diff --git a/common/common.cpp b/common/common.cpp
index 2ef902bd504c4..bbd1518ca2934 100644
--- a/common/common.cpp
+++ b/common/common.cpp
@@ -632,6 +632,7 @@ bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
         process_escapes(params.prompt);
         process_escapes(params.input_prefix);
         process_escapes(params.input_suffix);
+        process_escapes(sparams.cfg_negative_prompt);
         for (auto & antiprompt : params.antiprompt) {
             process_escapes(antiprompt);
         }
diff --git a/examples/main/main.cpp b/examples/main/main.cpp
index db5309afeb117..2621bd539875f 100644
--- a/examples/main/main.cpp
+++ b/examples/main/main.cpp
@@ -761,6 +761,9 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
                         n_consumed = embd_inp.size();
                         embd_inp.insert(embd_inp.end(), inp_pfx.begin(), inp_pfx.end());
                     }
+                    if (params.escape) {
+                        process_escapes(buffer);
+                    }
 
                     const auto line_pfx = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, params.input_prefix, false, true);
                     const auto line_inp = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, buffer,              false, false);