diff --git a/runner/ollamarunner/runner.go b/runner/ollamarunner/runner.go
index 31d20db80..6d20fa85b 100644
--- a/runner/ollamarunner/runner.go
+++ b/runner/ollamarunner/runner.go
@@ -267,6 +267,9 @@ type Server struct {
 	// KV cache
 	cache *InputCache
 
+	// next sequence for prompt processing to avoid starvation
+	nextSeq int
+
 	// multimodalHash generates hashes for comparing equality
 	// of non-text data
 	multimodalHash maphash.Hash
@@ -351,14 +354,19 @@ func (s *Server) processBatch() error {
 	var batchInputs []int32
 	var batch input.Batch
 
-	for i, seq := range s.seqs {
+	resumeSeq := -1
+	seqIdx := s.nextSeq - 1
+	for range s.seqs {
+		seqIdx = (seqIdx + 1) % len(s.seqs)
+		seq := s.seqs[seqIdx]
+
 		if seq == nil {
 			continue
 		}
 
 		// if past the num predict limit
 		if seq.numPredict > 0 && seq.numPredicted >= seq.numPredict {
-			s.removeSequence(i, "limit")
+			s.removeSequence(seqIdx, "limit")
 			continue
 		}
 
@@ -369,16 +377,23 @@ func (s *Server) processBatch() error {
 
 		batchSize := s.batchSize
 
-		for j, inp := range seq.inputs {
+		for i, inp := range seq.inputs {
 			// If we are required to put following inputs into a single batch then extend the
 			// batch size. Since we are only extending the size the minimum amount possible, this
-			// will cause a break if we have pending inputs.
+			// will cause a break if we have existing inputs.
 			minBatch := 1 + inp.SameBatch
 			if minBatch > batchSize {
 				batchSize = minBatch
 			}
 
-			if len(seq.pendingInputs)+minBatch > batchSize {
+			// Stop if the required batch would put us over the total batch size (including tokens
+			// added by other sequences). If we haven't been able to add anything yet then pick up
+			// here again for the next batch to avoid starvation, though we can opportunistically
+			// check if other sequences can still squeeze something in.
+			if len(batchInputs)+minBatch > batchSize {
+				if len(seq.pendingInputs) == 0 && resumeSeq == -1 {
+					resumeSeq = seqIdx
+				}
 				break
 			}
 
@@ -405,7 +420,7 @@ func (s *Server) processBatch() error {
 			batch.Sequences = append(batch.Sequences, seq.cache.Id)
 
 			seq.iBatch = len(batch.Outputs)
-			if j+1 == len(seq.inputs) {
+			if i+1 == len(seq.inputs) {
 				batch.Outputs = append(batch.Outputs, int32(len(batchInputs)-1))
 			}
 			seq.pendingInputs = append(seq.pendingInputs, inp)
@@ -414,6 +429,12 @@ func (s *Server) processBatch() error {
 		seq.inputs = seq.inputs[len(seq.pendingInputs):]
 	}
 
+	if resumeSeq != -1 {
+		s.nextSeq = resumeSeq
+	} else {
+		s.nextSeq = seqIdx + 1
+	}
+
 	if len(batchInputs) == 0 {
 		return nil
 	}