diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 9d9ac376a..77b7cb3cf 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -24,3 +24,5 @@ pip-wheel-metadata
 
 .vscode
 *.code-workspace
+
+.venv/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/.cargo/config.toml b/bindings/cpp/.cargo/config.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0c17df095
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bindings/cpp/.cargo/config.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[target.x86_64-pc-windows-msvc]
+rustflags = ["-C", "target-feature=+crt-static"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/Cargo.toml b/bindings/cpp/Cargo.toml
index 398df62ee..e4082827e 100644
--- a/bindings/cpp/Cargo.toml
+++ b/bindings/cpp/Cargo.toml
@@ -7,11 +7,13 @@ edition = "2018"
 [lib]
 name = "tokenizers"
 path = "tokenizers-cpp/lib.rs"
-crate-type = ["cdylib"]
+crate-type = ["cdylib", "staticlib"]
 
 [dependencies]
 cxx = "1.0.27"
 derive_more = "0.99.11"
+serde = { version = "1.0", features = [ "rc", "derive" ] }
+serde_json = "1.0"
 
 [dependencies.tokenizers]
 version = "*"
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/build.rs b/bindings/cpp/build.rs
index 35dcfd8eb..a9402c825 100644
--- a/bindings/cpp/build.rs
+++ b/bindings/cpp/build.rs
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ fn main() {
             .includes(include_dirs)
             .flag_if_supported(format!("-std={}", &standard).as_str())
             .flag_if_supported(format!("/std:{}", &standard).as_str())
+            .flag_if_supported("-Wno-c++11-extensions")
             // enable exception handling for MSVC
             .flag_if_supported("/EHsc")
             .compile(output);
@@ -63,8 +64,14 @@ fn main() {
     if cfg!(feature = "test") {
         compile(
             cc::Build::new()
+                .cpp(true)
                 .file("tokenizers-cpp/redefine_result_tests.cpp")
-                .include(format!("{}/cxxbridge/include", out_dir)),
+                .include(format!("{}/cxxbridge/include", out_dir))
+                .flag_if_supported(format!("-std={}", &standard).as_str())
+                .flag_if_supported(format!("/std:{}", &standard).as_str())
+                .flag_if_supported("-Wno-c++11-extensions")
+                // enable exception handling for MSVC
+                .flag_if_supported("/EHsc"),
             "redefine_result_tests",
         );
     }
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/decoders.rs b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/decoders.rs
index 173e0f06d..3a5fefba9 100644
--- a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/decoders.rs
+++ b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/decoders.rs
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ mod ffi {
         fn decode_decoder(decoder: &Decoder, tokens: Vec<String>) -> Result<String>;
     }
 }
-
+use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};
 use derive_more::{Deref, DerefMut};
 use tk::{
     decoders::{bpe::BPEDecoder, byte_level::ByteLevel, wordpiece::WordPiece},
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ use tk::{
 
 use crate::pre_tokenizers::u32_to_char;
 
-#[derive(Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
 pub struct Decoder(pub DecoderWrapper);
 
 impl DecoderTrait for Decoder {
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/models.rs b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/models.rs
index 866393cdc..545e2caa8 100644
--- a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/models.rs
+++ b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/models.rs
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ use std::{
     collections::HashMap,
     path::{Path, PathBuf},
 };
-
+use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 use crate::{tokens::wrap_tokens, wrap_option};
 use derive_more::{Deref, DerefMut};
 use ffi::*;
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ use tk::{
     Model as ModelTrait, ModelWrapper, Result, Trainer as TrainerTrait,
 };
 
-#[derive(Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
 pub struct Model(pub ModelWrapper);
 
 #[derive(Deref, DerefMut)]
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/normalizers.rs b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/normalizers.rs
index 699a0062d..9c0b15d72 100644
--- a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/normalizers.rs
+++ b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/normalizers.rs
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ pub mod ffi {
         fn get_original(normalized: &NormalizedString) -> &str;
     }
 }
-
+use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 use derive_more::{Deref, DerefMut};
 use tk::{
     normalizers::{
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ use tk::{
 #[derive(Deref, DerefMut)]
 pub struct NormalizedString(pub tk::NormalizedString);
 
