diff --git a/common/fit.cpp b/common/fit.cpp
index 7a03008295..faa595f84f 100644
--- a/common/fit.cpp
+++ b/common/fit.cpp
@@ -192,9 +192,9 @@ static void common_params_fit_impl(
     uint32_t hp_nct = 0; // hparams.n_ctx_train
     uint32_t hp_nex = 0; // hparams.n_expert
 
-    // with non-unified kv, we need to take into account n_streams
-    // for example, if memory can hold more than model's trained context size, we must extend the n_ctx to hold enough n_streams
-    const uint32_t n_streams  = cparams->kv_unified ? 1 : std::max<uint32_t>(1, cparams->n_seq_max);
+    // size the context for all sequences, but keep minimums and alignment per KV stream
+    const uint32_t n_seq_max  = std::max<uint32_t>(1, cparams->n_seq_max);
+    const uint32_t n_streams  = cparams->kv_unified ? 1 : n_seq_max;
     const bool     n_ctx_auto = cparams->n_ctx == 0;
 
     dmds_t   dmds_extra;       // memory of the extra model, laid out on the devices of the main model
@@ -264,15 +264,15 @@ static void common_params_fit_impl(
     dmds_t dmds_full = common_get_device_memory_data_impl(path_model, mparams, cparams, devs, hp_ngl, hp_nct, hp_nex, log_level);
 
     // saturate instead of overflowing, this also preserves the UINT32_MAX sentinel of n_ctx_min:
-    const uint32_t n_ctx_max       = (uint32_t) std::min<uint64_t>(uint64_t(hp_nct)    * n_streams, UINT32_MAX);
+    const uint32_t n_ctx_max       = (uint32_t) std::min<uint64_t>(uint64_t(hp_nct)    * n_seq_max, UINT32_MAX);
     const uint32_t n_ctx_min_total = (uint32_t) std::min<uint64_t>(uint64_t(n_ctx_min) * n_streams, UINT32_MAX);
 
     // llama_context would use only hp_nct in total for n_ctx == 0, resolve the context before measuring anything else:
     if (n_ctx_auto) {
         cparams->n_ctx = n_ctx_max;
-        if (n_streams > 1) {
-            LOG_TRC("%s: context size unset and KV cache not unified -> using %" PRIu32 " for %" PRIu32 " sequences:\n",
-                __func__, n_ctx_max, n_streams);
+        if (n_seq_max > 1) {
+            LOG_TRC("%s: context size unset -> using %" PRIu32 " for %" PRIu32 " sequences:\n",
+                __func__, n_ctx_max, n_seq_max);
             dmds_full = common_get_device_memory_data_impl(path_model, mparams, cparams, devs, hp_ngl, hp_nct, hp_nex, log_level);
         }
     }