diff --git a/Dockerfile.cpu b/Dockerfile.cpu
index 4d8d9985e..bb4bcb712 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.cpu
+++ b/Dockerfile.cpu
@@ -1,12 +1,8 @@
 FROM tensorflow/tensorflow:1.12.0-py3
 
 ENV LANG=C.UTF-8
-RUN mkdir /gpt-2 
+RUN mkdir /gpt-2
 WORKDIR /gpt-2
-COPY requirements.txt download_model.sh /gpt-2/
-RUN apt-get update && \
-    apt-get install -y curl && \
-    sh download_model.sh 117M
-RUN pip3 install -r requirements.txt
-
 ADD . /gpt-2
+RUN pip3 install -r requirements.txt
+RUN python3 download_model.py 117M
diff --git a/Dockerfile.gpu b/Dockerfile.gpu
index 4ea7d3701..b7b013bd3 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.gpu
+++ b/Dockerfile.gpu
@@ -12,10 +12,6 @@ ENV NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=all \
 
 RUN mkdir /gpt-2
 WORKDIR /gpt-2
-COPY requirements.txt download_model.sh /gpt-2/
-RUN apt-get update && \
-    apt-get install -y curl && \
-    sh download_model.sh 117M
-RUN pip3 install -r requirements.txt
-
 ADD . /gpt-2
+RUN pip3 install -r requirements.txt
+RUN python3 download_model.py 117M
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8ae00301f..390032625 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -17,12 +17,7 @@ Then, follow instructions for either native or Docker installation.
 
 ### Native Installation
 
-Download the model data
-```
-sh download_model.sh 117M
-```
-
-The remaining steps can optionally be done in a virtual environment using tools such as `virtualenv` or `conda`.
+All steps can optionally be done in a virtual environment using tools such as `virtualenv` or `conda`.
 
 Install tensorflow 1.12 (with GPU support, if you have a GPU and want everything to run faster)
 ```
@@ -38,6 +33,11 @@ Install other python packages:
 pip3 install -r requirements.txt
 ```
 
+Download the model data
+```
+python3 download_model.py 117M
+```
+
 ### Docker Installation
 
 Build the Dockerfile and tag the created image as `gpt-2`:
diff --git a/download_model.py b/download_model.py
index 79c960f39..2a3829431 100644
--- a/download_model.py
+++ b/download_model.py
@@ -1,24 +1,27 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
 import os
 import sys
 import requests
 from tqdm import tqdm
 
-if len(sys.argv)!=2:
+if len(sys.argv) != 2:
     print('You must enter the model name as a parameter, e.g.: download_model.py 117M')
     sys.exit(1)
+
 model = sys.argv[1]
-#Create directory if it does not exist already, then do nothing
-if not os.path.exists('models/'+model):
-    os.makedirs('models/'+model)
-#download all the files
+
+subdir = os.path.join('models', model)
+if not os.path.exists(subdir):
+    os.makedirs(subdir)
+
 for filename in ['checkpoint','encoder.json','hparams.json','model.ckpt.data-00000-of-00001', 'model.ckpt.index', 'model.ckpt.meta', 'vocab.bpe']:
-    r = requests.get("https://storage.googleapis.com/gpt-2/models/"+model+"/"+filename,stream=True)
-    #wb flag required for windows
-    with open('models/'+model+'/'+filename,'wb') as currentFile:
-        fileSize = int(r.headers["content-length"])
-        with tqdm(ncols=100,desc="Fetching "+filename,total=fileSize,unit_scale=True) as pbar:
-            #went for 1k for chunk_size. Motivation -> Ethernet packet size is around 1500 bytes.
-            for chunk in r.iter_content(chunk_size=1000):
-                currentFile.write(chunk)
-                pbar.update(1000)
+
+    r = requests.get("https://storage.googleapis.com/gpt-2/" + subdir + "/" + filename, stream=True)
+
+    with open(os.path.join(subdir, filename), 'wb') as f:
+        file_size = int(r.headers["content-length"])
+        chunk_size = 1000
+        with tqdm(ncols=100, desc="Fetching " + filename, total=file_size, unit_scale=True) as pbar:
+            # 1k for chunk_size, since Ethernet packet size is around 1500 bytes
+            for chunk in r.iter_content(chunk_size=chunk_size):
+                f.write(chunk)
+                pbar.update(chunk_size)
diff --git a/download_model.sh b/download_model.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 690463f2e..000000000
--- a/download_model.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-
-if [ "$#" -ne 1 ]; then
-    echo "You must enter the model name as a parameter, e.g.: sh download_model.sh 117M"
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-model=$1
-
-mkdir -p models/$model
-
-# TODO: gsutil rsync -r gs://gpt-2/models/ models/
-for filename in checkpoint encoder.json hparams.json model.ckpt.data-00000-of-00001 model.ckpt.index model.ckpt.meta vocab.bpe; do
-  fetch=$model/$filename
-  echo "Fetching $fetch"
-  curl --output models/$fetch https://storage.googleapis.com/gpt-2/models/$fetch
-done