-#[derive(Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
 pub struct Normalizer(pub tk::NormalizerWrapper);
 
 #[derive(Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/pre_tokenizers.rs b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/pre_tokenizers.rs
index 86e46043b..5eeadb7dc 100644
--- a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/pre_tokenizers.rs
+++ b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/pre_tokenizers.rs
@@ -107,6 +107,7 @@ mod ffi {
 }
 
 use crate::{forward_cxx_enum, impl_extern_type, tokens::wrap_tokens_ref};
+use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 use derive_more::{Deref, DerefMut};
 use ffi::*;
 use tk::{
@@ -131,7 +132,7 @@ impl_extern_type!(NormalizedString, "huggingface::tokenizers::ffi::NormalizedStr
 #[derive(Deref, DerefMut)]
 struct PreTokenizedString(tk::PreTokenizedString);
 
-#[derive(Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
 pub struct PreTokenizer(pub PreTokenizerWrapper);
 
 #[derive(Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/processors.rs b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/processors.rs
index e54d779b2..058a4a71d 100644
--- a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/processors.rs
+++ b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/processors.rs
@@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ mod ffi {
 }
 
 use crate::wrap_option;
+use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 use derive_more::{Deref, DerefMut};
 use ffi::*;
 use tk::{
@@ -188,7 +189,7 @@ impl Encoding {
     }
 }
 
-#[derive(Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Deref, DerefMut, Clone)]
 pub struct PostProcessor(pub PostProcessorWrapper);
 
 impl PostProcessorTrait for PostProcessor {
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tests.h b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tests.h
index 5403e924d..f759b113e 100644
--- a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tests.h
+++ b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tests.h
@@ -360,6 +360,68 @@ TEST_SUITE("Tokenizers") {
         }
     }
 
+    void print_encoding(const Encoding& encoding) {
+        std::cout << "encoding length: " << encoding.length() << std:: endl;
+        std::cout << "encoding number of sequences: " << encoding.number_of_sequences() << std:: endl;
+        std::cout << "input_ids: ";
+        for (uint32_t id : encoding.get_ids()) {
+            std::cout << id << ' ';
+        }
+        std::cout << std::endl;
+
+        std::cout << "token_type_ids: ";
+        for (uint32_t attention_mask : encoding.get_type_ids()) {
+            std::cout << attention_mask << ' ';
+        }
+        std::cout << std::endl;
+
+        std::cout << "attention_mask: ";
+        for (uint32_t attention_mask : encoding.get_attention_mask()) {
+            std::cout << attention_mask << ' ';
+        }
+        std::cout << std::endl;
+    }
+
+
+    TEST_CASE("load tokenizer") {
+
+        SUBCASE("encode") {
+            Tokenizer tokenizer = Tokenizer::from_file(data_file("roberta.json"));
+            const char* example = "This is an example";
+            rust::Vec<uint32_t> ids{713, 16, 41, 1246};
+            std::vector<std::string> tokens{"This", "Ġis", "Ġan", "Ġexample"};
+
+            Encoding encodings = tokenizer.encode(InputSequence(example), false);
+
+            COMPARE_CONTAINERS(encodings.get_ids(), ids);
+            COMPARE_CONTAINERS(encodings.get_tokens(), tokens);
+
+            rust::String decoded = tokenizer.decode(ids, false);
+            CHECK(decoded == example);
+        }
+
+        SUBCASE("encode_batch") {
+            std::vector<std::string> examples {
+                "This is an example",
+                "hello world"
+            };
+            std::vector<InputSequence> batch;
+            for (const auto& input : examples) {
+                batch.emplace_back(input.c_str());
+            }
+            Tokenizer tokenizer = Tokenizer::from_file(data_file("roberta.json"));
+            auto encodings = tokenizer
+                .with_padding(PaddingParams().with_batch_longest())
+                .encode_batch(batch);
+            for (auto const&encoding : encodings) {
+                // print_encoding(encoding);
+                CHECK(encoding.get_ids().size() == 4);
+                CHECK(encoding.get_type_ids().size() == 4);
+                CHECK(encoding.get_attention_mask().size() == 4);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
     TEST_CASE("Bert") {
         Tokenizer tokenizer(WordPieceBuilder()
                                 .files(bert_vocab())
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tokenizer.h b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tokenizer.h
index 634d4d2d8..70f590fdf 100644
--- a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tokenizer.h
+++ b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tokenizer.h
@@ -143,6 +143,15 @@ struct Tokenizer {
      */
     explicit Tokenizer(Model&& model) : inner_(ffi::tokenizer(*model)){};
 
