diff --git a/dp/model/model.py b/dp/model/model.py
index 5709dcb..9fb321a 100644
--- a/dp/model/model.py
+++ b/dp/model/model.py
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
 from enum import Enum
+import os
+import requests
 from typing import Tuple, Dict, Any
+from cached_path import cached_path
+import validators
 
 import torch
 import torch.nn as nn
@@ -9,6 +13,8 @@
 from dp.model.utils import get_dedup_tokens, _make_len_mask, _generate_square_subsequent_mask, PositionalEncoding
 from dp.preprocessing.text import Preprocessor
 
+DEFAULT_MODEL_BUCKET = 'https://public-asai-dl-models.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/DeepPhonemizer'
+
 
 class ModelType(Enum):
     TRANSFORMER = 'transformer'
@@ -290,12 +296,12 @@ def create_model(model_type: ModelType, config: Dict[str, Any]) -> Model:
     return model
 
 
-def load_checkpoint(checkpoint_path: str, device: str = 'cpu') -> Tuple[Model, Dict[str, Any]]:
+def load_checkpoint(checkpoint: str, device: str = 'cpu') -> Tuple[Model, Dict[str, Any]]:
     """
-    Initializes a model from a checkpoint (.pt file).
+    Initializes a model from a checkpoint (.pt file). If the checkpoint doesn't exist, it is downloaded to a cache.
 
     Args:
-        checkpoint_path (str): Path to checkpoint file (.pt).
+        checkpoint (str): Path to checkpoint file (.pt) or name of pre-trained model (.pt) or URL to checkpoint (.pt)
         device (str): Device to put the model to ('cpu' or 'cuda').
 
     Returns: Tuple: The first element is a Model (the loaded model)
@@ -303,10 +309,17 @@ def load_checkpoint(checkpoint_path: str, device: str = 'cpu') -> Tuple[Model, D
     """
 
     device = torch.device(device)
+    if not checkpoint[-3:] == '.pt':
+        raise ValueError(f'{checkpoint} is not a valid model file (.pt).')
+    if not os.path.exists(checkpoint) and not validators.url(checkpoint):
+        model_pt_name = os.path.basename(checkpoint)
+        checkpoint = f"{DEFAULT_MODEL_BUCKET}/{model_pt_name}"
+    checkpoint_path = cached_path(checkpoint)
+    print(f"Loading model from {checkpoint_path} ...")
     checkpoint = torch.load(checkpoint_path, map_location=device)
     model_type = checkpoint['config']['model']['type']
     model_type = ModelType(model_type)
     model = create_model(model_type, config=checkpoint['config'])
     model.load_state_dict(checkpoint['model'])
     model.eval()
-    return model, checkpoint
\ No newline at end of file
+    return model, checkpoint
diff --git a/dp/phonemizer.py b/dp/phonemizer.py
index 37e8c85..b7a8c60 100644
--- a/dp/phonemizer.py
+++ b/dp/phonemizer.py
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ def from_checkpoint(cls,
         """Initializes a Phonemizer object from a model checkpoint (.pt file).
 
         Args:
-          checkpoint_path (str): Path to the .pt checkpoint file.
+          checkpoint_path (str): Path to checkpoint file (.pt), name of pre-trained model (.pt), or checkpoint URL (.pt)
           device (str): Device to send the model to ('cpu' or 'cuda'). (Default value = 'cpu')
           lang_phoneme_dict (Dict[str, Dict[str, str]], optional): Word-phoneme dictionary for each language.
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index fecc28a..33bae93 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -4,4 +4,6 @@ PyYAML>=5.1
 tensorboard
 certifi>=2022.12.7
 wheel>=0.38.0
-setuptools>=65.5.1
\ No newline at end of file
+setuptools>=65.5.1
+validators>=0.22.0
+cached-path>=1.5.0
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e879f2b..615218b 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@
     long_description_content_type='text/x-rst',
     license='MIT',
     install_requires=['torch>=1.2.0', 'tqdm>=4.38.0', 'PyYAML>=5.1', 'tensorboard',
-                      'certifi>=2022.12.7', 'wheel>=0.38.0', 'setuptools>=65.5.1'],
+                      'certifi>=2022.12.7', 'wheel>=0.38.0', 'setuptools>=65.5.1',
+                      'cached-path>=1.5.0', 'validators>=0.22.0'],
     extras_require={
         'tests': ['pytest-cov'],
         'docs': ['mkdocs', 'mkdocs-material'],