diff --git a/include/llama.h b/include/llama.h
index 98bed9d6150a0..aa9932afb844b 100644
--- a/include/llama.h
+++ b/include/llama.h
@@ -463,6 +463,7 @@ extern "C" {
 
     // NOTE: After creating a llama_context, it is recommended to query the actual values using these functions
     //       In some cases the requested values via llama_context_params may differ from the actual values used by the context
+    //       ref: https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/17046#discussion_r2503085732
     LLAMA_API uint32_t llama_n_ctx      (const struct llama_context * ctx);
     LLAMA_API uint32_t llama_n_ctx_seq  (const struct llama_context * ctx);
     LLAMA_API uint32_t llama_n_batch    (const struct llama_context * ctx);
diff --git a/src/llama-context.cpp b/src/llama-context.cpp
index 866514038e493..e115fcd933f53 100644
--- a/src/llama-context.cpp
+++ b/src/llama-context.cpp
@@ -114,10 +114,14 @@ llama_context::llama_context(
         }
     }
 
+    // ref: https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/17046#discussion_r2503085732
+    cparams.n_ctx = GGML_PAD(cparams.n_ctx, 256);
+
     if (cparams.kv_unified) {
         cparams.n_ctx_seq = cparams.n_ctx;
     } else {
         cparams.n_ctx_seq = cparams.n_ctx / cparams.n_seq_max;
+        cparams.n_ctx_seq = GGML_PAD(cparams.n_ctx_seq, 256);
 
         if (cparams.n_ctx_seq == 0) {
             throw std::runtime_error("n_ctx_seq == 0");
diff --git a/src/llama-kv-cache-iswa.cpp b/src/llama-kv-cache-iswa.cpp
index facba1d004012..3a34102a23d08 100644
--- a/src/llama-kv-cache-iswa.cpp
+++ b/src/llama-kv-cache-iswa.cpp
@@ -45,7 +45,9 @@ llama_kv_cache_iswa::llama_kv_cache_iswa(
 
     const uint32_t size_base = kv_size;
 
-    uint32_t size_swa = std::min(size_base, GGML_PAD(hparams.n_swa*(unified ? n_seq_max : 1) + n_ubatch, n_pad));
+    // note: the SWA cache is always padded to 256 for performance
+    //       https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/issues/17037
+    uint32_t size_swa = GGML_PAD(std::min(size_base, hparams.n_swa*(unified ? n_seq_max : 1) + n_ubatch), 256);
 
     // when using full-size SWA cache, we set the SWA cache size to be equal to the base cache size
     if (swa_full) {
diff --git a/tools/server/tests/unit/test_speculative.py b/tools/server/tests/unit/test_speculative.py
index 65952de8b8d4c..d2f3fba5fe7a9 100644
--- a/tools/server/tests/unit/test_speculative.py
+++ b/tools/server/tests/unit/test_speculative.py
@@ -77,10 +77,10 @@ def test_different_draft_min_draft_max():
 
 def test_slot_ctx_not_exceeded():
     global server
-    server.n_ctx = 64
+    server.n_ctx = 256
     server.start()
     res = server.make_request("POST", "/completion", data={
-        "prompt": "Hello " * 56,
+        "prompt": "Hello " * 248,
         "temperature": 0.0,
         "top_k": 1,
         "speculative.p_min": 0.0,
@@ -91,19 +91,19 @@ def test_slot_ctx_not_exceeded():
 
 def test_with_ctx_shift():
     global server
-    server.n_ctx = 64
+    server.n_ctx = 256
     server.enable_ctx_shift = True
     server.start()
     res = server.make_request("POST", "/completion", data={
-        "prompt": "Hello " * 56,
+        "prompt": "Hello " * 248,
         "temperature": 0.0,
         "top_k": 1,
-        "n_predict": 64,
+        "n_predict": 256,
         "speculative.p_min": 0.0,
     })
     assert res.status_code == 200
     assert len(res.body["content"]) > 0
-    assert res.body["tokens_predicted"] == 64
+    assert res.body["tokens_predicted"] == 256
     assert res.body["truncated"] == True