diff --git a/.railwayignore b/.railwayignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2bc1b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.railwayignore
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# Railway ignore file - prevent large files from being included in build
+node_modules/.bin
+node_modules/.cache
+node_modules/.vite
+.next
+.nuxt
+dist
+build
+*.log
+.DS_Store
+.env.local
+.venv
+venv
+__pycache__
+*.pyc
+.pytest_cache
+.coverage
+.git
+.github
+notebooks
+tests
+data
+*.png
+*.svg
+.flake8
+.pre-commit-config.yaml
+CHANGELOG.md
+model-card.md
diff --git a/farsi_transcriber_web/backend/app.py b/farsi_transcriber_web/backend/app.py
index 6147803..7675651 100644
--- a/farsi_transcriber_web/backend/app.py
+++ b/farsi_transcriber_web/backend/app.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 Farsi Transcriber Backend API
 
 Flask API for handling audio/video file transcription using Whisper model.
-Configured for Railway deployment.
+Configured for Railway deployment with lazy model loading.
 """
 
 import os
@@ -10,10 +10,12 @@ import sys
 import tempfile
 from pathlib import Path
 from werkzeug.utils import secure_filename
-import whisper
 from flask import Flask, request, jsonify
 from flask_cors import CORS
 
+# Prevent model download during build
+os.environ['WHISPER_CACHE'] = os.path.expanduser('~/.cache/whisper')
+
 # Add parent directory to path for imports
 sys.path.insert(0, str(Path(__file__).parent.parent.parent))
 
@@ -30,15 +32,18 @@ app.config['UPLOAD_FOLDER'] = UPLOAD_FOLDER
 app.config['MAX_CONTENT_LENGTH'] = MAX_FILE_SIZE
 app.config['ENV'] = os.getenv('FLASK_ENV', 'production')
 
-# Load Whisper model (lazy load for faster startup)
+# Load Whisper model (lazy load - only on first transcription request)
 model = None
 
 def load_model():
-    """Lazy load Whisper model on first use"""
+    """Lazy load Whisper model on first use (not during build)"""
     global model
     if model is None:
         try:
-            print("Loading Whisper model...")
+            print("⏳ Loading Whisper model for first time...")
+            print("   This may take 1-2 minutes on first run...")
+            # Import here to avoid loading during build
+            import whisper
             model = whisper.load_model('medium')
             print("✓ Whisper model loaded successfully")
         except Exception as e:
diff --git a/farsi_transcriber_web/backend/requirements.txt b/farsi_transcriber_web/backend/requirements.txt
index 745e549..29b263a 100644
--- a/farsi_transcriber_web/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/farsi_transcriber_web/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@ Flask==2.3.3
 Flask-CORS==4.0.0
 python-dotenv==1.0.0
 openai-whisper>=20230314
-torch>=1.10.1
+torch>=1.10.1,<2.0
 numpy>=1.21.0
 python-multipart==0.0.6
 gunicorn==21.2.0
 
+