diff --git a/imaginairy/utils/downloads.py b/imaginairy/utils/downloads.py
index 927a007..3469c5c 100644
--- a/imaginairy/utils/downloads.py
+++ b/imaginairy/utils/downloads.py
@@ -15,6 +15,17 @@ from huggingface_hub import (
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
+def resolve_path_or_url(path_or_url: str, category=None) -> str:
+    """
+    Resolves a path or url to a local absolute file path
+
+    If the path_or_url is a url, it will be downloaded to the cache directory and the path to the downloaded file will be returned.
+    """
+    if path_or_url.startswith(("https://", "http://")):
+        return get_cached_url_path(url=path_or_url, category=category)
+    return os.path.abspath(path_or_url)
+
+
 def get_cached_url_path(url: str, category=None) -> str:
     """
     Gets the contents of a url, but caches the response indefinitely.
diff --git a/imaginairy/utils/model_manager.py b/imaginairy/utils/model_manager.py
index 0b14fb4..dea9bd5 100644
--- a/imaginairy/utils/model_manager.py
+++ b/imaginairy/utils/model_manager.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ from imaginairy.utils.downloads import (
     get_cached_url_path,
     is_diffusers_repo_url,
     normalize_diffusers_repo_url,
+    resolve_path_or_url,
 )
 from imaginairy.utils.model_cache import memory_managed_model
 from imaginairy.utils.named_resolutions import normalize_image_size
@@ -793,7 +794,7 @@ def load_stable_diffusion_compvis_weights(weights_url):
 def load_sdxl_compvis_weights(url):
     from safetensors import safe_open
 
-    weights_path = get_cached_url_path(url)
+    weights_path = resolve_path_or_url(url)
     state_dict = {}
     unet_state_dict = {}
     vae_state_dict = {}
diff --git a/tests/test_utils/test_model_manager.py b/tests/test_utils/test_model_manager.py
index 6052917..d0e64fb 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils/test_model_manager.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils/test_model_manager.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import pytest
 
 from imaginairy import config
-from imaginairy.utils.downloads import parse_diffusers_repo_url
+from imaginairy.utils.downloads import parse_diffusers_repo_url, resolve_path_or_url
 from imaginairy.utils.model_manager import (
     resolve_model_weights_config,
 )
@@ -59,3 +59,8 @@ hf_urls_cases = [
 def test_parse_diffusers_repo_url(url, expected):
     result = parse_diffusers_repo_url(url)
     assert result == expected
+
+
+def test_resolve_sdxl_path_or_url():
+    a = "/foo/bar.safetensors"
+    assert resolve_path_or_url(a) == a