diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index 22cee7ac89..03a8f9d37f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -81,13 +81,11 @@ jobs:
       with:
         path: ${{ env.Python3_ROOT_DIR }}/lib/python3.8/site-packages
         key: testing-packages-${{ hashFiles('**/setup.py') }}
-    - name: Cache model weights
+    - name: Cache downloads
       uses: actions/cache@v3
       with:
-        path: |
-          weights/whisper-tiny.en.pt
-          weights/gpt2.tiktoken
-        key: model-weights-v1
+        path: ~/.cache/tinygrad/downloads/
+        key: downloads-cache
     - name: Install Dependencies
       run: pip install -e '.[testing]' --extra-index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cpu
     - name: Run Pytest
@@ -116,13 +114,11 @@ jobs:
       with:
         path: ${{ env.Python3_ROOT_DIR }}/lib/python3.11/site-packages
         key: testing-packages-${{ hashFiles('**/setup.py') }}
-    - name: Cache model weights
+    - name: Cache downloads
       uses: actions/cache@v3
       with:
-        path: |
-          weights/whisper-tiny.en.pt
-          weights/gpt2.tiktoken
-        key: model-weights-v1
+        path: ~/.cache/tinygrad/downloads/
+        key: downloads-cache
     - name: Install Dependencies
       run: pip install -e '.[testing]' --extra-index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cpu
     - name: Run Pytest
@@ -229,13 +225,11 @@ jobs:
         key: metal-webgpu-testing-packages-${{ hashFiles('**/setup.py') }}
     - name: Install Dependencies
       run: pip install -e '.[webgpu,testing]' --extra-index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cpu
-    - name: Cache model weights
+    - name: Cache downloads
       uses: actions/cache@v3
       with:
-        path: |
-          weights/whisper-tiny.en.pt
-          weights/gpt2.tiktoken
-        key: model-weights-v1
+        path: ~/Library/Caches/tinygrad/downloads/
+        key: downloads-cache
     - name: Test LLaMA compile speed
       run: PYTHONPATH="." METAL=1 python test/external/external_test_speed_llama.py
     #- name: Run dtype test
@@ -296,13 +290,11 @@ jobs:
         with:
           path: ${{ env.Python3_ROOT_DIR }}/lib/python3.11/site-packages
           key: ${{ matrix.backend }}-packages-${{ hashFiles('**/setup.py') }}
-      - name: Cache model weights
+      - name: Cache downloads
         uses: actions/cache@v3
         with:
-          path: |
-            weights/whisper-tiny.en.pt
-            weights/gpt2.tiktoken
-          key: model-weights-v1
+          path: ~/Library/Caches/tinygrad/downloads/
+          key: downloads-cache
       - name: Set env
         run: printf "${{ matrix.backend == 'llvm' && 'LLVM=1' || matrix.backend == 'clang' && 'CLANG=1' || matrix.backend == 'gpu' && 'GPU=1' || matrix.backend == 'cuda' && 'FORWARD_ONLY=1\nJIT=1\nOPT=2\nCUDA=1\nCUDACPU=1\n' || matrix.backend == 'PTX' && 'FORWARD_ONLY=1\nJIT=1\nOPT=2\nCUDA=1\nCUDACPU=1\nPTX=1' || matrix.backend == 'triton' && 'FORWARD_ONLY=1\nJIT=1\nOPT=2\nCUDA=1\nCUDACPU=1\nTRITON=1\nTRITON_PTXAS_PATH=/usr/bin/ptxas'}}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
       - name: Install OpenCL
diff --git a/examples/whisper.py b/examples/whisper.py
index c30843e7eb..e31f904b28 100644
--- a/examples/whisper.py
+++ b/examples/whisper.py
@@ -6,10 +6,9 @@ import base64
 import multiprocessing
 import numpy as np
 from typing import Optional, Union, Literal, List
-from extra.utils import download_file
 from tinygrad.jit import TinyJit
 from tinygrad.nn.state import torch_load, load_state_dict
-from tinygrad.helpers import getenv, DEBUG, CI
+from tinygrad.helpers import getenv, DEBUG, CI, fetch
 import tinygrad.nn as nn
 from tinygrad.shape.symbolic import Variable
 from tinygrad.tensor import Tensor
@@ -194,11 +193,8 @@ LANGUAGES = {
   "as": "assamese", "tt": "tatar", "haw": "hawaiian", "ln": "lingala", "ha": "hausa", "ba": "bashkir", "jw": "javanese", "su": "sundanese",
 }
 
-BASE = pathlib.Path(__file__).parents[1] / "weights"
 def get_encoding(encoding_name):
-  filename = encoding_name + ".tiktoken"
-  download_file("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openai/whisper/main/whisper/assets/" + filename, BASE / filename)
-  with open(BASE / filename) as f:
+  with fetch(f"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openai/whisper/main/whisper/assets/{encoding_name}.tiktoken").open() as f:
     ranks = {base64.b64decode(token): int(rank) for token, rank in (line.split() for line in f if line)}
   n_vocab = len(ranks)
   specials = [
@@ -239,8 +235,7 @@ MODEL_URLS = {
 def init_whisper(model_name="tiny.en", batch_size=1):
   assert MODEL_URLS[model_name] is not None
 
-  filename = BASE / "whisper-{}.pt".format(model_name)
-  download_file(MODEL_URLS[model_name], filename)
+  filename = fetch(MODEL_URLS[model_name])
   state = torch_load(filename)
   model = Whisper(state['dims'], batch_size)
   load_state_dict(model, state['model_state_dict'], strict=False)