diff --git a/extension/llm/runner/CMakeLists.txt b/extension/llm/runner/CMakeLists.txt
index 05f47e55c74..cd16a382b42 100644
--- a/extension/llm/runner/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/extension/llm/runner/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -44,18 +44,23 @@ target_include_directories(
 add_library(extension_llm_runner STATIC ${_extension_llm_runner__srcs})
 
 # add tokenizers
-add_subdirectory(
-  ${EXECUTORCH_ROOT}/extension/llm/tokenizers
-  ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/../../../extension/llm/tokenizers
+ExternalProject_Add(
+  tokenizers_external_project
+  PREFIX ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/../tokenizers
+  SOURCE_DIR ${EXECUTORCH_ROOT}/extension/llm/tokenizers
+  CMAKE_ARGS -DSUPPORT_REGEX_LOOKAHEAD=ON -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/../tokenizers
+  INSTALL_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/../tokenizers
 )
-
-set(runner_deps executorch_core extension_module extension_tensor tokenizers)
+add_dependencies(extension_llm_runner tokenizers_external_project)
+find_package(tokenizers CONFIG HINTS ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/../tokenizers)
+set(runner_deps executorch extension_module extension_tensor ${TOKENIZERS_LIBRARIES})
 
 target_link_libraries(extension_llm_runner PUBLIC ${runner_deps})
 
 target_include_directories(
-  extension_llm_runner INTERFACE ${_common_include_directories}
-                                 ${EXECUTORCH_ROOT}/extension/llm/tokenizers/include
+  extension_llm_runner PUBLIC ${_common_include_directories}
+                                 ${TOKENIZERS_INCLUDE_DIRS}
+                                 ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/../tokenizers/include
 )
 
 if(BUILD_TESTING)
diff --git a/extension/llm/tokenizers b/extension/llm/tokenizers
index fc5962cd9e0..a2bac3b7a54 160000
--- a/extension/llm/tokenizers
+++ b/extension/llm/tokenizers
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit fc5962cd9e08019c5df6667eba3377e7d76441f7
+Subproject commit a2bac3b7a54a3816d66b8fd3e705f8724d2d5f2f