diff --git a/CHANGELOGS.rst b/CHANGELOGS.rst
index 2cfbdc43..651e9891 100644
--- a/CHANGELOGS.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOGS.rst
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ Change Logs
 0.7.11
 ++++++
 
+* :pr:`224`: support model_id with // to specify a subfolder 
 * :pr:`223`: adds task image-to-video
 * :pr:`220`: adds option --ort-logs to display onnxruntime logs when creating the session
 * :pr:`220`: adds a patch for PR `#40791 <https://github.com/huggingface/transformers/pull/40791>`_ in transformers
diff --git a/onnx_diagnostic/torch_models/validate.py b/onnx_diagnostic/torch_models/validate.py
index 63c624db..084194fe 100644
--- a/onnx_diagnostic/torch_models/validate.py
+++ b/onnx_diagnostic/torch_models/validate.py
@@ -264,6 +264,16 @@ def shrink_config(cfg: Dict[str, Any]) -> Dict[str, Any]:
     return new_cfg
 
 
+def _preprocess_model_id(model_id, subfolder):
+    if subfolder or "//" not in model_id:
+        return model_id, subfolder
+    spl = model_id.split("//")
+    if spl[-1] in {"transformer", "vae"}:
+        # known subfolder
+        return "//".join(spl[:-1]), spl[-1]
+    return model_id, subfolder
+
+
 def validate_model(
     model_id: str,
     task: Optional[str] = None,
@@ -374,6 +384,7 @@ def validate_model(
     if ``runtime == 'ref'``,
     ``orteval10`` increases the verbosity.
     """
+    model_id, subfolder = _preprocess_model_id(model_id, subfolder)
     if isinstance(patch, bool):
         patch_kwargs = (
             dict(patch_transformers=True, patch_diffusers=True, patch=True)