diff --git a/gemma/gm/text/_sampler.py b/gemma/gm/text/_sampler.py
index 98e0f9d3..993866d7 100644
--- a/gemma/gm/text/_sampler.py
+++ b/gemma/gm/text/_sampler.py
@@ -407,15 +407,28 @@ def _tokenize_prompts(
       prompt: str | Sequence[str],
       *,
       add_bos: bool,
-      pad_length: int | None = None,
+      pad_length: int | tuple[int, ...] | None = None,
   ) -> Float['B L']:
     """Encode the prompts."""
     prompt = _normalize_prompt(prompt)
     tokens = [self.tokenizer.encode(p, add_bos=add_bos) for p in prompt]
 
-    # Notice that if pad_length exceeds the maximum length of the prompts,
-    # an error will be raised by the `.pad` function below.
-    max_prompt_len = pad_length or max(len(t) for t in tokens)
+    # Calculate the maximum prompt length, handling pad_length buckets.
+    actual_max = max(len(t) for t in tokens)
+    if pad_length is None:
+      max_prompt_len = actual_max
+    elif isinstance(pad_length, tuple):
+      # Handle tuple buckets - pick smallest bucket that fits.
+      for bucket_size in pad_length:
+        if actual_max <= bucket_size:
+          max_prompt_len = bucket_size
+          break
+      else:
+        # No bucket fits, use actual max.
+        max_prompt_len = actual_max
+    else:
+      # pad_length is an int.
+      max_prompt_len = pad_length
     # In multi-host, each host read different data, so sync to the max length
     # across all hosts.
     max_prompt_len = _max_across_hosts(max_prompt_len)