diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7f3230423c..d502eec0b5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -124,6 +124,11 @@ accelerate launch -m axolotl.cli.inference examples/openllama-3b/lora.yml \
         pip3 install packaging
         pip3 install -e '.[flash-attn,deepspeed]'
         ```
+  4. (Optional) Login to Huggingface to use gated models/datasets.
+        ```bash
+        huggingface-cli login
+        ```
+        Get the token at huggingface.co/settings/tokens
 
 - LambdaLabs
   <details>
diff --git a/scripts/finetune.py b/scripts/finetune.py
index 7b6751e31c..118a97b844 100644
--- a/scripts/finetune.py
+++ b/scripts/finetune.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 
 from axolotl.cli import (
     check_accelerate_default_config,
+    check_user_token,
     do_inference,
     do_merge_lora,
     load_cfg,
@@ -31,6 +32,7 @@ def do_cli(config: Path = Path("examples/"), **kwargs):
     )
     parsed_cfg = load_cfg(config, **kwargs)
     check_accelerate_default_config()
+    check_user_token()
     parser = transformers.HfArgumentParser((TrainerCliArgs))
     parsed_cli_args, _ = parser.parse_args_into_dataclasses(
         return_remaining_strings=True
diff --git a/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py b/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py
index 90e1d508b0..c3b580391a 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@
 # add src to the pythonpath so we don't need to pip install this
 from accelerate.commands.config import config_args
 from art import text2art
+from huggingface_hub import HfApi
+from huggingface_hub.utils import LocalTokenNotFoundError
 from transformers import GenerationConfig, TextStreamer
 
 from axolotl.common.cli import TrainerCliArgs, load_model_and_tokenizer
@@ -247,3 +249,16 @@ def check_accelerate_default_config():
         LOG.warning(
             f"accelerate config file found at {config_args.default_yaml_config_file}. This can lead to unexpected errors"
         )
+
+
+def check_user_token():
+    # Verify if token is valid
+    api = HfApi()
+    try:
+        user_info = api.whoami()
+        return bool(user_info)
+    except LocalTokenNotFoundError:
+        LOG.warning(
+            "Error verifying HuggingFace token. Remember to log in using `huggingface-cli login` and get your access token from https://huggingface.co/settings/tokens if you want to use gated models or datasets."
+        )
+        return False
diff --git a/src/axolotl/cli/train.py b/src/axolotl/cli/train.py
index 72a9250c8d..c64755872b 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/cli/train.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/cli/train.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 from axolotl.cli import (
     check_accelerate_default_config,
+    check_user_token,
     load_cfg,
     load_datasets,
     print_axolotl_text_art,
@@ -21,6 +22,7 @@ def do_cli(config: Path = Path("examples/"), **kwargs):
     print_axolotl_text_art()
     parsed_cfg = load_cfg(config, **kwargs)
     check_accelerate_default_config()
+    check_user_token()
     parser = transformers.HfArgumentParser((TrainerCliArgs))
     parsed_cli_args, _ = parser.parse_args_into_dataclasses(
         return_remaining_strings=True