diff --git a/backend/open_webui/config.py b/backend/open_webui/config.py
index 22a563821..7affe2c30 100644
--- a/backend/open_webui/config.py
+++ b/backend/open_webui/config.py
@@ -2267,7 +2267,8 @@ DOWNLOADED_EMBEDDING_MODELS = PersistentConfig(
     "rag.downloaded_embedding_models",
     os.getenv("DOWNLOADED_EMBEDDING_MODELS", {"":["sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2"],
                                               "openai":["text-embedding-3-small"],
-                                              "ollama":[]})
+                                              "ollama":[],
+                                              "azure_openai_config": []})
 )
 
 DOWNLOADED_RERANKING_MODELS = PersistentConfig(
@@ -2282,7 +2283,8 @@ LOADED_EMBEDDING_MODELS = PersistentConfig(
     "rag.loaded_embedding_models",
     os.getenv("LOADED_EMBEDDING_MODELS", {"":["sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2"],
                                           "openai":[],
-                                          "ollama":[]})
+                                          "ollama":[],
+                                          "azure_openai_config": []})
 )
 
 LOADED_RERANKING_MODELS = PersistentConfig(
diff --git a/backend/open_webui/main.py b/backend/open_webui/main.py
index 939e891a4..3f0fa6ba1 100644
--- a/backend/open_webui/main.py
+++ b/backend/open_webui/main.py
@@ -813,6 +813,11 @@ try:
     # Load all embedding models that are currently in use
     for engine, model_list in app.state.config.LOADED_EMBEDDING_MODELS.items():
         for model in model_list:
+            if engine == "azure_openai":
+                # For Azure OpenAI, model is a dict: {model_name: version}
+                model_name, azure_openai_api_version = next(iter(model.items()))
+                model = model_name
+
             app.state.ef[model] = get_ef(
                 engine,
                 model,
@@ -835,7 +840,7 @@ try:
                 app.state.config.RAG_EMBEDDING_BATCH_SIZE,
                 azure_api_version=(
                     app.state.config.RAG_AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION
-                    if app.state.config.RAG_EMBEDDING_ENGINE == "azure_openai"
+                    if engine == "azure_openai"
                     else None
                 ),
             )