diff --git a/skyrl-tx/tx/tinker/extra/external_inference.py b/skyrl-tx/tx/tinker/extra/external_inference.py
index c9e45fc30..5fa2288dd 100644
--- a/skyrl-tx/tx/tinker/extra/external_inference.py
+++ b/skyrl-tx/tx/tinker/extra/external_inference.py
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ async def _forward_to_engine(
 
         payload = {
             "model": model_name,
+            "n": request.num_samples,
             "prompt": prompt_tokens,
             "max_tokens": request.sampling_params.max_tokens,
             "temperature": request.sampling_params.temperature,