diff --git a/convert/tokenizer.go b/convert/tokenizer.go
index 653df6d2..429d36e7 100644
--- a/convert/tokenizer.go
+++ b/convert/tokenizer.go
@@ -100,8 +100,21 @@ func parseTokenizer(fsys fs.FS, specialTokenTypes []string) (*Tokenizer, error)
 		}
 
 		if template, ok := p["chat_template"]; ok {
-			if err := json.Unmarshal(template, &t.Template); err != nil {
-				return nil, err
+			var s []struct {
+				Name     string `json:"name"`
+				Template string `json:"template"`
+			}
+			if err := json.Unmarshal(template, &t.Template); err == nil {
+				// noop
+			} else if err := json.Unmarshal(template, &s); err == nil {
+				for _, e := range s {
+					if e.Name == "default" {
+						t.Template = e.Template
+						break
+					}
+				}
+			} else {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid chat_template: %w", err)
 			}
 		}
 
diff --git a/convert/tokenizer_test.go b/convert/tokenizer_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ed0175a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/convert/tokenizer_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+package convert
+
+import (
+	"io"
+	"io/fs"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/google/go-cmp/cmp"
+)
+
+func createTokenizerFS(t *testing.T, dir string, files map[string]io.Reader) fs.FS {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	for k, v := range files {
+		if err := func() error {
+			f, err := os.Create(filepath.Join(dir, k))
+			if err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			defer f.Close()
+
+			if _, err := io.Copy(f, v); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+
+			return nil
+		}(); err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	return os.DirFS(dir)
+}
+
+func TestParseTokenizer(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := []struct {
+		name              string
+		fsys              fs.FS
+		specialTokenTypes []string
+		want              *Tokenizer
+	}{
+		{
+			name: "string chat template",
+			fsys: createTokenizerFS(t, t.TempDir(), map[string]io.Reader{
+				"tokenizer.json": strings.NewReader(`{}`),
+				"tokenizer_config.json": strings.NewReader(`{
+					"chat_template": "<default template>"
+				}`),
+			}),
+			want: &Tokenizer{
+				Vocabulary: &Vocabulary{Model: "gpt2"},
+				Pre:        "default",
+				Template:   "<default template>",
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "list chat template",
+			fsys: createTokenizerFS(t, t.TempDir(), map[string]io.Reader{
+				"tokenizer.json": strings.NewReader(`{}`),
+				"tokenizer_config.json": strings.NewReader(`{
+					"chat_template": [
+						{
+							"name": "default",
+							"template": "<default template>"
+						},
+						{
+							"name": "tools",
+							"template": "<tools template>"
+						}
+					]
+				}`),
+			}),
+			want: &Tokenizer{
+				Vocabulary: &Vocabulary{Model: "gpt2"},
+				Pre:        "default",
+				Template:   "<default template>",
+			},
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range cases {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			tokenizer, err := parseTokenizer(tt.fsys, tt.specialTokenTypes)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+			}
+
+			if diff := cmp.Diff(tt.want, tokenizer); diff != "" {
+				t.Errorf("unexpected tokenizer (-want +got):\n%s", diff)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}