diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4eec00a..fe0338b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -69,7 +69,10 @@ out, balance_loss, router_z_loss = moe_block(inputs) # (4, 1024, 512), (1,), (1,
 - [x] make first naive non-optimized attempt at distributed code for mixture of experts
 
 - [ ] distributed
+    - [x] handle any world size less than number of experts
+    - [ ] handle any world size greater than number of experts
     - [ ] optimize
+    - [ ] figure out what is faster, all gather, or broadcast with async followed by barrier
     - [ ] make all distributed code pluggable, for different strategies
     - [ ] figure out why there is tiny error in gradients
     - [ ] support variable batch and sequence lengths
diff --git a/assert.py b/assert.py
index 6491b6d..18c9b71 100644
--- a/assert.py
+++ b/assert.py
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ def start(
     cleanup()
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
-    world_size = 4
+    world_size = 5
     num_experts = 8
     batch_size = 2
     batch_size_var_len = False
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 85918c2..e9e3692 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 setup(
   name = 'st-moe-pytorch',
   packages = find_packages(exclude=[]),
-  version = '0.0.25',
+  version = '0.0.27',
   license='MIT',
   description = 'ST - Mixture of Experts - Pytorch',
   author = 'Phil Wang',
diff --git a/st_moe_pytorch/st_moe_pytorch.py b/st_moe_pytorch/st_moe_pytorch.py
index 7cbbbe3..df4ecb1 100644
--- a/st_moe_pytorch/st_moe_pytorch.py
+++ b/st_moe_pytorch/st_moe_pytorch.py
@@ -46,6 +46,16 @@ def default(val, default):
 def divisible_by(num, den):
     return (num % den) == 0
 
+def chunk_num(num, chunks):
+    num_per_chunk, remainder = divmod(num, chunks)
+
+    out = []
+    for i in range(chunks):
+        n = num_per_chunk
+        out.append(n + int(i < remainder))
+
+    return out
+
 def pack_one(t, pattern):
     return pack([t], pattern)
 
@@ -205,18 +215,24 @@ def forward(
             rank = 0
 
         # the experts in use on the rank
-        # for now, make sure number of machines is right multiple
 
-        if world_size <= num_experts:
-            assert divisible_by(num_experts, world_size), 'if number of machines is less than the number of experts, the number of experts must be divisible by number of machines'
-            num_experts_per_rank = num_experts // world_size
-            expert_start_index = rank * num_experts_per_rank
+        if is_distributed:
+            if world_size <= num_experts:
+                num_experts_across_ranks = chunk_num(num_experts, world_size)
+                start_indices = cumsum_exclusive(torch.tensor(num_experts_across_ranks), dim = -1)
+                num_experts_per_rank = num_experts_across_ranks[rank]
+                expert_start_index = start_indices[rank].item()
+            else:
+                # for now, make sure number of machines is right multiple
+
+                assert divisible_by(world_size, num_experts), 'if number of machines is greater than number of experts, machines must be divisible by number of experts, so experts are evenly distributed'
+                num_experts_per_rank = 1
+                expert_start_index = rank // num_experts
+
+            expert_slice = slice(expert_start_index, expert_start_index + num_experts_per_rank)
         else:
-            assert divisible_by(world_size, num_experts), 'if number of machines is greater than number of experts, machines must be divisible by number of experts, so experts are evenly distributed'
-            num_experts_per_rank = 1
-            expert_start_index = rank // num_experts
-
-        expert_slice = slice(expert_start_index, expert_start_index + num_experts_per_rank)
+            num_experts_per_rank = num_experts
+            expert_slice = slice(0, num_experts)
 
         # if distributed, each machine only handles subset of experts and batch
 
@@ -224,7 +240,14 @@ def forward(
 
         if is_distributed:
             x, expert_batch_packed_shape = pack_one(x, '* n d')
-            x = rearrange(x, '(r eb) n d -> r eb n d', r = world_size)
+
+            if world_size <= num_experts:
+                x = rearrange(x, '(e b) n d -> e b n d', e = num_experts)
+                x = x.split(num_experts_across_ranks, dim = 0)
+                x = tuple(rearrange(t, 'e b n d -> (e b) n d') for t in x)
+            else:
+                x = rearrange(x, '(r eb) n d -> r eb n d', r = world_size)
+
             x, experts_per_rank_sizes = split_by_rank(x)
             x = rearrange(x, '(e b) n d -> e b n d', e = num_experts_per_rank)