diff --git a/src/art/preprocessing/tokenize.py b/src/art/preprocessing/tokenize.py
index 8fbcedca..a8f553c6 100644
--- a/src/art/preprocessing/tokenize.py
+++ b/src/art/preprocessing/tokenize.py
@@ -387,13 +387,9 @@ def tokenize_sft_batch(
         tokenizer=tokenizer,
         return_function=True,
     )
-    # Handle missing pad_token_id (common for LLaMA and similar models)
-    pad_token_id = tokenizer.pad_token_id
-    if pad_token_id is None:
-        pad_token_id = tokenizer.eos_token_id
-
-    # First pass: tokenize all trajectories
-    tokenized_trajectories = []
+    # Tokenize all trajectories (no padding — each keeps its natural length)
+    trajectory_tensors = []
+    num_trainable_tokens = 0
     for trajectory in trajectory_batch:
         messages = trajectory.messages_and_choices
         tools = trajectory.tools
@@ -409,49 +405,18 @@ def tokenize_sft_batch(
             ),
         )
 
-        # Create attention mask (all 1s - no padding yet)
         attention_mask = [1] * len(input_ids)
 
         labels = train_on_responses_only_fn({"input_ids": [input_ids]})["labels"][0]
 
-        tokenized_trajectories.append(
+        trajectory_tensors.append(
             {
-                "input_ids": input_ids,
-                "attention_mask": attention_mask,
-                "labels": labels,
+                "input_ids": torch.tensor([input_ids], dtype=torch.long),
+                "attention_mask": torch.tensor([attention_mask], dtype=torch.long),
+                "labels": torch.tensor([labels], dtype=torch.long),
             }
         )
-
-    # Find max length in this batch for padding
-    max_seq_length = max(len(t["input_ids"]) for t in tokenized_trajectories)
-
-    # Second pass: pad all trajectories to max_seq_length
-    trajectory_tensors = []
-    for tokenized in tokenized_trajectories:
-        input_ids = tokenized["input_ids"]
-        attention_mask = tokenized["attention_mask"]
-        labels = tokenized["labels"]
-
-        # Pad to max_seq_length
-        padding_length = max_seq_length - len(input_ids)
-        if padding_length > 0:
-            input_ids = input_ids + [pad_token_id] * padding_length
-            attention_mask = attention_mask + [0] * padding_length
-            labels = labels + [-100] * padding_length
-
-        trajectory_tensor = {
-            "input_ids": torch.tensor([input_ids], dtype=torch.long),
-            "attention_mask": torch.tensor([attention_mask], dtype=torch.long),
-            "labels": torch.tensor([labels], dtype=torch.long),
-        }
-
-        trajectory_tensors.append(trajectory_tensor)
-
-    # Calculate total trainable tokens (labels != -100)
-    num_trainable_tokens = sum(
-        (tensor_dict["labels"] != -100).sum().item()
-        for tensor_dict in trajectory_tensors
-    )
+        num_trainable_tokens += sum(1 for l in labels if l != -100)
 
     return SFTBatch(
         trajectory_tensors=trajectory_tensors,