diff --git a/src/twinkle/kernel/monkey_patch_npu.py b/src/twinkle/kernel/monkey_patch_npu.py
index acb2a6aa..07213968 100644
--- a/src/twinkle/kernel/monkey_patch_npu.py
+++ b/src/twinkle/kernel/monkey_patch_npu.py
@@ -44,6 +44,19 @@ def _resolve_unsqueeze_dim(position_ids=None, unsqueeze_dim=1):
     return unsqueeze_dim
 
 
+def _is_ep_enabled(model=None) -> bool:
+    r"""Check whether Expert Parallelism (EP) is enabled.
+
+    EP is detected via ``device_mesh.ep_size > 1``.
+    When EP is active, each rank holds only a subset of expert weights,
+    making ``npu_grouped_matmul`` efficient (small contiguous weights).
+    """
+    device_mesh = getattr(model, 'device_mesh', None)
+    if device_mesh is None:
+        return False
+    return (getattr(device_mesh, 'ep_size', None) or 0) > 1
+
+
 # =============================================================================
 # Section 1: MoE Grouped MatMul (GMM)
 # =============================================================================
@@ -99,8 +112,45 @@ def _grouped_mm_npu(input: torch.tensor, weight_ekn: torch.tensor, offs: torch.t
     return GmmFunction.apply(input, counts, weight_ekn)
 
 
-def apply_hf_moe_grouped_mm_patch() -> None:
-    r"""Patch HuggingFace MoE integration to use NPU grouped matmul."""
+def _apply_hf_moe_grouped_mm_patch(model=None) -> None:
+    r"""Patch HuggingFace MoE integration to use NPU grouped matmul.
+
+    When Expert Parallelism (EP) is **not** enabled, each rank holds **all**
+    expert weights.  ``weight.transpose(-2, -1)`` then produces a large
+    non-contiguous view that ``npu_grouped_matmul`` forces to ``.contiguous()``
+    (~12.88 GB per MoE layer), creating a bandwidth bottleneck that makes the
+    NPU patch **slower** than the native per-expert fallback (~8x overhead).
+
+    Detection logic:
+      - ``TWINKLE_NPU_GMM_PATCH`` not set → **skip** the patch by default.
+      - ``TWINKLE_NPU_GMM_PATCH=1`` → EP-aware: apply only if EP is enabled
+        (each rank has few experts, weights are small and contiguous);
+        skip if EP is **not** enabled (avoid ~8x overhead).
+      - ``TWINKLE_NPU_GMM_PATCH=0`` → **disable** the patch regardless.
+    """
+    moe_enabled = _is_env_enabled('TWINKLE_NPU_GMM_PATCH', default=False)
+
+    if not moe_enabled:
+        has_native_gmm = hasattr(torch.nn.functional, 'grouped_mm')
+        logger.info(
+            '[PATCH] TWINKLE_NPU_GMM_PATCH not set: MoE GMM patch skipped by default. '
+            'Set TWINKLE_NPU_GMM_PATCH=1 to enable (EP-aware). '
+            'Native grouped_mm available: %s.',
+            has_native_gmm,
+        )
+        return
+
+    if not _is_ep_enabled(model):
+        has_native_gmm = hasattr(torch.nn.functional, 'grouped_mm')
+        logger.info(
+            '[PATCH] TWINKLE_NPU_GMM_PATCH=1 but EP not enabled (all experts on each rank) — '
+            'skipping _grouped_mm_npu patch to avoid ~8x overhead from '
+            'contiguous copies on transposed weights. '
+            'Native grouped_mm available: %s.',
+            has_native_gmm,
+        )
+        return
+
     import transformers.integrations.moe as hf_moe
     hf_moe._grouped_mm = _grouped_mm_npu
     logger.info('[PATCH] transformers.integrations.moe._grouped_mm -> _grouped_mm_npu')
@@ -865,24 +915,34 @@ def apply_npu_patch(model=None) -> None:
       - SDPA Attention compatibility fixes
       - Flash Linear Attention (FLA) for Qwen3.5
 
+    When ``model`` is **not** provided, the GMM patch is **skipped** by default
+    (EP cannot be detected without a model instance).
+
+    When ``model`` is provided, the GMM patch is evaluated with EP detection:
+      - EP enabled → apply GMM patch (efficient on small sharded weights).
+      - EP not enabled → skip GMM patch (avoid ~8x contiguous-copy overhead).
+
     Environment variables:
       - ``TWINKLE_NPU_PATCH``: overall switch (``1``/``0``)
       - ``TWINKLE_NPU_FUSED_OPS``: fused ops switch (``1``/``0``)
-      - ``TWINKLE_NPU_MOE_PATCH``: MoE GMM switch (``1``/``0``)
+      - ``TWINKLE_NPU_GMM_PATCH``: MoE GMM switch (``1``/``0``/unset).
+        When unset: skip the patch by default.
+        When ``1``: EP-aware — patch is applied **only if EP is enabled**;
+        without EP the native grouped_mm or per-expert fallback is used
+        (avoiding ~8x overhead from contiguous copies).
+        When ``0``: disable the patch regardless.
       - ``TWINKLE_NPU_FLA``: FLA switch (``1``/``0``)
       - ``TWINKLE_NPU_GATED_RMSNorm_FP32``: force FP32 in Gated RMSNorm (``1``/``0``)
 
     Args:
-        model: Optional model instance. Required for FLA to traverse and
-            replace per-instance ``chunk_gated_delta_rule`` bindings.
+        model: Optional model instance. If not provided, GMM patch is skipped.
+            If provided, GMM patch is evaluated with EP detection on the model.
     """
     global _NPU_PATCH_APPLIED
 
     if not _is_env_enabled('TWINKLE_NPU_PATCH', default=True):
         return
 
-    moe_enabled = _is_env_enabled('TWINKLE_NPU_MOE_PATCH', default=True)
-
     if _NPU_PATCH_APPLIED:
         logger.debug('[NPU] Patches already applied, skipping.')
         return
@@ -893,8 +953,7 @@ def apply_npu_patch(model=None) -> None:
         logger.warning('torch_npu not available. Skipping NPU patches.')
         return
 
-    if moe_enabled:
-        apply_hf_moe_grouped_mm_patch()
+    _apply_hf_moe_grouped_mm_patch(model)
 
     _apply_all_fused_ops(model)