diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e1d58e11..4aed1709 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ PYCHECKGLOBS := 'examples/**/*.py' 'scripts/**/*.py' 'src/**/*.py' 'tests/**/*.p
 DOCDIR := docs
 MDCHECKGLOBS := 'docs/**/*.md' 'docs/**/*.rst' 'examples/**/*.md' 'notebooks/**/*.md' 'scripts/**/*.md'
 MDCHECKFILES := CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md CONTRIBUTING.md DEVELOPING.md README.md
+SPARSEZOO_TEST_MODE := "true"
 
 BUILD_ARGS :=  # set nightly to build nightly release
 TARGETS := ""  # targets for running pytests: full,efficientnet,inception,resnet,vgg,ssd,yolo
diff --git a/src/sparsezoo/requests/base.py b/src/sparsezoo/requests/base.py
index aba30d6e..64235118 100644
--- a/src/sparsezoo/requests/base.py
+++ b/src/sparsezoo/requests/base.py
@@ -19,8 +19,12 @@
 import os
 from typing import Any, List, Union
 
+from sparsezoo.utils import convert_to_bool
 
-__all__ = ["BASE_API_URL", "ModelArgs", "MODELS_API_URL"]
+
+__all__ = ["BASE_API_URL", "ModelArgs", "MODELS_API_URL", "SPARSEZOO_TEST_MODE"]
+
+SPARSEZOO_TEST_MODE = convert_to_bool(os.getenv("SPARSEZOO_TEST_MODE"))
 
 BASE_API_URL = (
     os.getenv("SPARSEZOO_API_URL")
diff --git a/src/sparsezoo/requests/download.py b/src/sparsezoo/requests/download.py
index 9092772b..a00113e6 100644
--- a/src/sparsezoo/requests/download.py
+++ b/src/sparsezoo/requests/download.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 import requests
 
 from sparsezoo.requests.authentication import get_auth_header
-from sparsezoo.requests.base import MODELS_API_URL, ModelArgs
+from sparsezoo.requests.base import MODELS_API_URL, SPARSEZOO_TEST_MODE, ModelArgs
 
 
 __all__ = ["download_get_request", "DOWNLOAD_PATH"]
@@ -52,11 +52,18 @@ def download_get_request(
     if file_name:
         url = f"{url}/{file_name}"
 
+    download_args = []
+
     if hasattr(args, "release_version") and args.release_version:
-        url = f"{url}?release_version={args.release_version}"
+        download_args.append(f"release_version={args.release_version}")
 
-    _LOGGER.debug(f"GET download from {url}")
+    if SPARSEZOO_TEST_MODE:
+        download_args.append("increment_download=False")
 
+    if download_args:
+        url = f"{url}?{'&'.join(download_args)}"
+
+    _LOGGER.debug(f"GET download from {url}")
     response = requests.get(url=url, headers=header)
     response.raise_for_status()
     response_json = response.json()
diff --git a/src/sparsezoo/requests/search.py b/src/sparsezoo/requests/search.py
index ad43dded..8b93b00c 100644
--- a/src/sparsezoo/requests/search.py
+++ b/src/sparsezoo/requests/search.py
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ def search_get_request(
     search_args.extend([f"page={page}", f"page_length={page_length}"])
 
     if args.release_version:
-        search_args.extend(f"release_version={args.release_version}")
+        search_args.append(f"release_version={args.release_version}")
 
     search_args = "&".join(search_args)
     url = f"{MODELS_API_URL}/{SEARCH_PATH}/{args.model_url_root}?{search_args}"
diff --git a/src/sparsezoo/utils/helpers.py b/src/sparsezoo/utils/helpers.py
index a3b87dc4..1e0c99dc 100644
--- a/src/sparsezoo/utils/helpers.py
+++ b/src/sparsezoo/utils/helpers.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 
 import errno
 import os
-from typing import Union
+from typing import Any, Union
 
 from tqdm import auto, tqdm, tqdm_notebook
 
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 __all__ = [
     "CACHE_DIR",
     "clean_path",
+    "convert_to_bool",
     "create_dirs",
     "create_parent_dirs",
     "create_tqdm_auto_constructor",
@@ -43,6 +44,18 @@ def clean_path(path: str) -> str:
     return os.path.abspath(os.path.expanduser(path))
 
 
+def convert_to_bool(val: Any):
+    """
+    :param val: a value
+    :return: False if value is a Falsy value e.g. 0, f, false, None, otherwise True.
+    """
+    return (
+        bool(val)
+        if not isinstance(val, str)
+        else bool(val) and "f" not in val.lower() and "0" not in val.lower()
+    )
+
+
 def create_dirs(path: str):
     """
     :param path: the directory path to try and create