diff --git a/src/olmo_core/internal/model_ladder.py b/src/olmo_core/internal/model_ladder.py
index 5557e737..d88a76fb 100644
--- a/src/olmo_core/internal/model_ladder.py
+++ b/src/olmo_core/internal/model_ladder.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import logging
 import sys
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 from typing import Callable, List, cast
@@ -21,6 +22,8 @@
 
 from .common import build_launch_config, get_gpu_type, get_root_dir
 
+log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
 
 @dataclass
 class LadderRunConfig(Config):
@@ -116,6 +119,17 @@ def build_config(
     data_loader = ladder.get_data_loader_config(size=size)
     trainer = ladder.get_trainer_config(size=size, gpu_type=gpu_type)
 
+    # Make sure rank micro-batch size makes sense.
+    rank_mbz_instances = trainer.rank_microbatch_size // ladder.sequence_length
+    global_bz_instances = data_loader.global_batch_size // ladder.sequence_length
+    if rank_mbz_instances * dp_world_size > global_bz_instances:
+        new_rank_mbz_instances = global_bz_instances // dp_world_size
+        new_rank_mbz = new_rank_mbz_instances * ladder.sequence_length
+        log.warning(
+            f"Adjusting rank micro-batch size from {trainer.rank_microbatch_size:,d} tokens ({rank_mbz_instances:,d} instances) "
+            f"down to {new_rank_mbz:,d} tokens ({new_rank_mbz_instances:,d} instances)"
+        )
+
     return LadderRunConfig(
         launch=launch,
         ladder=ladder,