diff --git a/api/Dockerfile b/api/Dockerfile
index 1674a56..e8a5f61 100644
--- a/api/Dockerfile
+++ b/api/Dockerfile
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ RUN pip install --user --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt && \
 # Copy and install pipecat from local submodule
 COPY pipecat /tmp/pipecat
 RUN pip install --user --no-cache-dir '/tmp/pipecat[cartesia,deepgram,openai,elevenlabs,groq,google,azure,soundfile,silero,webrtc]' && \
+    # Force Silero VAD model download during build
+    python -c "from pipecat.audio.vad.silero import SileroVADAnalyzer; SileroVADAnalyzer()" && \
     # Clean up pip cache and temporary pipecat directory
     rm -rf /root/.cache/pip /tmp/pipecat