diff --git a/include/llama.h b/include/llama.h
index f745e2110b..ce04011e19 100644
--- a/include/llama.h
+++ b/include/llama.h
@@ -367,6 +367,7 @@ extern "C" {
         void * prune_layers;                  // pointer to vector containing layer indices to prune
         float target_bpw;                     // target bits per weight (bpw)
         bool keep_bpw_state;                  // keep bpw state file
+        void * bpw_state;                     // pointer to bpw state file
     } llama_model_quantize_params;
 
     typedef struct llama_logit_bias {
diff --git a/src/llama-quant.cpp b/src/llama-quant.cpp
index 38d20e3d0f..1dee52d58d 100644
--- a/src/llama-quant.cpp
+++ b/src/llama-quant.cpp
@@ -762,7 +762,23 @@ static std::unordered_map<std::string, ggml_type> target_bpw_type(
     char hex[17];
     const uint64_t model_id = metadata_id(ml.meta.get());
     std::snprintf(hex, sizeof(hex), "%016" PRIx64, (uint64_t)model_id);
-    const std::string checkpoint_file = ml.arch_name + "-" + std::string(hex) + ".bpw_state";
+    std::string checkpoint_file = ml.arch_name + "-" + std::string(hex) + ".bpw_state";
+    if (params->keep_bpw_state && params->bpw_state) {
+        const auto * filename = static_cast<const char*>(params->bpw_state);
+        std::ifstream ifs(filename, std::ios::binary);
+        if (ifs.good()) {
+            checkpoint_file = std::string(filename);
+        } else {
+            std::ofstream ofs(filename, std::ios::binary | std::ios::app);
+            if (ofs.is_open()) {
+                checkpoint_file = std::string(filename);
+                ofs.close();
+                std::remove(checkpoint_file.c_str());
+            } else {
+                LLAMA_LOG_WARN("%s: %s is not a valid file name. Using %s instead\n", func, filename, checkpoint_file.c_str());
+            }
+        }
+    }
 
     auto save_bpw_state = [&](const std::vector<tensor_info> & all_vec) {
         const std::string tmp = checkpoint_file + ".tmp";
@@ -2306,7 +2322,8 @@ llama_model_quantize_params llama_model_quantize_default_params() {
         /*.tensor_type                 =*/ nullptr,
         /*.prune_layers                =*/ nullptr,
         /*.target_bpw                  =*/ -1.0f,
-        /*.keep_bpw_state              =*/ false
+        /*.keep_bpw_state              =*/ false,
+        /*.bpw_state                   =*/ nullptr
     };
 
     return result;
diff --git a/tools/quantize/quantize.cpp b/tools/quantize/quantize.cpp
index e67649beb9..945acbe288 100644
--- a/tools/quantize/quantize.cpp
+++ b/tools/quantize/quantize.cpp
@@ -117,8 +117,8 @@ static bool try_parse_ftype(const std::string & ftype_str_in, llama_ftype & ftyp
 
 [[noreturn]]
 static void usage(const char * executable) {
-    printf("usage: %s [--help] [--allow-requantize] [--leave-output-tensor] [--pure] [--imatrix] [--include-weights] [--exclude-weights]\n", executable);
-    printf("       [--target-bpw n] [--keep-bpw-state] [--output-tensor-type] [--token-embedding-type] [--tensor-type] [--prune-layers] [--keep-split] [--override-kv]\n");
+    printf("usage: %s [--help] [--allow-requantize] [--leave-output-tensor] [--pure] [--imatrix] [--include-weights] [--exclude-weights] [--target-bpw n]\n", executable);
+    printf("       [--bpw-state filename] [--keep-bpw-state] [--output-tensor-type] [--token-embedding-type] [--tensor-type] [--prune-layers] [--keep-split] [--override-kv]\n");
     printf("       model-f32.gguf [model-quant.gguf] type [nthreads]\n\n");
     printf("  --allow-requantize: allows requantizing tensors that have already been quantized. Warning: This can severely reduce quality compared to quantizing from 16bit or 32bit\n");
     printf("  --leave-output-tensor: will leave output.weight un(re)quantized. Increases model size but may also increase quality, especially when requantizing\n");
@@ -128,13 +128,14 @@ static void usage(const char * executable) {
     printf("  --exclude-weights tensor_name: use importance matrix for this/these tensor(s)\n");
     printf("  --output-tensor-type ggml_type: use this ggml_type for the output.weight tensor\n");
     printf("  --token-embedding-type ggml_type: use this ggml_type for the token embeddings tensor\n");
-    printf("  --tensor-type TENSOR=TYPE: quantize this tensor to this ggml_type. example: --tensor-type attn_q=q8_0\n");
+    printf("  --tensor-type TENSOR=TYPE: quantize this tensor to this ggml_type. Example: --tensor-type attn_q=q8_0\n");
     printf("      Advanced option to selectively quantize tensors. May be specified multiple times.\n");
     printf("  --prune-layers L0,L1,L2...comma-separated list of layer numbers to prune from the model\n");
     printf("      Advanced option to remove all tensors from the given layers\n");
     printf("  --target-bpw: target bits per weight (bpw). Must be a positive number between 0.0 and 8.0\n");
     printf("      Advanced option to automatically select quantization types to achieve a total bits per weight (bpw) target\n");
-    printf("  --keep-bpw-state: preserve the bpw computations in a state file\n");
+    printf("  --keep-bpw-state: save the bpw computations to <architecture>-<model hash>.bpw_state\n");
+    printf("  --bpw-state: file name to use instead of default\n");
     printf("  --keep-split: will generate quantized model in the same shards as input\n");
     printf("  --override-kv KEY=TYPE:VALUE\n");
     printf("      Advanced option to override model metadata by key in the quantized model. May be specified multiple times.\n");
@@ -562,6 +563,12 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
             }
         } else if (strcmp(argv[arg_idx], "--keep-bpw-state") == 0) {
             params.keep_bpw_state = true;
+        } else if (strcmp(argv[arg_idx], "--bpw-state") == 0) {
+            if (arg_idx < argc-1) {
+                params.bpw_state = argv[++arg_idx];
+            } else {
+                usage(argv[0]);
+            }
         } else if (strcmp(argv[arg_idx], "--prune-layers") == 0) {
             if (arg_idx == argc-1 || !parse_layer_prune(argv[++arg_idx], prune_layers)) {
                 usage(argv[0]);