diff --git a/core/http/middleware/request.go b/core/http/middleware/request.go
index 3e6f3555a..f375a2c93 100644
--- a/core/http/middleware/request.go
+++ b/core/http/middleware/request.go
@@ -152,9 +152,15 @@ func (re *RequestExtractor) SetModelAndConfig(initializer func() schema.LocalAIR
 
 			// If a model name was specified, verify it actually exists before proceeding.
 			// Check both configured models and loose model files in the model path.
-			// Skip the check for HuggingFace model IDs (contain "/") since backends
-			// like diffusers may download these on the fly.
-			if modelName != "" && !strings.Contains(modelName, "/") {
+			// Skip the check only for HuggingFace-style model IDs ("org/repo") that
+			// backends like diffusers may download on the fly. A name that points at a
+			// concrete weight file (e.g. "local/model.gguf") is NOT such an ID: it must
+			// still be verified, otherwise a wrong name silently falls through to the
+			// gallery autoloader and triggers a surprising download (issue #10162).
+			// CheckIfModelExists resolves relative paths against the models dir, so a
+			// loose weight file addressed by path still passes.
+			isRemoteModelID := strings.Contains(modelName, "/") && !model.HasKnownModelFileExtension(modelName)
+			if modelName != "" && !isRemoteModelID {
 				exists, existsErr := galleryop.CheckIfModelExists(re.modelConfigLoader, re.modelLoader, modelName, galleryop.ALWAYS_INCLUDE)
 				if existsErr == nil && !exists {
 					return c.JSON(http.StatusNotFound, schema.ErrorResponse{
diff --git a/core/http/middleware/request_test.go b/core/http/middleware/request_test.go
index 04c30dee4..db6aa1911 100644
--- a/core/http/middleware/request_test.go
+++ b/core/http/middleware/request_test.go
@@ -140,6 +140,40 @@ var _ = Describe("SetModelAndConfig middleware", func() {
 		})
 	})
 
+	Context("when the model name is a file path to a weight that does not exist", func() {
+		// A name like "local/model.gguf" is the parameters.model weight path, not a
+		// HuggingFace org/repo ID. The slash must not exempt it from the existence
+		// check, otherwise a wrong name silently falls through to the gallery
+		// autoloader and triggers a surprising download (issue #10162).
+		It("returns 404 instead of passing through", func() {
+			rec := postJSON(app, "/v1/chat/completions",
+				`{"model":"local/missing-model.gguf","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]}`)
+
+			Expect(rec.Code).To(Equal(http.StatusNotFound))
+
+			var resp schema.ErrorResponse
+			Expect(json.Unmarshal(rec.Body.Bytes(), &resp)).To(Succeed())
+			Expect(resp.Error).ToNot(BeNil())
+			Expect(resp.Error.Message).To(ContainSubstring("local/missing-model.gguf"))
+			Expect(resp.Error.Message).To(ContainSubstring("not found"))
+		})
+	})
+
+	Context("when the model name is a file path to a weight that exists on disk", func() {
+		// The same path, but the loose weight file is actually present in a
+		// subdirectory of the models path: the request must pass through so users
+		// can address a raw weight file by its relative path.
+		It("passes through to the handler", func() {
+			Expect(os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(modelDir, "local"), 0755)).To(Succeed())
+			Expect(os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(modelDir, "local", "present-model.gguf"), []byte("weights"), 0644)).To(Succeed())
+
+			rec := postJSON(app, "/v1/chat/completions",
+				`{"model":"local/present-model.gguf","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]}`)
+
+			Expect(rec.Code).To(Equal(http.StatusOK))
+		})
+	})
+
 	Context("when no model is specified", func() {
 		It("passes through without checking", func() {
 			rec := postJSON(app, "/v1/chat/completions",
diff --git a/pkg/model/loader.go b/pkg/model/loader.go
index 2aebdb3c3..413417938 100644
--- a/pkg/model/loader.go
+++ b/pkg/model/loader.go
@@ -207,6 +207,28 @@ var knownModelsNameSuffixToSkip []string = []string{
 	".tar.gz",
 }
 
+// HasKnownModelFileExtension reports whether name ends in a file extension that
+// LocalAI recognizes as a model weight or asset file (e.g. ".gguf",
+// ".safetensors", ".json"). It is used to tell a concrete file path such as
+// "local/model.gguf" apart from a HuggingFace-style repository ID like
+// "org/repo": only the former carries a recognized suffix. A version-style
+// suffix such as the ".0" in "stabilityai/stable-diffusion-xl-base-1.0" is not
+// in the list, so such repo IDs are correctly treated as non-files.
+func HasKnownModelFileExtension(name string) bool {
+	lower := strings.ToLower(name)
+	for _, suffix := range knownModelsNameSuffixToSkip {
+		// "." is a guard entry consumed by ListFilesInModelPath, not a real
+		// extension; skip it so it doesn't match every dotted name.
+		if suffix == "." {
+			continue
+		}
+		if strings.HasSuffix(lower, strings.ToLower(suffix)) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
 const retryTimeout = time.Duration(2 * time.Minute)
 
 func (ml *ModelLoader) ListFilesInModelPath() ([]string, error) {
diff --git a/pkg/model/loader_test.go b/pkg/model/loader_test.go
index bb03c8942..c53693738 100644
--- a/pkg/model/loader_test.go
+++ b/pkg/model/loader_test.go
@@ -58,6 +58,23 @@ var _ = Describe("ModelLoader", func() {
 		})
 	})
 
+	Context("HasKnownModelFileExtension", func() {
+		It("returns true for concrete weight/asset file paths", func() {
+			Expect(model.HasKnownModelFileExtension("local/model.gguf")).To(BeTrue())
+			Expect(model.HasKnownModelFileExtension("model.safetensors")).To(BeTrue())
+			Expect(model.HasKnownModelFileExtension("foo/bar.GGUF")).To(BeTrue())
+			Expect(model.HasKnownModelFileExtension("config.json")).To(BeTrue())
+		})
+
+		It("returns false for HuggingFace-style repository IDs", func() {
+			// org/repo carries no recognized file extension...
+			Expect(model.HasKnownModelFileExtension("bartowski/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-1.5B-GGUF")).To(BeFalse())
+			// ...and a version suffix like ".0" is not a known model extension.
+			Expect(model.HasKnownModelFileExtension("stabilityai/stable-diffusion-xl-base-1.0")).To(BeFalse())
+			Expect(model.HasKnownModelFileExtension("plain-model-name")).To(BeFalse())
+		})
+	})
+
 	Context("ListFilesInModelPath", func() {
 		It("should list all valid model files in the model path", func() {
 			os.Create(filepath.Join(modelPath, "test.model"))