diff --git a/.github/workflows/manual-comps-test.yml b/.github/workflows/manual-comps-test.yml
index 6ef2ca43e4..bedadb9181 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/manual-comps-test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/manual-comps-test.yml
@@ -69,4 +69,5 @@ jobs:
       mode: ${{ inputs.mode }}
       test_compose: ${{ inputs.test_compose }}
       test_helmchart: ${{ inputs.test_helmchart }}
+      use_model_cache: ${{ inputs.use_model_cache }}
     secrets: inherit
diff --git a/comps/third_parties/tei/deployment/docker_compose/compose.yaml b/comps/third_parties/tei/deployment/docker_compose/compose.yaml
index 9bfc74f82f..f246feacaa 100644
--- a/comps/third_parties/tei/deployment/docker_compose/compose.yaml
+++ b/comps/third_parties/tei/deployment/docker_compose/compose.yaml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ services:
     ports:
       - "${TEI_EMBEDDER_PORT:-12000}:80"
     volumes:
-      - "${DATA_PATH-./data}:/data"
+      - "${DATA_PATH:-./data}:/data"
     shm_size: 1g
     environment:
       no_proxy: ${no_proxy}
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ services:
     ports:
       - "${TEI_RERANKING_PORT:-12003}:80"
     volumes:
-      - "${DATA_PATH-./data}:/data"
+      - "${DATA_PATH:-./data}:/data"
     shm_size: 1g
     environment:
       no_proxy: ${no_proxy}
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ services:
     ports:
       - ${TEI_RERANKING_PORT:-12004}:80
     volumes:
-      - "${DATA_PATH-./data}:/data"
+      - "${DATA_PATH:-./data}:/data"
     shm_size: 1g
     environment:
       no_proxy: ${no_proxy}
diff --git a/comps/web_retrievers/deployment/docker_compose/compose.yaml b/comps/web_retrievers/deployment/docker_compose/compose.yaml
index ed2ec118b1..1d7145bb00 100644
--- a/comps/web_retrievers/deployment/docker_compose/compose.yaml
+++ b/comps/web_retrievers/deployment/docker_compose/compose.yaml
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ services:
     ports:
       - ${TEI_PORT:-6060}:80
     volumes:
-      - "${DATA_PATH-./data}:/data"
+      - "${DATA_PATH:-./data}:/data"
     shm_size: 1g
     environment:
       no_proxy: ${no_proxy}
diff --git a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_milvus.sh b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_milvus.sh
index e67b1339c0..7e5db81074 100644
--- a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_milvus.sh
+++ b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_milvus.sh
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ ip_address=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
 DATAPREP_PORT=11101
 service_name="dataprep-milvus tei-embedding-serving etcd minio standalone"
 export TAG="comps"
-
+export DATA_PATH=${model_cache}
 SCRIPT_DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" &> /dev/null && pwd )"
 source ${SCRIPT_DIR}/dataprep_utils.sh
 
diff --git a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_neo4j_on_intel_hpu.sh b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_neo4j_on_intel_hpu.sh
index 59ed706aff..e5ded6e9b7 100755
--- a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_neo4j_on_intel_hpu.sh
+++ b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_neo4j_on_intel_hpu.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ ip_address=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
 DATAPREP_PORT=11103
 LLM_ENDPOINT_PORT=10510
 export TAG="comps"
+export DATA_PATH=${model_cache}
 
 function build_docker_images() {
     cd $WORKPATH
diff --git a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_qdrant.sh b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_qdrant.sh
index caab45ade9..732e359358 100644
--- a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_qdrant.sh
+++ b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_qdrant.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ ip_address=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
 DATAPREP_PORT="11107"
 TEI_EMBEDDER_PORT="10220"
 export TAG="comps"
+export DATA_PATH=${model_cache}
 
 SCRIPT_DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" &> /dev/null && pwd )"
 source ${SCRIPT_DIR}/dataprep_utils.sh
diff --git a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis.sh b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis.sh
index 6b2af52248..c36f9cf759 100644
--- a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis.sh
+++ b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ ip_address=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
 DATAPREP_PORT="11108"
 TEI_EMBEDDER_PORT="10221"
 export TAG="comps"
+export DATA_PATH=${model_cache}
 
 SCRIPT_DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" &> /dev/null && pwd )"
 source ${SCRIPT_DIR}/dataprep_utils.sh
diff --git a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis_finance_on_intel_hpu.sh b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis_finance_on_intel_hpu.sh
index 3ad8fa6a24..62d4b9ba76 100644
--- a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis_finance_on_intel_hpu.sh
+++ b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis_finance_on_intel_hpu.sh
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ function start_vllm_service_70B() {
     echo "token is ${HF_TOKEN}"
     model="meta-llama/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct"
     vllm_port=8086
-    export HF_CACHE_DIR=/data2/hf_model
+    export HF_CACHE_DIR=${model_cache:-./data}
     vllm_volume=$HF_CACHE_DIR
 
     echo "start vllm gaudi service"
diff --git a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis_multimodal.sh b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis_multimodal.sh
index c3e8bc2559..edb958e398 100644
--- a/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis_multimodal.sh
+++ b/tests/dataprep/test_dataprep_redis_multimodal.sh
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ caption_fn="${tmp_dir}/${image_name}.txt"
 pdf_name="nke-10k-2023"
 pdf_fn="${tmp_dir}/${pdf_name}.pdf"
 DATAPREP_PORT="11109"
+export DATA_PATH=${model_cache}
 
 function build_docker_images() {
     cd $WORKPATH