             (Config::NomicBert(config), Device::Cuda(_)) => {
-                if cfg!(feature = "flash-attn")
-                    && dtype == DType::F16
-                    && &std::env::var("USE_FLASH_ATTENTION")
-                        .unwrap_or("True".to_string())
-                        .to_lowercase()
-                        == "true"
+                if dtype == DType::F16 && should_use_flash_attention(true)
                 {
                     tracing::info!("Starting FlashNomicBert model on {:?}", device);
                     Ok(Box::new(
@@ -477,12 +459,7 @@ impl CandleBackend {
             }
             #[cfg(feature = "cuda")]
             (Config::Qwen2(config), Device::Cuda(_)) => {
-                if dtype != DType::F16
-                    || !cfg!(any(feature = "flash-attn", feature = "flash-attn-v1"))
-                    || &std::env::var("USE_FLASH_ATTENTION")
-                        .unwrap_or("True".to_string())
-                        .to_lowercase()
-                        != "true"
+                if dtype != DType::F16 || !should_use_flash_attention(false)
                 {
                     return Err(BackendError::Start("Qwen2 is only supported on Cuda devices in fp16 with flash attention v2 enabled".to_string()));
                 }
@@ -493,12 +470,7 @@ impl CandleBackend {
             }
             #[cfg(feature = "cuda")]
             (Config::Qwen3(config), Device::Cuda(_)) => {
-                if dtype != DType::F16
-                    || !cfg!(any(feature = "flash-attn", feature = "flash-attn-v1"))
-                    || &std::env::var("USE_FLASH_ATTENTION")
-                        .unwrap_or("True".to_string())
-                        .to_lowercase()
-                        != "true"
+                if dtype != DType::F16 || !should_use_flash_attention(false)
                 {
                     tracing::info!("Starting Qwen3 model on {:?}", device);
                     Ok(Box::new(Qwen3Model::load(vb, &config, model_type).s()?))