diff --git a/src/llama-kv-cache.cpp b/src/llama-kv-cache.cpp
index b06723634c..383bf83199 100644
--- a/src/llama-kv-cache.cpp
+++ b/src/llama-kv-cache.cpp
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 #include <limits>
 #include <map>
 #include <stdexcept>
+#include <unordered_map>
 
 static bool ggml_is_power_of_2(int n) {
     return (n & (n - 1)) == 0;
@@ -1816,6 +1817,65 @@ bool llama_kv_cache::has_cell_ext() const {
     return hparams.n_pos_per_embd() > 1;
 }
 
+void llama_kv_cache::get_prev_tokens(const llama_ubatch & ubatch, uint32_t n, std::vector<llama_token> & res) const {
+    const uint32_t n_tokens = ubatch.n_tokens;
+
+    res.clear();
+    res.resize(n_tokens*n, LLAMA_TOKEN_NULL);
+
+    if (n == 0) {
+        return;
+    }
+
+    // note: apply_ubatch() has already stored the current ubatch
+    //       the window below thus covers tokens of this very ubatch as well, which is what we want
+    llama_pos p_min = std::numeric_limits<llama_pos>::max();
+    llama_pos p_max = std::numeric_limits<llama_pos>::min();
+
+    std::bitset<LLAMA_MAX_SEQ> seqs;
+
+    for (uint32_t i = 0; i < n_tokens; ++i) {
+        p_min = std::min(p_min, ubatch.pos[i]);
+        p_max = std::max(p_max, ubatch.pos[i]);
+    }
+
+    for (uint32_t s = 0; s < ubatch.n_seqs_unq; ++s) {
+        seqs.set(ubatch.seq_id_unq[s]);
+    }
+
+    // (seq_id, pos) -> token, for every cell that could be a predecessor of a ubatch token
+    std::unordered_map<uint64_t, llama_token> hist;
+
+    const auto key = [](llama_seq_id seq_id, llama_pos pos) {
+        return ((uint64_t) seq_id << 32) | (uint32_t) pos;
+    };
+
+    for (uint32_t s = 0; s < n_stream; ++s) {
+        v_cells[s].for_each_token_in(seqs, p_min - (llama_pos) n, p_max,
+            [&](llama_seq_id seq_id, llama_pos pos, llama_token tok) {
+                hist[key(seq_id, pos)] = tok;
+            });
+    }
+
+    for (uint32_t i = 0; i < n_tokens; ++i) {
+        // TODO: a token that belongs to more than one sequence has an ambiguous history.
+        //       the n-gram architectures have to reject such batches
+        const llama_seq_id seq_id = ubatch.seq_id[i][0];
+
+        for (uint32_t j = 0; j < n; ++j) {
+            const llama_pos p = ubatch.pos[i] - (llama_pos) (n - j);
+            if (p < 0) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            const auto it = hist.find(key(seq_id, p));
+            if (it != hist.end()) {
+                res[i*n + j] = it->second;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 size_t llama_kv_cache::total_size() const {
     size_t size = 0;
 
@@ -2669,3 +2729,7 @@ void llama_kv_cache_context::set_input_k_rot(ggml_tensor * dst) const {
 void llama_kv_cache_context::set_input_v_rot(ggml_tensor * dst) const {
     kv->set_input_v_rot(dst);
 }
+
+void llama_kv_cache_context::get_prev_tokens(const llama_ubatch & ubatch, uint32_t n, std::vector<llama_token> & res) const {
+    kv->get_prev_tokens(ubatch, n, res);
+}
diff --git a/src/llama-kv-cache.h b/src/llama-kv-cache.h
index 62ce374e0d..9b225fae31 100644
--- a/src/llama-kv-cache.h
+++ b/src/llama-kv-cache.h
@@ -222,6 +222,11 @@ public:
     // true if llama_kv_cell_ext holds information that has to survive a state save/restore
     bool has_cell_ext() const;
 
+    // for every token of the ubatch, the ids of the n tokens that precede it in its sequence
+    // entries with no matching cell are set to LLAMA_TOKEN_NULL
+    // note: used by n-gram input embeddings
+    void get_prev_tokens(const llama_ubatch & ubatch, uint32_t n, std::vector<llama_token> & res) const;
+
 private:
     const llama_model & model;
     const llama_hparams & hparams;
@@ -404,6 +409,9 @@ public:
     void set_input_k_rot(ggml_tensor * dst) const;
     void set_input_v_rot(ggml_tensor * dst) const;
 
+    // see llama_kv_cache::get_prev_tokens()
+    void get_prev_tokens(const llama_ubatch & ubatch, uint32_t n, std::vector<llama_token> & res) const;
+
 private:
     llama_memory_status status;