diff --git a/LLama.Unittest/TokenTests.cs b/LLama.Unittest/TokenTests.cs
index 3ba3b1cd..383428af 100644
--- a/LLama.Unittest/TokenTests.cs
+++ b/LLama.Unittest/TokenTests.cs
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ public sealed class TokenTests
         var strings = new[]
         {
             "Hello world",
-            "철수라는",
+            "철수",
             "😀 😃 😄 😁 😆 😅 😂 😊 😇 🙂 ",
         };
 
diff --git a/LLama/LLamaContext.cs b/LLama/LLamaContext.cs
index a190c075..7edf62c4 100644
--- a/LLama/LLamaContext.cs
+++ b/LLama/LLamaContext.cs
@@ -102,13 +102,9 @@ namespace LLama
         /// </summary>
         /// <param name="tokens"></param>
         /// <returns></returns>
-        public string DeTokenize(IEnumerable<llama_token> tokens)
+        public string DeTokenize(IReadOnlyList<llama_token> tokens)
         {
-            var sb = new StringBuilder();
-            foreach (var token in tokens)
-                NativeHandle.TokenToString(token, Encoding, sb);
-
-            return sb.ToString();
+            return NativeHandle.DeTokenize(tokens, Encoding);
         }
 
         /// <summary>
@@ -418,26 +414,6 @@ namespace LLama
         }
 #endregion
 
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Convert a token into a string
-        /// </summary>
-        /// <param name="token"></param>
-        /// <returns></returns>
-        public string TokenToString(llama_token token)
-        {
-            return NativeHandle.TokenToString(token, Encoding);
-        }
-
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Append a single token to a string builder
-        /// </summary>
-        /// <param name="token">Token to decode</param>
-        /// <param name="dest">string builder to append the result to</param>
-        public void TokenToString(llama_token token, StringBuilder dest)
-        {
-            NativeHandle.TokenToString(token, Encoding, dest);
-        }
-
         /// <inheritdoc />
         public void Dispose()
         {
diff --git a/LLama/LLamaExecutorBase.cs b/LLama/LLamaExecutorBase.cs
index 1a12c6b2..578bd4d8 100644
--- a/LLama/LLamaExecutorBase.cs
+++ b/LLama/LLamaExecutorBase.cs
@@ -294,10 +294,7 @@ namespace LLama
                 await InferInternal(inferenceParams, args);
 
                 if (args.ReturnValue)
-                {
-                    foreach (var id in _embeds)
-                        yield return Context.TokenToString(id);
-                }
+                    yield return Context.DeTokenize(_embeds);
 
                 var (breakGeneration, extraOutputs) = await PostProcess(inferenceParams, args);
                 if (extraOutputs is { Count: > 0 })
diff --git a/LLama/LLamaStatelessExecutor.cs b/LLama/LLamaStatelessExecutor.cs
index 80488b71..457b3894 100644
--- a/LLama/LLamaStatelessExecutor.cs
+++ b/LLama/LLamaStatelessExecutor.cs
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ namespace LLama
                     inferenceParams.MirostatEta, inferenceParams.TopK, inferenceParams.TopP, inferenceParams.TfsZ, inferenceParams.TypicalP, inferenceParams.Grammar);
 
                 lastTokens.Add(id);
-                yield return Context.TokenToString(id);
+                yield return Context.DeTokenize(new [] { id }); //todo: not correct to return tokens one by one like this!
 
                 tokens.Clear();
                 tokens.Add(id);
diff --git a/LLama/Native/SafeLLamaContextHandle.cs b/LLama/Native/SafeLLamaContextHandle.cs
index c411385c..160b8cc8 100644
--- a/LLama/Native/SafeLLamaContextHandle.cs
+++ b/LLama/Native/SafeLLamaContextHandle.cs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 using System;
 using System.Buffers;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
 using System.Text;
 using LLama.Exceptions;
 
@@ -159,38 +160,43 @@ namespace LLama.Native
         }
 
         /// <summary>
-        /// Convert a token into a string
+        /// Convert a single llama token into bytes
         /// </summary>
-        /// <param name="token">Token to decode into a string</param>
-        /// <param name="encoding"></param>
-        /// <returns></returns>
-        public string TokenToString(int token, Encoding encoding)
+        /// <param name="token">Token to decode</param>
+        /// <param name="dest">A span to attempt to write into. If this is too small nothing will be written</param>
+        /// <returns>The size of this token. **nothing will be written** if this is larger than `dest`</returns>
+        public int TokenToSpan(int token, Span<byte> dest)
         {
-            return ThrowIfDisposed().TokenToString(token, encoding);
+            return ThrowIfDisposed().TokenToSpan(token, dest);
         }
 
