diff --git a/packages/transformers/src/backends/onnx.js b/packages/transformers/src/backends/onnx.js
index 963f6fffe..501a0492b 100644
--- a/packages/transformers/src/backends/onnx.js
+++ b/packages/transformers/src/backends/onnx.js
@@ -276,6 +276,43 @@ async function ensureWasmLoaded() {
     return wasmLoadPromise;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Tracks providers we've seen fail to initialize so subsequent sessions don't
+ * pay the same cost twice (e.g. on Linux x64 boxes without a CUDA runtime,
+ * `cuda` is on the auto-fallback chain but throws on first use).
+ *
+ * @type {Set<string>}
+ */
+const failedExecutionProviders = new Set();
+
+/**
+ * Extracts the provider name from an ONNX Runtime "failed to append provider"
+ * style error. Returns the lowercase provider name (matching the names used in
+ * `DEVICE_TO_EXECUTION_PROVIDER_MAPPING`) or `null` if the error doesn't look
+ * like a provider-load failure.
+ *
+ * @param {unknown} error
+ * @returns {string|null}
+ */
+function detectFailedExecutionProvider(error) {
+    // @ts-ignore — we only read .message if present.
+    const message = String(error?.message ?? error ?? '');
+    const match = message.match(/OrtSessionOptionsAppendExecutionProvider_(\w+)/);
+    if (!match) return null;
+    return match[1].toLowerCase();
+}
+
+/**
+ * Returns the lowercase name of an execution provider entry, whether it's a
+ * bare string (`'cuda'`) or an object (`{ name: 'webnn', deviceType: 'cpu' }`).
+ *
+ * @param {ONNXExecutionProviders} provider
+ * @returns {string}
+ */
+function executionProviderName(provider) {
+    return typeof provider === 'string' ? provider.toLowerCase() : provider.name.toLowerCase();
+}
+
 /**
  * Create an ONNX inference session.
  * @param {Uint8Array|string} buffer_or_path The ONNX model buffer or path.
@@ -286,13 +323,60 @@ async function ensureWasmLoaded() {
 export async function createInferenceSession(buffer_or_path, session_options, session_config) {
     await ensureWasmLoaded();
     const logSeverityLevel = getOnnxLogSeverityLevel(env.logLevel ?? LogLevel.WARNING);
+
+    // Drop providers we already know don't work on this host (e.g. `cuda` on a
+    // box without the CUDA runtime). Only applies when `executionProviders` is
+    // a list — leave any caller-supplied non-list value untouched.
+    if (Array.isArray(session_options.executionProviders) && failedExecutionProviders.size > 0) {
+        const filtered = session_options.executionProviders.filter(
+            (p) => !failedExecutionProviders.has(executionProviderName(p)),
+        );
+        if (filtered.length > 0 && filtered.length !== session_options.executionProviders.length) {
+            session_options = { ...session_options, executionProviders: filtered };
+        }
+    }
+
     const load = () =>
         InferenceSession.create(buffer_or_path, {
             // Set default log severity level, but allow overriding through session options
             logSeverityLevel,
             ...session_options,
         });
-    const session = await (apis.IS_WEB_ENV ? (webInitChain = webInitChain.then(load)) : load());
+
+    /** @type {import('onnxruntime-common').InferenceSession} */
+    let session;
+    try {
+        session = await (apis.IS_WEB_ENV ? (webInitChain = webInitChain.then(load)) : load());
+    } catch (error) {
+        // If session creation fails because an execution provider's shared
+        // library didn't load (e.g. CUDA on a host without the runtime), drop
+        // it from the list and retry. ONNX Runtime fails the whole session
+        // when ANY provider fails to register, so without this the entire
+        // auto-fallback chain is wasted: a Linux x64 box with no CUDA install
+        // hits the cuda branch first and never reaches webgpu/cpu.
+        const failed = detectFailedExecutionProvider(error);
+        const providers = session_options.executionProviders;
+        if (
+            failed &&
+            Array.isArray(providers) &&
+            providers.length > 1 &&
+            providers.some((p) => executionProviderName(p) === failed)
+        ) {
+            failedExecutionProviders.add(failed);
+            const remaining = providers.filter((p) => executionProviderName(p) !== failed);
+            logger.warn(
+                `Execution provider '${failed}' is unavailable on this host (${/** @type {Error} */ (error).message}). ` +
+                    `Falling back to: [${remaining.map(executionProviderName).join(', ')}].`,
+            );
+            return createInferenceSession(
+                buffer_or_path,
+                { ...session_options, executionProviders: remaining },
+                session_config,
+            );
+        }
+        throw error;
+    }
+
     session.config = session_config;
     return session;
 }