diff --git a/semantic_search/main.py b/semantic_search/main.py
index 09cb1f6..c03915b 100644
--- a/semantic_search/main.py
+++ b/semantic_search/main.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
     """
 
     pretrained_model_name_or_path: str = "johngiorgi/declutr-sci-base"
+    serialized_index_path: Optional[str] = None
     batch_size: int = 64
     max_length: Optional[int] = None
     mean_pool: bool = True
@@ -80,7 +81,10 @@ def app_startup():
         settings.pretrained_model_name_or_path, cuda_device=settings.cuda_device
     )
     embedding_dim = model.model.config.hidden_size
-    model.index = setup_faiss_index(embedding_dim)
+    if settings.serialized_index_path is not None:
+        model.index = faiss.swigfaiss.read_index(settings.file_path)
+    else:
+        model.index = setup_faiss_index(embedding_dim)
 
 
 @app.post("/")