diff --git a/tokenizers/CHANGELOG.md b/tokenizers/CHANGELOG.md
index 1f8195a3..7599e8bc 100644
--- a/tokenizers/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/tokenizers/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ a high number of files as it avoids having too many progress bars on screen.
 - `ByteLevel` is also a `PostProcessor` now and handles trimming the offsets if activated. This
 avoids the unintuitive inclusion of the whitespaces in the produced offsets, even if these
 whitespaces are part of the actual token.
+- `encode` and `encode_batch` now take a new argument, specifying whether we should add the
+special tokens.
 
 ## Fixes:
 - Fix some issues with the offsets being wrong with the `ByteLevel` BPE:
diff --git a/tokenizers/src/cli.rs b/tokenizers/src/cli.rs
index 17df391f..a72cf1a0 100644
--- a/tokenizers/src/cli.rs
+++ b/tokenizers/src/cli.rs
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ fn shell(matches: &ArgMatches) -> Result<()> {
         let buffer = buffer.trim_end();
 
         let timer = std::time::Instant::now();
-        let encoded = tokenizer.encode(EncodeInput::Single(buffer.to_owned()))?;
+        let encoded = tokenizer.encode(EncodeInput::Single(buffer.to_owned()), false)?;
         let elapsed = timer.elapsed();
         println!("\nInput:\t\t{}", buffer);
         println!("Tokens:\t\t{:?}", encoded.get_tokens());
diff --git a/tokenizers/src/lib.rs b/tokenizers/src/lib.rs
index 3c075fb5..cc913e37 100644
--- a/tokenizers/src/lib.rs
+++ b/tokenizers/src/lib.rs
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
 //!
 //!     let mut tokenizer = Tokenizer::new(Box::new(bpe));
 //!
-//!     let encoding = tokenizer.encode(EncodeInput::Single("Hey there!".into()))?;
+//!     let encoding = tokenizer.encode(EncodeInput::Single("Hey there!".into()), false)?;
 //!     println!("{:?}", encoding.get_tokens());
 //!
 //!     Ok(())
diff --git a/tokenizers/src/pre_tokenizers/byte_level.rs b/tokenizers/src/pre_tokenizers/byte_level.rs
index 5f0928e6..59b6e947 100644
--- a/tokenizers/src/pre_tokenizers/byte_level.rs
+++ b/tokenizers/src/pre_tokenizers/byte_level.rs
@@ -193,7 +193,12 @@ impl PostProcessor for ByteLevel {
         0
     }
 
-    fn process(&self, mut encoding: Encoding, pair_encoding: Option<Encoding>) -> Result<Encoding> {
+    fn process(
+        &self,
+        mut encoding: Encoding,
+        pair_encoding: Option<Encoding>,
+        _add_special_tokens: bool,
+    ) -> Result<Encoding> {
         let process_offsets = |encoding: &mut Encoding| {
             if !self.trim_offsets {
                 return;
@@ -423,13 +428,18 @@ mod tests {
         );
 
         let bytelevel = ByteLevel::default().trim_offsets(true);
-        assert_eq!(expected, bytelevel.process(start.clone(), None).unwrap());
+        assert_eq!(
+            expected,
+            bytelevel.process(start.clone(), None, false).unwrap()
+        );
 
         let mut pair_expected = expected.clone();
         pair_expected.merge_with(expected);
         assert_eq!(
             pair_expected,
-            bytelevel.process(start.clone(), Some(start)).unwrap()
+            bytelevel
+                .process(start.clone(), Some(start), false)
+                .unwrap()
         );
     }
 }
diff --git a/tokenizers/src/processors/bert.rs b/tokenizers/src/processors/bert.rs
index dbfc026a..1cd7c535 100644
--- a/tokenizers/src/processors/bert.rs
+++ b/tokenizers/src/processors/bert.rs
@@ -20,7 +20,16 @@ impl PostProcessor for BertProcessing {
         }
     }
 
-    fn process(&self, mut encoding: Encoding, pair_encoding: Option<Encoding>) -> Result<Encoding> {
+    fn process(
+        &self,
+        mut encoding: Encoding,
+        pair_encoding: Option<Encoding>,
+        add_special_tokens: bool,
+    ) -> Result<Encoding> {
+        if !add_special_tokens {
+            return PostProcessor::default_process(encoding, pair_encoding, add_special_tokens);
+        }
+
         let ids = [&[self.cls.1], &encoding.get_ids()[..], &[self.sep.1]].concat();
         let type_ids = [&[0], &encoding.get_type_ids()[..], &[0]].concat();
         let tokens = [
diff --git a/tokenizers/src/processors/roberta.rs b/tokenizers/src/processors/roberta.rs
index 68145fac..5a0f5bc7 100644
--- a/tokenizers/src/processors/roberta.rs
+++ b/tokenizers/src/processors/roberta.rs
@@ -20,7 +20,16 @@ impl PostProcessor for RobertaProcessing {
         }
     }
 
