diff --git a/src/models/onnxruntime_api.h b/src/models/onnxruntime_api.h
index d26eeebc4..9b767ea32 100644
--- a/src/models/onnxruntime_api.h
+++ b/src/models/onnxruntime_api.h
@@ -116,6 +116,34 @@ inline void InitApi() {
   }
 
 #if defined(__ANDROID__) || defined(__linux__)
+  inline void InitApiWithDynamicFn(OrtApiBaseFn ort_api_base_fn) {
+    if (ort_api_base_fn == nullptr) {
+      throw std::runtime_error("OrtGetApiBase not found");
+    }
+
+    const OrtApiBase* ort_api_base = ort_api_base_fn();
+    if (ort_api_base == nullptr) {
+      throw std::runtime_error("OrtGetApiBase() returned nullptr");
+    }
+
+    // loop from the ORT version GenAI was built with, down to the minimum ORT version we require.
+    // as long as the libonnxruntime.so we loaded supports one of those we're good.
+    constexpr int genai_min_ort_api_version = 18;  // GenAI was first released around the time of ORT 1.18 so use that
+    for (int i = ORT_API_VERSION; i >= genai_min_ort_api_version; --i) {
+      api = ort_api_base->GetApi(i);
+      if (api) {
+        LOG_INFO("ORT API Version %d was found.", i);
+        break;
+      }
+    }
+
+    if (!api) {
+      LOG_WARN("The loaded library did not have an ORT API version between %d and %d.",
+               ORT_API_VERSION, genai_min_ort_api_version);
+      throw std::runtime_error("Failed to load onnxruntime. Please make sure you installed the correct version");
+    }
+  }
+
   // If the GenAI library links against the onnxruntime library, it will have a dependency on a specific
   // version of OrtGetApiBase.
   //
@@ -145,8 +173,7 @@ inline void InitApi() {
 
   void* ort_lib_handle = dlopen(path.c_str(), RTLD_NOW | RTLD_LOCAL);
   if (ort_lib_handle == nullptr) {
-    LOG_FATAL("Failed to load %s: %s", path.c_str(), dlerror());
-    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+    throw std::runtime_error(std::string("Failed to load ") + path.c_str() + ": " + dlerror());
   }
 
 #if !defined(__ANDROID__)  // RTLD_DI_ORIGIN not available on Android
@@ -157,33 +184,10 @@ inline void InitApi() {
 
   ort_api_base_fn = (OrtApiBaseFn)dlsym(ort_lib_handle, "OrtGetApiBase");
   if (ort_api_base_fn == nullptr) {
-    LOG_FATAL("OrtGetApiBase not found");
-    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
-  }
-
-  const OrtApiBase* ort_api_base = ort_api_base_fn();
-  if (ort_api_base == nullptr) {
-    LOG_FATAL("OrtGetApiBase() returned nullptr");
-    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
-  }
-
-  // loop from the ORT version GenAI was built with, down to the minimum ORT version we require.
-  // as long as the libonnxruntime.so we loaded supports one of those we're good.
-  constexpr int genai_min_ort_api_version = 18;  // GenAI was first released around the time of ORT 1.18 so use that
-  for (int i = ORT_API_VERSION; i >= genai_min_ort_api_version; --i) {
-    api = ort_api_base->GetApi(i);
-    if (!api) {
-      LOG_INFO("ORT API Version %d was not found.", i);
-    } else {
-      LOG_INFO("ORT API Version %d was found.", i);
-      break;
-    }
+    throw std::runtime_error("OrtGetApiBase not found");
   }
 
-  if (!api) {
-    LOG_WARN("%s did not have an ORT API version between %d and %d.",
-             path.c_str(), ORT_API_VERSION, genai_min_ort_api_version);
-  }
+  InitApiWithDynamicFn(ort_api_base_fn);
 #else   // defined(__ANDROID__)
   api = OrtGetApiBase()->GetApi(ORT_API_VERSION);
   if (!api)