diff --git a/common/arg.cpp b/common/arg.cpp
index 52425f25e..6fd366d33 100644
--- a/common/arg.cpp
+++ b/common/arg.cpp
@@ -2911,7 +2911,7 @@ common_params_context common_params_parser_init(common_params & params, llama_ex
     ).set_examples({LLAMA_EXAMPLE_SERVER}).set_env("LLAMA_API_KEY"));
     add_opt(common_arg(
         {"--api-key-file"}, "FNAME",
-        "path to file containing API keys (default: none)",
+        "path to file containing API keys, one per line; lines starting with a hash are treated as comments (default: none)",
         [](common_params & params, const std::string & value) {
             std::ifstream key_file(value);
             if (!key_file) {
@@ -2919,7 +2919,7 @@ common_params_context common_params_parser_init(common_params & params, llama_ex
             }
             std::string key;
             while (std::getline(key_file, key)) {
-                if (!key.empty()) {
+                if (!key.empty() && key[0] != '#') {
                     params.api_keys.push_back(key);
                 }
             }
diff --git a/tools/server/README.md b/tools/server/README.md
index 1f74ba52a..eb730e713 100644
--- a/tools/server/README.md
+++ b/tools/server/README.md
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ For the full list of features, please refer to [server's changelog](https://gith
 | `--embedding, --embeddings` | restrict to only support embedding use case; use only with dedicated embedding models (default: disabled)<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_EMBEDDINGS) |
 | `--rerank, --reranking` | enable reranking endpoint on server (default: disabled)<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_RERANKING) |
 | `--api-key KEY` | API key to use for authentication, multiple keys can be provided as a comma-separated list (default: none)<br/>(env: LLAMA_API_KEY) |
-| `--api-key-file FNAME` | path to file containing API keys (default: none)<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_API_KEY_FILE) |
+| `--api-key-file FNAME` | path to file containing API keys, one per line; lines starting with a hash are treated as comments (default: none)<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_API_KEY_FILE) |
 | `--ssl-key-file FNAME` | path to file a PEM-encoded SSL private key<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_SSL_KEY_FILE) |
 | `--ssl-cert-file FNAME` | path to file a PEM-encoded SSL certificate<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_SSL_CERT_FILE) |
 | `--chat-template-kwargs STRING` | sets additional params for the json template parser, must be a valid json object string, e.g. '{"key1":"value1","key2":"value2"}'<br/>(env: LLAMA_ARG_CHAT_TEMPLATE_KWARGS) |