diff --git a/common/sampling.cpp b/common/sampling.cpp
index e05cb754c0d5f..d369f6c4a63e7 100644
--- a/common/sampling.cpp
+++ b/common/sampling.cpp
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ struct llama_sampling_context * llama_sampling_init(const struct gpt_sampling_pa
         llama_sampling_set_logit_bias(result->smpl, params.logit_bias.size(), params.logit_bias.data());
     }
 
-    result->prev.resize(params.n_prev);
+    result->prev = ring_buffer<llama_token>(params.n_prev);
 
     result->n_valid = 0;
 
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ void llama_sampling_free(struct llama_sampling_context * ctx) {
 void llama_sampling_reset(llama_sampling_context * ctx) {
     llama_sampling_reset(ctx->smpl);
 
-    std::fill(ctx->prev.begin(), ctx->prev.end(), 0);
+    ctx->prev.clear();
     ctx->cur.clear();
     ctx->n_valid = 0;
 }
@@ -384,7 +384,7 @@ static llama_token_data_array llama_sampling_prepare_impl(
     llama_token_data_array cur_p = { cur.data(), cur.size(), false };
 
     // apply penalties
-    const auto & penalty_tokens = prev;
+    const auto & penalty_tokens = prev.to_vector();
     const int penalty_tokens_used_size = std::min((int)penalty_tokens.size(), penalty_last_n);
     if (penalty_tokens_used_size) {
         const float nl_logit = logits[llama_token_nl(llama_get_model(ctx_main))];
@@ -434,7 +434,9 @@ void llama_sampling_accept(
         struct llama_sampling_context * ctx_sampling,
         llama_token id,
         bool apply_grammar) {
-    ctx_sampling->prev.erase(ctx_sampling->prev.begin());
+    if (!ctx_sampling->prev.empty()) {
+        ctx_sampling->prev.pop_front();
+    }
     ctx_sampling->prev.push_back(id);
 
     if (apply_grammar) {
diff --git a/common/sampling.h b/common/sampling.h
index 74020d52b0171..3e36e90ec6208 100644
--- a/common/sampling.h
+++ b/common/sampling.h
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 #include <string>
 #include <vector>
+#include <stdexcept>
 
 // sampler types
 enum class llama_sampler_type : char {
@@ -58,6 +59,106 @@ typedef struct gpt_sampling_params {
     std::vector<llama_logit_bias> logit_bias; // logit biases to apply
 } gpt_sampling_params;
 
+// the ring buffer works similarly to std::deque, but with a fixed capacity
+template<typename T>
+struct ring_buffer {
+    ring_buffer() {}
+    ring_buffer(size_t cap) : capacity(cap), data(cap) {}
+
+    T & front() {
+        if (sz == 0) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("ring buffer is empty");
+        }
+        return data[first];
+    }
+
+    const T & front() const {
+        if (sz == 0) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("ring buffer is empty");
+        }
+        return data[first];
+    }
+
+    T & back() {
+        if (sz == 0) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("ring buffer is empty");
+        }
+        return data[pos];
+    }
+
+    const T & back() const {
+        if (sz == 0) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("ring buffer is empty");
+        }
+        return data[pos];
+    }
+
+    void push_back(const T & value) {
+        if (sz == capacity) {
+            // advance the start when buffer is full
+            first = (first + 1) % capacity;
+        } else {
+            sz++;
+        }
+        data[pos] = value;
+        pos = (pos + 1) % capacity;
+    }
+
+    T pop_front() {
+        if (sz == 0) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("ring buffer is empty");
+        }
+        T value = data[first];
+        first = (first + 1) % capacity;
+        sz--;
+        return value;
+    }
+
+    T & operator[](size_t i) {
+        if (i >= sz) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("ring buffer: index out of bounds");
+        }
+        return data[(first + i) % capacity];
+    }
+
+    const T & operator[](size_t i) const {
+        if (i >= sz) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("ring buffer: index out of bounds");
+        }
+        return data[(first + i) % capacity];
+    }
+
+    std::vector<T> to_vector() const {
+        std::vector<T> result;
+        result.reserve(sz);
+        for (size_t i = 0; i < sz; i++) {
+            result.push_back(data[(first + i) % capacity]);
+        }
+        return result;
+    }
+
+    void clear() {
+        // here only reset the status of the buffer
+        sz = 0;
+        first = 0;
+        pos = 0;
+    }
+
+    bool empty() const {
+        return sz == 0;
+    }
+
+    size_t size() const {
+        return sz;
+    }
+
+    size_t capacity = 0;
+    size_t sz = 0;
+    size_t first = 0;
+    size_t pos = 0;
+    std::vector<T> data;
+};
+
 // general sampler context
 // TODO: move to llama.h
 struct llama_sampling_context {
@@ -69,8 +170,7 @@ struct llama_sampling_context {
 
     llama_sampling * smpl;
 
-    // TODO: replace with ring-buffer
-    std::vector<llama_token>      prev;
+    ring_buffer<llama_token>      prev;
     std::vector<llama_token_data> cur;
 
     size_t n_valid; // Number of correct top tokens with correct probabilities.
diff --git a/examples/infill/infill.cpp b/examples/infill/infill.cpp
index b6bff3f9e78ad..7d6c84f99bfe1 100644
--- a/examples/infill/infill.cpp
+++ b/examples/infill/infill.cpp
@@ -421,7 +421,7 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
 
             llama_sampling_accept(ctx_sampling, id, true);
 
-            LOG("last: %s\n", LOG_TOKENS_TOSTR_PRETTY(ctx, ctx_sampling->prev).c_str());
+            // LOG("last: %s\n", LOG_TOKENS_TOSTR_PRETTY(ctx, ctx_sampling->prev.to_vector()).c_str());
 
             embd.push_back(id);
 
diff --git a/examples/main/main.cpp b/examples/main/main.cpp
index 3619157cfb476..71bf0a5183385 100644
--- a/examples/main/main.cpp
+++ b/examples/main/main.cpp
@@ -767,7 +767,7 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
 
             llama_sampling_accept(ctx_sampling, id, /* apply_grammar= */ true);
 
-            LOG("last: %s\n", LOG_TOKENS_TOSTR_PRETTY(ctx, ctx_sampling->prev).c_str());
+            // LOG("last: %s\n", LOG_TOKENS_TOSTR_PRETTY(ctx, ctx_sampling->prev.to_vector()).c_str());
 
             embd.push_back(id);