diff --git a/mailcom/parse.py b/mailcom/parse.py
index 75171dd..81ea972 100644
--- a/mailcom/parse.py
+++ b/mailcom/parse.py
@@ -67,9 +67,21 @@ def init_spacy(self, language: str, model="default"):
                 model, exclude=["morphologizer", "attribute_ruler", "lemmatizer", "ner"]
             )
         except OSError:
-            raise OSError("Could not find {} in standard directory.".format(model))
-
-        self.nlp_spacy = sp.load(model)
+            pass
+        try:
+            print(
+                "Could not find model in standard directory. Trying to download model from repo."  # noqa
+            )
+            # try downloading model
+            sp.cli.download(model)
+            self.nlp_spacy = sp.load(
+                model,
+                exclude=["morphologizer", "attribute_ruler", "lemmatizer", "ner"],
+            )
+        except SystemExit:
+            raise SystemExit("Could not download {} from repo".format(model))
+        except OSError:
+            raise OSError("Could not find {} in standard directory".format(model))
 
     def init_transformers(
         self,
diff --git a/mailcom/test/test_parse.py b/mailcom/test/test_parse.py
index 6383880..b7a782e 100644
--- a/mailcom/test/test_parse.py
+++ b/mailcom/test/test_parse.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ def get_default_fr():
 def test_init_spacy(get_instant):
     with pytest.raises(KeyError):
         get_instant.init_spacy("not_a_language")
-    with pytest.raises(OSError):
+    with pytest.raises(SystemExit):
         get_instant.init_spacy("fr", "not_an_existing_spacy_model")