         /// <summary>
-        /// Append a single llama token to a string builder
+        /// Convert a set of tokens into a string
         /// </summary>
-        /// <param name="token">Token to decode</param>
+        /// <param name="tokens"></param>
         /// <param name="encoding"></param>
-        /// <param name="dest">string builder to append the result to</param>
-        public void TokenToString(int token, Encoding encoding, StringBuilder dest)
+        /// <returns></returns>
+        public string DeTokenize(IReadOnlyList<int> tokens, Encoding encoding)
         {
-            ThrowIfDisposed().TokenToString(token, encoding, dest);
-        }
+            var chars = ArrayPool<char>.Shared.Rent(tokens.Count * 2);
+            try
+            {
+                var span = ThrowIfDisposed().TokensToSpan(tokens, chars.AsSpan(), encoding);
+                if (span.Length == 0)
+                    return "";
 
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Convert a single llama token into bytes
-        /// </summary>
-        /// <param name="token">Token to decode</param>
-        /// <param name="dest">A span to attempt to write into. If this is too small nothing will be written</param>
-        /// <returns>The size of this token. **nothing will be written** if this is larger than `dest`</returns>
-        public int TokenToSpan(int token, Span<byte> dest)
-        {
-            return ThrowIfDisposed().TokenToSpan(token, dest);
+                unsafe
+                {
+                    fixed (char* ptr = &span[0])
+                        return new string(ptr, 0, span.Length);
+                }
+            }
+            finally
+            {
+                ArrayPool<char>.Shared.Return(chars);
+            }
         }
-        #endregion
+#endregion
 
         /// <summary>
         /// Run the llama inference to obtain the logits and probabilities for the next token.
diff --git a/LLama/Native/SafeLlamaModelHandle.cs b/LLama/Native/SafeLlamaModelHandle.cs
index 79beed61..7afcc3af 100644
--- a/LLama/Native/SafeLlamaModelHandle.cs
+++ b/LLama/Native/SafeLlamaModelHandle.cs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 using System.Buffers;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using System.Diagnostics;
+using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
 using System.Text;
 using LLama.Exceptions;
 using LLama.Extensions;
@@ -118,66 +119,6 @@ namespace LLama.Native
             }
         }
 
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Convert a single llama token into a string
-        /// </summary>
-        /// <param name="llama_token"></param>
-        /// <param name="encoding">Encoding to use to decode the bytes into a string</param>
-        /// <returns></returns>
-        public string TokenToString(int llama_token, Encoding encoding)
-        {
-            unsafe
-            {
-                var length = NativeApi.llama_token_to_piece(this, llama_token, null, 0);
-                if (length == 0)
-                    return "";
-
-                Span<byte> bytes = stackalloc byte[-length];
-
-                fixed (byte* bytePtr = bytes)
-                {
-                    var written = NativeApi.llama_token_to_piece(this, llama_token, bytePtr, bytes.Length);
-                    Debug.Assert(written == bytes.Length);
-
-                    return encoding.GetString(bytePtr, bytes.Length);
-                }
-            }
-        }
-
-        /// <summary>
-        /// Append a single llama token to a string builder
-        /// </summary>
-        /// <param name="llama_token">Token to decode</param>
-        /// <param name="encoding"></param>
-        /// <param name="dest">string builder to append the result to</param>
-        public void TokenToString(int llama_token, Encoding encoding, StringBuilder dest)
-        {
-            unsafe
-            {
-                var length = NativeApi.llama_token_to_piece(this, llama_token, null, 0);
-                if (length == 0)
-                    return;
-
-                Span<byte> bytes = stackalloc byte[-length];
-                fixed (byte* bytePtr = bytes)
-                {
-                    // Decode into bytes
-                    var written = NativeApi.llama_token_to_piece(this, llama_token, bytePtr, bytes.Length);
-                    Debug.Assert(written == bytes.Length);
-
-                    // Decode into chars
-                    var charCount = encoding.GetCharCount(bytePtr, bytes.Length);
-                    Span<char> chars = stackalloc char[charCount];
-                    fixed (char* charPtr = chars)
-                        encoding.GetChars(bytePtr, bytes.Length, charPtr, chars.Length);
-
-                    // Write it to the output
-                    for (var i = 0; i < chars.Length; i++)
-                        dest.Append(chars[i]);
-                }
-            }
-        }
-
         /// <summary>
         /// Convert a sequence of tokens into characters.
         /// </summary>
@@ -192,42 +133,52 @@ namespace LLama.Native
         {
             // Rent an array to detokenize into
             var tokenBytesArr = ArrayPool<byte>.Shared.Rent(16);
-            var tokenCharsArr = ArrayPool<char>.Shared.Rent(16);
-            try
+
+            // Convert all of the tokens into bytes
+            var bytes = new List<byte>();
+            foreach (var token in tokens)
             {
-                var totalCharacters = 0;
-                var unused = dest;
+                var tokenBytes = TokenToBytes(ref tokenBytesArr, token, this);
+                foreach (var tokenByte in tokenBytes)
+                    bytes.Add(tokenByte);
+            }
 
