diff --git a/candle-metal-kernels/src/unary.metal b/candle-metal-kernels/src/unary.metal
index a82bfdbdd6..e3a18cfe91 100644
--- a/candle-metal-kernels/src/unary.metal
+++ b/candle-metal-kernels/src/unary.metal
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ template <typename T> METAL_FUNC T gelu(T x) {
     T x_cube = x_sq * x;
     T alpha = x + static_cast<T>(0.044715) * x_cube;
     T beta =  (static_cast<T>(M_2_SQRTPI_F * M_SQRT1_2_F) * alpha);
-    return static_cast<T>(0.5) * x * (static_cast<T>(1.0) + T(tanh(beta)));
+    return static_cast<T>(0.5) * x * (static_cast<T>(1.0) + T(precise::tanh(beta)));
 }
 template <typename T> METAL_FUNC T relu(T in){
     if (in < 0) {
@@ -154,7 +154,6 @@ UNARY_OP(floor)
 UNARY_OP(round)
 UNARY_OP(gelu_erf)
 UNARY_OP(erf)
-UNARY_OP(tanh)
 UNARY_OP(recip)
 UNARY_OP(relu)
 UNARY_OP(sign)
@@ -164,6 +163,11 @@ UNARY(id, half, copy_f16, copy_f16_strided)
 UNARY(id, uint8_t, copy_u8, copy_u8_strided)
 UNARY(id, uint32_t, copy_u32, copy_u32_strided)
 
+// tanh may create NaN on large values, e.g. 45 rather than outputing 1.
+// This has been an issue for the encodec example.
+UNARY(precise::tanh, float, tanh_f32, tanh_f32_strided);
+UNARY(precise::tanh, half, tanh_f16, tanh_f16_strided);
+
 #if __METAL_VERSION__ >= 220
 UNARY(id, int64_t, copy_i64, copy_i64_strided)
 COPY2D(copy2d_i64, int64_t)
@@ -185,7 +189,6 @@ BFLOAT_UNARY_OP(floor)
 BFLOAT_UNARY_OP(round)
 BFLOAT_UNARY_OP(gelu_erf)
 BFLOAT_UNARY_OP(erf)
-BFLOAT_UNARY_OP(tanh)
 BFLOAT_UNARY_OP(recip)
 BFLOAT_UNARY_OP(relu)
 BFLOAT_UNARY_OP(sign)
@@ -193,5 +196,7 @@ BFLOAT_UNARY_OP(sigmoid)
 
 UNARY(id, bfloat, copy_bf16, copy_bf16_strided)
 
+UNARY(precise::tanh, bfloat, tanh_bf16, tanh_bf16_strided);
+
 COPY2D(copy2d_bf16, bfloat)
 #endif