+    /**
+     * @brief Constructs a Tokenizer from a JSON file.
+     *
+     * @param path to the JSON file.
+     */
+    static Tokenizer from_file(const std::string& path) {
+        return Tokenizer(ffi::from_file(path));
+    }
+
     /**
      * @brief Specifies the normalizer.
      */
diff --git a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tokenizer.rs b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tokenizer.rs
index 54cc931f7..b2accf336 100644
--- a/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tokenizer.rs
+++ b/bindings/cpp/tokenizers-cpp/tokenizer.rs
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ mod ffi {
 
         fn box_encoding1(encoding: &Encoding1) -> Box<Encoding1>;
 
+        fn from_file(path: &str) -> Result<Box<Tokenizer>>;
         // FIXME many of the below functions should take Box, not &.
         //  Look for clone() in the implementations.
         fn tokenizer(model: &Model) -> Box<Tokenizer>;
@@ -136,6 +137,7 @@ mod ffi {
 
 use crate::{forward_cxx_enum, impl_extern_type, models::vocab_to_vec, wrap_option};
 use cxx::CxxVector;
+use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};
 use derive_more::{Deref, DerefMut};
 use ffi::*;
 use tk::{EncodeInput, PaddingParams, PaddingStrategy, Result, TruncationParams};
@@ -158,13 +160,20 @@ impl_extern_type!(PostProcessor, "huggingface::tokenizers::ffi::PostProcessor");
 
 impl_extern_type!(Decoder, "huggingface::tokenizers::ffi::Decoder");
 
-#[derive(Deref, DerefMut)]
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Deref, DerefMut)]
 struct Tokenizer(tk::TokenizerImpl<Model, Normalizer, PreTokenizer, PostProcessor, Decoder>);
 
 fn tokenizer(model: &Model) -> Box<Tokenizer> {
     Box::new(Tokenizer(tk::TokenizerImpl::new(model.clone())))
 }
 
+fn from_file(path: &str) -> Result<Box<Tokenizer>> {
+    match tk::TokenizerImpl::from_file(path) {
+        Ok(tokenizer) =>  Ok(Box::new(Tokenizer(tokenizer))),
+        Err(msg) => Err(msg)
+    }
+}
+
 fn set_normalizer(tokenizer: &mut Tokenizer, normalizer: &Normalizer) {
     tokenizer.with_normalizer(normalizer.clone());
 }
diff --git a/tokenizers/Makefile b/tokenizers/Makefile
index 29173d75f..486f5a568 100644
--- a/tokenizers/Makefile
+++ b/tokenizers/Makefile
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ $(DATA_DIR)/bert-% :
 
 $(DATA_DIR)/unigram% :
 	$(dir_guard)
-	wget https://storage.googleapis.com/tokenizers/unigram$* -O $@
+	wget https://huggingface.co/Narsil/small/raw/main/unigram$* -O $@
 
 $(DATA_DIR)/albert-base-v1-tokenizer.json :
 	$(dir_guard)
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ $(DATA_DIR)/small.txt : $(DATA_DIR)/big.txt
 
 $(DATA_DIR)/roberta.json :
 	$(dir_guard)
-	wget https://storage.googleapis.com/tokenizers/roberta.json -O $@
+	wget https://huggingface.co/Narsil/small/raw/main/roberta.json -O $@
 
 $(DATA_DIR)/tokenizer-wiki.json :
 	$(dir_guard)