diff --git a/onnx_tf/backend.py b/onnx_tf/backend.py
index 06574425..ce795c98 100644
--- a/onnx_tf/backend.py
+++ b/onnx_tf/backend.py
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
+import os
+
 try:
   from itertools import izip as zip
 except ImportError:  # will be 3.x series
@@ -14,6 +16,7 @@
 
 from onnx import defs
 from onnx import numpy_helper
+from onnx import load
 from onnx.backend.base import Backend
 from onnx.backend.base import namedtupledict
 from onnx.backend.test.runner import BackendIsNotSupposedToImplementIt
@@ -51,7 +54,9 @@ def prepare(cls,
     of the computational graph called TensorflowRep and returns
     the converted representation.
 
-    :param model: The ONNX model to be converted.
+    :param model: The ONNX model or the file path to the ONNX model to be converted. 
+      If a file path is provided for a model larger than 2GB, the model will be loaded directly 
+      from the path to handle large file sizes.
     :param device: The device to execute this model on. It can be either CPU (default) or CUDA.
     :param strict: Whether to enforce semantic equivalence between the original model
       and the converted tensorflow model, defaults to True (yes, enforce semantic equivalence).
@@ -70,6 +75,9 @@ def prepare(cls,
     common.sys_config.auto_cast = auto_cast
     common.sys_config.device = device
 
+    if isinstance(model, (str, os.PathLike)):
+      model = load(model)
+
     return cls.onnx_model_to_tensorflow_rep(model, strict, **kwargs)
 
   @classmethod