diff --git a/convert-hf-to-gguf.py b/convert-hf-to-gguf.py
index ae23b1271212f..166e5ded2f90f 100755
--- a/convert-hf-to-gguf.py
+++ b/convert-hf-to-gguf.py
@@ -967,10 +967,14 @@ def set_vocab(self):
         from transformers import AutoTokenizer
         tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(dir_model)
         vocab_size = hparams.get("vocab_size", len(tokenizer.vocab))
-        if max(tokenizer.get_vocab().values()) >= vocab_size:
+        # Since we are checking the maximum index, we need to ensure it's strictly less than vocab_size,
+        # because vocab_size is the count of items, and indexes start at 0.
+        max_vocab_index = max(tokenizer.get_vocab().values())
+        if max_vocab_index >= vocab_size:
             raise ValueError("Vocabulary size exceeds expected maximum size.")
 
 
+
         reverse_vocab: dict[int, str] = {id_: encoded_tok for encoded_tok, id_ in tokenizer.vocab.items()}
         added_vocab = tokenizer.get_added_vocab()