diff --git a/mapreader/classify/classifier.py b/mapreader/classify/classifier.py
index 671d41bd..fe4acbc4 100644
--- a/mapreader/classify/classifier.py
+++ b/mapreader/classify/classifier.py
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ def __init__(
         is_inception: bool = False,
         load_path: str | None = None,
         force_device: bool = False,
+        huggingface=False,
         **kwargs,
     ):
         # set up device
@@ -141,6 +142,7 @@ def __init__(
                 )
 
             self.labels_map = labels_map
+            self.huggingface = huggingface
 
             # set up model and move to device
             print("[INFO] Initializing model.")
@@ -149,7 +151,25 @@ def __init__(
                 self.input_size = input_size
                 self.is_inception = is_inception
             elif isinstance(model, str):
-                self._initialize_model(model, **kwargs)
+                if self.huggingface:
+                    try:
+                        from transformers import AutoModelForImageClassification, AutoImageProcessor
+                    except ImportError:
+                        raise ImportError(
+                            "Hugging Face models require the 'transformers' library: 'pip install transformers'."
+                        )
+                    print(f"[INFO] Initializing Hugging Face model: {model}")
+                    num_labels = len(self.labels_map)
+                    self.model = AutoModelForImageClassification.from_pretrained(
+                        model,
+                        num_labels=num_labels,
+                        ignore_mismatched_sizes=True
+                    ).to(self.device)
+                    self.hf_processor = AutoImageProcessor.from_pretrained(model)
+                    self.input_size = getattr(self.hf_processor, "size", {"height": 224})["height"]
+                    self.is_inception = False
+                else:
+                    self._initialize_model(model, **kwargs)
 
             self.optimizer = None
             self.scheduler = None