-    fn process(&self, mut encoding: Encoding, pair_encoding: Option<Encoding>) -> Result<Encoding> {
+    fn process(
+        &self,
+        mut encoding: Encoding,
+        pair_encoding: Option<Encoding>,
+        add_special_tokens: bool,
+    ) -> Result<Encoding> {
+        if !add_special_tokens {
+            return PostProcessor::default_process(encoding, pair_encoding, add_special_tokens);
+        }
+
         let ids = [&[self.cls.1], &encoding.get_ids()[..], &[self.sep.1]].concat();
         let type_ids = [&[0], &encoding.get_type_ids()[..], &[0]].concat();
         let tokens = [
diff --git a/tokenizers/src/tokenizer/mod.rs b/tokenizers/src/tokenizer/mod.rs
index 198a784f..aff653e8 100644
--- a/tokenizers/src/tokenizer/mod.rs
+++ b/tokenizers/src/tokenizer/mod.rs
@@ -55,7 +55,27 @@ pub trait PostProcessor {
     /// Returns the number of tokens that will be added during the processing step
     fn added_tokens(&self, is_pair: bool) -> usize;
     /// Process both encodings and returns a new merged one
-    fn process(&self, encoding: Encoding, pair_encoding: Option<Encoding>) -> Result<Encoding>;
+    fn process(
+        &self,
+        encoding: Encoding,
+        pair_encoding: Option<Encoding>,
+        add_special_tokens: bool,
+    ) -> Result<Encoding>;
+}
+impl dyn PostProcessor {
+    pub fn default_process(
+        mut encoding: Encoding,
+        pair_encoding: Option<Encoding>,
+        _add_special_tokens: bool,
+    ) -> Result<Encoding> {
+        match pair_encoding {
+            None => Ok(encoding),
+            Some(pair) => {
+                encoding.merge_with(pair);
+                Ok(encoding)
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 /// A `Decoder` has the responsibility to merge the given `Vec<String>` in a `String`.
@@ -277,7 +297,7 @@ impl Tokenizer {
     }
 
     /// Encode the given sentence
-    pub fn encode(&self, input: EncodeInput) -> Result<Encoding> {
+    pub fn encode(&self, input: EncodeInput, add_special_tokens: bool) -> Result<Encoding> {
         let generate_output = move |sentence: String, type_id: u32| -> Result<Encoding> {
             // First we need to split into as many sequences as needed to avoid splitting
             // on our added tokens
@@ -362,14 +382,18 @@ impl Tokenizer {
         };
 
         // 4. Post processing
-        self.post_process(encoding, pair_encoding)
+        self.post_process(encoding, pair_encoding, add_special_tokens)
     }
 
     /// Encode all the sentences in parallel, using multiple threads
-    pub fn encode_batch(&self, inputs: Vec<EncodeInput>) -> Result<Vec<Encoding>> {
+    pub fn encode_batch(
+        &self,
+        inputs: Vec<EncodeInput>,
+        add_special_tokens: bool,
+    ) -> Result<Vec<Encoding>> {
         let encodings = inputs
             .into_par_iter()
-            .map(|input| self.encode(input))
+            .map(|input| self.encode(input, add_special_tokens))
             .collect::<Result<Vec<Encoding>>>()?;
 
         if let Some(params) = &self.padding {
@@ -513,9 +537,10 @@ impl Tokenizer {
         &self,
         encoding: Encoding,
         pair_encoding: Option<Encoding>,
+        add_special_tokens: bool,
     ) -> Result<Encoding> {
         // 1. First we truncate if needed
-        let (mut encoding, pair_encoding) = {
+        let (encoding, pair_encoding) = {
             if let Some(trunc) = &self.trunc {
                 let n_added_tokens = if let Some(processor) = &self.post_processor {
                     processor.added_tokens(pair_encoding.is_some())
@@ -523,7 +548,7 @@ impl Tokenizer {
                     0
                 };
 
-                if n_added_tokens > 0 {
+                if add_special_tokens && n_added_tokens > 0 {
                     let params = TruncationParams {
                         max_length: trunc.max_length - n_added_tokens,
                         ..*trunc
@@ -539,15 +564,9 @@ impl Tokenizer {
 
         // 2. Then We post process
         let mut final_encoding = if let Some(processor) = &self.post_processor {
-            processor.process(encoding, pair_encoding)?
+            processor.process(encoding, pair_encoding, add_special_tokens)?
         } else {
-            match pair_encoding {
-                None => encoding,
-                Some(pair) => {
-                    encoding.merge_with(pair);
-                    encoding
-                }
-            }
+            PostProcessor::default_process(encoding, pair_encoding, add_special_tokens)?
         };
 
         // 3. Then we pad if needed