-                for (var i = tokens.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
+            // Extract a span from the list
+            var bytesSpan =
+#if NETSTANDARD2_0
+                bytes.ToArray().AsSpan();
+#else
+                CollectionsMarshal.AsSpan(bytes);
+#endif
+
+            // Check how many characters these bytes represent. If there's not enough space in the
+            // output array we need to handle that.
+            var characterCount = encoding.GetCharCount(bytesSpan);
+            if (characterCount > dest.Length)
+            {
+                var bigChars = ArrayPool<char>.Shared.Rent(characterCount);
+                try
                 {
-                    var token = tokens[i];
-
-                    // Get bytes for this token
-                    var tokenBytes = TokenToBytes(ref tokenBytesArr, token, this);
-
-                    // Get chars for this token
-                    var tokenChars = BytesToChars(ref tokenCharsArr, tokenBytes, encoding);
+                    encoding.GetChars(bytesSpan, bigChars);
+                    var charSlice = bigChars
+                        .AsSpan(0, characterCount)
+                        .Slice(characterCount - dest.Length);
 
-                    // Trim down number of characters if there are too many
-                    if (tokenChars.Length > unused.Length)
-                        tokenChars = tokenChars.Slice(tokenChars.Length - unused.Length, unused.Length);
-
-                    // Copy characters
-                    tokenChars.CopyTo(unused.Slice(unused.Length - tokenChars.Length, tokenChars.Length));
-                    unused = unused.Slice(0, unused.Length - tokenChars.Length);
-                    totalCharacters += tokenChars.Length;
-
-                    // Break out if we've run out of space
-                    if (unused.Length == 0)
-                        break;
+                    charSlice.CopyTo(dest);
+                    return dest;
+                }
+                finally
+                {
+                    ArrayPool<char>.Shared.Return(bigChars);
                 }
 
-                return dest.Slice(dest.Length - totalCharacters, totalCharacters);
+                //todo: handle dest span too small
+                throw new NotImplementedException();
             }
-            finally
+            else
             {
-                ArrayPool<byte>.Shared.Return(tokenBytesArr);
-                ArrayPool<char>.Shared.Return(tokenCharsArr);
+                var charCount = encoding.GetChars(bytes.ToArray(), dest);
+                return dest.Slice(0, charCount);
             }
             
             // vvv Local Functions vvv
@@ -250,19 +201,6 @@ namespace LLama.Native
                 Debug.Assert(l >= 0);
                 return new Span<byte>(bytes, 0, l);
             }
-
-            static Span<char> BytesToChars(ref char[] chars, ReadOnlySpan<byte> bytes, Encoding encoding)
-            {
-                var count = encoding.GetCharCount(bytes);
-                if (count > chars.Length)
-                {
-                    ArrayPool<char>.Shared.Return(chars);
-                    chars = ArrayPool<char>.Shared.Rent(count * 2);
-                }
-
-                encoding.GetChars(bytes, chars);
-                return chars.AsSpan(0, count);
-            }
         }
 
         /// <summary>
@@ -304,7 +242,7 @@ namespace LLama.Native
                 }
             }
         }
-        #endregion
+#endregion
 
         #region context
         /// <summary>