diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 6b5587825..53c99dc38 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install dependencies
         run: |
           python -m pip install --upgrade pip
-          python -m pip install '.[train, onnx, openvino, dev]'
+          python -m pip install '.[train, onnx, openvino, ipex, dev]'
 
       - name: Install model2vec
         run: python -m pip install model2vec
diff --git a/docs/installation.md b/docs/installation.md
index 334b8cbd8..143ba17a7 100644
--- a/docs/installation.md
+++ b/docs/installation.md
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ We recommend **Python 3.9+**, **[PyTorch 1.11.0+](https://pytorch.org/get-starte
 * **Default:** This allows for loading, saving, and inference (i.e., getting embeddings) of models.
 * **ONNX:** This allows for loading, saving, inference, optimizing, and quantizing of models using the ONNX backend.
 * **OpenVINO:** This allows for loading, saving, and inference of models using the OpenVINO backend.
+* **IPEX:** This allows for loading, saving, and inference of models using the IPEX backend.
 * **Default and Training**: Like **Default**, plus training.
 * **Development**: All of the above plus some dependencies for developing Sentence Transformers, see [Editable Install](#editable-install).
 
@@ -37,6 +38,12 @@ Note that you can mix and match the various extras, e.g. ``pip install -U "sente
 
         pip install -U "sentence-transformers[openvino]"
 
+.. tab:: IPEX
+
+    ::
+
+        pip install -U "sentence-transformers[ipex]"
+
 .. tab:: Default and Training
 
     ::
@@ -87,6 +94,12 @@ Note that you can mix and match the various extras, e.g. ``pip install -U "sente
 
         pip install -U "sentence-transformers[openvino]"
 
+.. tab:: IPEX
+
+    ::
+
+        pip install -U "sentence-transformers[ipex]"
+
 .. tab:: Default and Training
 
     ::
@@ -139,6 +152,12 @@ You can install ``sentence-transformers`` directly from source to take advantage
 
         pip install -U "sentence-transformers[openvino] @ git+https://github.com/UKPLab/sentence-transformers.git"
 
+.. tab:: IPEX
+
+    ::
+
+        pip install -U "sentence-transformers[ipex] @ git+https://github.com/UKPLab/sentence-transformers.git"
+
 .. tab:: Default and Training
 
     ::
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f6e2cf867..09d8eae88 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ train = ["datasets", "accelerate>=0.20.3"]
 onnx = ["optimum[onnxruntime]>=1.23.1"]
 onnx-gpu = ["optimum[onnxruntime-gpu]>=1.23.1"]
 openvino = ["optimum-intel[openvino]>=1.20.0"]
+ipex = ["optimum-intel[ipex]>=1.20.0"]
 dev = ["datasets", "accelerate>=0.20.3", "pre-commit", "pytest", "pytest-cov", "peft"]
 
 [build-system]
diff --git a/tests/test_backends.py b/tests/test_backends.py
index 887de96e1..5983807bb 100644
--- a/tests/test_backends.py
+++ b/tests/test_backends.py
@@ -15,6 +15,11 @@
 except ImportError:
     pytest.skip("OpenVINO and ONNX backends are not available", allow_module_level=True)
 
+try:
+    from optimum.intel import IPEXModel
+except ImportError:
+    pytest.skip("IPEX backend is not available", allow_module_level=True)
+
 from sentence_transformers import SentenceTransformer
 
 
@@ -24,6 +29,7 @@
     [
         ("onnx", ORTModelForFeatureExtraction),
         ("openvino", OVModelForFeatureExtraction),
+        ("ipex", IPEXModel)
     ],
 )
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(