diff --git a/modules/text_generation.py b/modules/text_generation.py
index f640b2c..2bcbd9b 100644
--- a/modules/text_generation.py
+++ b/modules/text_generation.py
@@ -265,8 +265,15 @@ def apply_stopping_strings(reply, all_stop_strings):
 
 def get_reply_from_output_ids(output_ids, state, starting_from=0):
     reply = decode(output_ids[starting_from:], state['skip_special_tokens'])
-    if (hasattr(shared.tokenizer, 'convert_ids_to_tokens') and len(output_ids) > starting_from and shared.tokenizer.convert_ids_to_tokens(int(output_ids[starting_from])).startswith('▁')) and not reply.startswith(' '):
-        reply = ' ' + reply
+
+    # Handle tokenizers that do not add the leading space for the first token
+    if (hasattr(shared.tokenizer, 'convert_ids_to_tokens') and len(output_ids) > starting_from) and not reply.startswith(' '):
+        first_token = shared.tokenizer.convert_ids_to_tokens(int(output_ids[starting_from]))
+        if isinstance(first_token, (bytes,)):
+            first_token = first_token.decode('utf8')
+
+        if first_token.startswith('▁'):
+            reply = ' ' + reply
 
     return reply