diff --git a/python/fasttext_module/fasttext/FastText.py b/python/fasttext_module/fasttext/FastText.py
index d4081b4..f66ada1 100644
--- a/python/fasttext_module/fasttext/FastText.py
+++ b/python/fasttext_module/fasttext/FastText.py
@@ -429,7 +429,13 @@ def _build_args(args, manually_set_args):
             a.setManual(k)
     a.output = ""  # User should use save_model
     a.saveOutput = 0  # Never use this
-    if a.wordNgrams <= 1 and a.maxn == 0:
+    # Autotune reuses a manual bucket for the n-gram trials it samples.
+    keep_bucket = (
+        bool(a.autotuneValidationFile)
+        and "bucket" in manually_set_args
+        and a.bucket > 0
+    )
+    if a.wordNgrams <= 1 and a.maxn == 0 and not keep_bucket:
         a.bucket = 0
     return a
 
diff --git a/python/fasttext_module/fasttext/tests/test_autotune_bucket.py b/python/fasttext_module/fasttext/tests/test_autotune_bucket.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..44f06cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/fasttext_module/fasttext/tests/test_autotune_bucket.py
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+# SPDX-FileContributor: Arthit Suriyawongkul
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026-present, fasttext-community
+# SPDX-FileType: SOURCE
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+
+"""Autotune must respect a manually set bucket."""
+
+import fasttext
+import fasttext_pybind
+from fasttext import FastText
+
+from .helpers import get_random_data
+
+
+def test_build_args_keeps_manual_bucket_for_autotune():
+    """Used to zero it, so autotune's n-gram trials hashed modulo 0."""
+    # unsupervised_default lists every arg; the overrides make it supervised.
+    base = dict(
+        FastText.unsupervised_default,
+        input="x",
+        model="supervised",
+        minn=0,
+        maxn=0,
+        autotuneValidationFile="valid.txt",
+    )
+    assert FastText._build_args(dict(base, bucket=1000), {"bucket"}).bucket == 1000
+    assert FastText._build_args(dict(base), set()).bucket == 0  # default: unchanged
+
+
+def test_autotune_with_manual_bucket_zero(tmp_path):
+    """Used to terminate: trials sampled n-grams that bucket=0 can't hold."""
+    path = tmp_path / "train.txt"
+    path.write_text("".join(f"__label__{line}\n" for line in get_random_data(3000)))
+    # thread=12: thread <= 10 leaves the input matrix partly uninitialized.
+    model = fasttext.train_supervised(
+        str(path),
+        autotuneValidationFile=str(path),
+        autotuneDuration=3,  # enough for several trials
+        bucket=0,
+        minn=2,  # a manual minn must not turn on subwords either
+        lr=0.1,  # a sampled lr can diverge (NaN) in the final retrain
+        thread=12,
+        verbose=0,
+    )
+    args = model.f.getArgs()
+    assert (args.bucket, args.wordNgrams, args.maxn) == (0, 1, 0)
+
+
+def test_unsupervised_autotune_with_manual_bucket_zero(tmp_path):
+    """Used to terminate: trial 1 kept the default subwords (CLI-only path)."""
+    path = tmp_path / "train.txt"
+    path.write_text("".join(f"{line}\n" for line in get_random_data(3000)))
+    # train_unsupervised() takes no autotune args; the CLI reaches this.
+    args = dict(
+        FastText.unsupervised_default,
+        input=str(path),
+        autotuneValidationFile=str(path),
+        autotuneDuration=3,
+        bucket=0,
+        lr=0.05,  # a sampled lr can diverge (NaN) in the final retrain
+        thread=12,  # thread <= 10 leaves the input matrix partly uninitialized
+        verbose=0,
+    )
+    a = FastText._build_args(args, {"bucket", "lr"})
+    model = FastText._FastText(args=a)
+    fasttext_pybind.train(model.f, a)
+    got = model.f.getArgs()
+    assert (got.bucket, got.wordNgrams, got.maxn) == (0, 1, 0)
diff --git a/src/autotune.cc b/src/autotune.cc
index 567731b..ad1dc50 100644
--- a/src/autotune.cc
+++ b/src/autotune.cc
@@ -120,7 +120,17 @@ AutotuneStrategy::AutotuneStrategy(
       bestNonzeroBucket_(2000000),
       originalBucket_(originalArgs.bucket) {
   minnChoices_ = {0, 2, 3};
-  updateBest(originalArgs);
+  Args args = originalArgs;
+  // A manual bucket=0 means no n-gram buckets: start without n-grams too.
+  if (args.isManual("bucket") && args.bucket == 0) {
+    if (!args.isManual("wordNgrams")) {
+      args.wordNgrams = 1;
+    }
+    if (!args.isManual("maxn")) {
+      args.maxn = 0;
+    }
+  }
+  updateBest(args);
 }
 
 Args AutotuneStrategy::ask(double elapsed) {
@@ -132,6 +142,8 @@ Args AutotuneStrategy::ask(double elapsed) {
   }
 
   Args args = bestArgs_;
+  // A manual bucket=0 means no n-gram buckets: don't sample n-grams.
+  const bool noBuckets = args.isManual("bucket") && originalBucket_ == 0;
 
   if (!args.isManual("epoch")) {
     args.epoch = updateArgGauss(args.epoch, 1, 100, 2.8, 2.5, t, false, rng_);
@@ -142,7 +154,7 @@ Args AutotuneStrategy::ask(double elapsed) {
   if (!args.isManual("dim")) {
     args.dim = updateArgGauss(args.dim, 1, 1000, 1.4, 0.3, t, false, rng_);
   }
-  if (!args.isManual("wordNgrams")) {
+  if (!args.isManual("wordNgrams") && !noBuckets) {
     args.wordNgrams =
         updateArgGauss(args.wordNgrams, 1, 5, 4.3, 2.4, t, true, rng_);
   }
@@ -151,7 +163,7 @@ Args AutotuneStrategy::ask(double elapsed) {
         updateArgGauss(bestDsubExponent_, 1, 4, 2.0, 1.0, t, true, rng_);
     args.dsub = (1 << dsubExponent);
   }
-  if (!args.isManual("minn")) {
+  if (!args.isManual("minn") && !noBuckets) {
     int minnIndex = updateArgGauss(
         bestMinnIndex_,
         0,
@@ -164,7 +176,7 @@ Args AutotuneStrategy::ask(double elapsed) {
     args.minn = minnChoices_[minnIndex];
   }
   if (!args.isManual("maxn")) {
-    if (args.minn == 0) {
+    if (args.minn == 0 || noBuckets) {
       args.maxn = 0;
     } else {
       args.maxn = args.minn + 3;