diff --git a/litellm/tests/test_utils.py b/litellm/tests/test_utils.py
index 0344f2114..44fb1607c 100644
--- a/litellm/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/litellm/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -173,6 +173,22 @@ def test_trimming_should_not_change_original_messages():
     assert messages == messages_copy
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("model", ["gpt-4-0125-preview", "claude-3-opus-20240229"])
+def test_trimming_with_model_cost_max_input_tokens(model):
+    messages = [
+        {"role": "system", "content": "This is a normal system message"},
+        {
+            "role": "user",
+            "content": "This is a sentence" * 100000,
+        },
+    ]
+    trimmed_messages = trim_messages(messages, model=model)
+    assert (
+        get_token_count(trimmed_messages, model=model)
+        < litellm.model_cost[model]["max_input_tokens"]
+    )
+
+
 def test_get_valid_models():
     old_environ = os.environ
     os.environ = {"OPENAI_API_KEY": "temp"}  # mock set only openai key in environ
diff --git a/litellm/utils.py b/litellm/utils.py
index 47fbffa47..dd538c7d0 100644
--- a/litellm/utils.py
+++ b/litellm/utils.py
@@ -10592,16 +10592,16 @@ def trim_messages(
     messages = copy.deepcopy(messages)
     try:
         print_verbose(f"trimming messages")
-        if max_tokens == None:
+        if max_tokens is None:
             # Check if model is valid
             if model in litellm.model_cost:
-                max_tokens_for_model = litellm.model_cost[model]["max_tokens"]
+                max_tokens_for_model = litellm.model_cost[model].get("max_input_tokens", litellm.model_cost[model]["max_tokens"])
                 max_tokens = int(max_tokens_for_model * trim_ratio)
             else:
-                # if user did not specify max tokens
+                # if user did not specify max (input) tokens
                 # or passed an llm litellm does not know
                 # do nothing, just return messages
-                return
+                return messages
 
         system_message = ""
         for message in messages: