diff --git a/src/llama.cpp b/src/llama.cpp
index d8852cfe494af..71b7ef622019e 100644
--- a/src/llama.cpp
+++ b/src/llama.cpp
@@ -2081,7 +2081,7 @@ struct llama_hparams {
     bool use_par_res;
 
     uint32_t n_vocab;
-    uint32_t n_ctx_train;    // context size the model was trained on
+    uint32_t n_ctx_train; // context size the model was trained on
     uint32_t n_embd;
     uint32_t n_head;
     uint32_t n_head_kv;
@@ -2665,7 +2665,7 @@ struct llama_context {
     struct ggml_tensor * inp_s_seq;     // I32 [n_kv, n_batch]
 
     // KQ mask per layer, used by sliding window attention (gemma 2)
-    std::vector<struct ggml_tensor *> inp_KQ_mask_l;
+    struct ggml_tensor * inp_KQ_mask_SWA;
 
     // control vectors
     struct llama_control_vector cvec;
@@ -7794,6 +7794,7 @@ struct llm_build_context {
         lctx.inp_s_copy  = nullptr;
         lctx.inp_s_mask  = nullptr;
         lctx.inp_s_seq   = nullptr;
+        lctx.inp_KQ_mask_SWA = nullptr;
     }
 
     void free() {
@@ -7946,15 +7947,18 @@ struct llm_build_context {
         return lctx.inp_out_ids;
     }
 
-    struct ggml_tensor * build_inp_KQ_mask(bool causal = true) {
-        if (causal) {
-            lctx.inp_KQ_mask = ggml_new_tensor_2d(ctx0, GGML_TYPE_F32, n_kv,     GGML_PAD(n_tokens, GGML_KQ_MASK_PAD));
+    struct ggml_tensor * build_inp_KQ_mask(bool causal = true, bool sliding_window = false) {
+        struct ggml_tensor * KQ_mask = causal
+            ? ggml_new_tensor_2d(ctx0, GGML_TYPE_F32, n_kv,     GGML_PAD(n_tokens, GGML_KQ_MASK_PAD))
+            : ggml_new_tensor_2d(ctx0, GGML_TYPE_F32, n_tokens, GGML_PAD(n_tokens, GGML_KQ_MASK_PAD));
+        cb(KQ_mask, "KQ_mask", -1);
+        ggml_set_input(KQ_mask);
+        if (sliding_window) {
+            lctx.inp_KQ_mask_SWA = KQ_mask;
         } else {
-            lctx.inp_KQ_mask = ggml_new_tensor_2d(ctx0, GGML_TYPE_F32, n_tokens, GGML_PAD(n_tokens, GGML_KQ_MASK_PAD));
+            lctx.inp_KQ_mask     = KQ_mask;
         }
-        cb(lctx.inp_KQ_mask, "KQ_mask", -1);
-        ggml_set_input(lctx.inp_KQ_mask);
-        return flash_attn ? ggml_cast(ctx0, lctx.inp_KQ_mask, GGML_TYPE_F16) : lctx.inp_KQ_mask;
+        return flash_attn ? ggml_cast(ctx0, KQ_mask, GGML_TYPE_F16) : KQ_mask;
     }
 
     struct ggml_tensor * build_inp_mean() {
@@ -11038,14 +11042,12 @@ struct llm_build_context {
 
         // KQ_mask (mask for 1 head, it will be broadcasted to all heads)
         // gemma 2 requires different mask for layers using sliding window (SWA)
-        struct ggml_tensor * KQ_mask_full = build_inp_KQ_mask();
-        struct ggml_tensor * KQ_mask_SWA  = build_inp_KQ_mask();
-        lctx.inp_KQ_mask_l.clear();
+        struct ggml_tensor * KQ_mask_full = build_inp_KQ_mask(true, false);
+        struct ggml_tensor * KQ_mask_SWA  = build_inp_KQ_mask(true, true);
 
         for (int il = 0; il < n_layer; ++il) {
             // (il % 2) layers use SWA
             struct ggml_tensor * KQ_mask = (il % 2 == 0) ? KQ_mask_SWA : KQ_mask_full;
-            lctx.inp_KQ_mask_l.push_back(KQ_mask);
 
             // norm
             cur = llm_build_norm(ctx0, inpL, hparams,
@@ -12685,15 +12687,15 @@ static void llama_set_inputs(llama_context & lctx, const llama_batch & batch) {
 
             GGML_ASSERT(ggml_backend_buffer_is_host(lctx.inp_KQ_mask->buffer));
 
-            float * data = (float *) lctx.inp_KQ_mask->data;
+            float * data     = (float *) lctx.inp_KQ_mask->data;
             float * data_swa = nullptr;
             const llama_pos n_keep_swa = hparams.n_sliding - batch.n_tokens;
 
             if (lctx.model.arch == LLM_ARCH_GEMMA2) {
-                GGML_ASSERT(!lctx.inp_KQ_mask_l.empty() && "gemma 2 requires different KQ mask per layer");
+                GGML_ASSERT(lctx.inp_KQ_mask_SWA);
                 GGML_ASSERT(hparams.n_sliding > 0);
-                data_swa = (float *) lctx.inp_KQ_mask_l[0]->data;
-                data     = (float *) lctx.inp_KQ_mask_l[1]->data;
+                data     = (float *) lctx.inp_KQ_mask->data;
+                data_swa = (float *) lctx.inp_KQ_mask_SWA->data;
                 // because layer masks are alternate for gemma 2, we only need to take first 2 layers
             }