diff --git a/src/MaxText/configs/base.yml b/src/MaxText/configs/base.yml
index de05461d9..776b81644 100644
--- a/src/MaxText/configs/base.yml
+++ b/src/MaxText/configs/base.yml
@@ -597,6 +597,7 @@ grain_train_files: ''
 grain_eval_files: ''
 grain_train_mixture_config_path: '' # Path to a JSON file specifying the mixture weights for Grain training data.
 grain_file_type: 'arrayrecord' # arrayrecord or parquet
+grain_packing_type: 'first_fit' # 'first_fit' or 'concat_then_split'. See details of the corresponding module in https://google-grain.readthedocs.io/en/latest/grain.experimental.html
 grain_worker_count: 1 # Set to -1 to enable auto-tuning: automatically determines optimal worker count. See https://google-grain.readthedocs.io/en/latest/_autosummary/grain.experimental.pick_performance_config.html
 grain_per_worker_buffer_size: 1
 # num_threads and prefetch_buffer_size are per-worker per-dataset. 
diff --git a/src/MaxText/configs/types.py b/src/MaxText/configs/types.py
index 2a9f26098..50e1633fc 100644
--- a/src/MaxText/configs/types.py
+++ b/src/MaxText/configs/types.py
@@ -852,6 +852,10 @@ class DatasetGeneral(BaseModel):
       True,
       description="Whether to pack multiple short examples into a single sequence.",
   )
+  grain_packing_type: Literal["first_fit", "concat_then_split"] = Field(
+      "first_fit",
+      description="Packing type when using Grain pipeline. 'first_fit' or 'concat_then_split'.",
+  )
   max_segments_per_seq: int = Field(
       32,
       description="Maximum number of segments that can be packed into a single sequence.",
diff --git a/src/MaxText/input_pipeline/_grain_data_processing.py b/src/MaxText/input_pipeline/_grain_data_processing.py
index 33ac30396..50c840603 100644
--- a/src/MaxText/input_pipeline/_grain_data_processing.py
+++ b/src/MaxText/input_pipeline/_grain_data_processing.py
@@ -201,6 +201,8 @@ def pretrain_preprocessing_pipeline(
   if config.grain_file_type == "arrayrecord":
     dataset = dataset.map(_input_pipeline_utils.ParseFeatures(data_columns, tokenize))
     dataset = dataset.map(_input_pipeline_utils.NormalizeFeatures(data_columns, tokenize))
+  else:
+    dataset = dataset.map(_input_pipeline_utils.KeepFeatures(feature_names=data_columns))
 
   assert len(data_columns) == 1
   text_column = data_columns[0]
@@ -237,11 +239,26 @@ def pretrain_preprocessing_pipeline(
     # But when using Grain, we want to keep the batch_size consistent with that in the checkpoint.
     # We revert the batch_size expansion here, but load multiple batches per step in multihost_dataloading.py.
     batch_size = batch_size // config.expansion_factor_real_data
+
   if config.packing:
     length_struct = {col: config.max_target_length for col in data_columns}
-    dataset = grain.experimental.FirstFitPackIterDataset(
-        dataset, length_struct=length_struct, num_packing_bins=batch_size
-    )
+    if config.grain_packing_type == "first_fit":
+      dataset = grain.experimental.FirstFitPackIterDataset(
+          dataset, length_struct=length_struct, num_packing_bins=batch_size
+      )
+    elif config.grain_packing_type == "concat_then_split":
+      if config.add_bos and hasattr(tokenizer_model, "bos_id"):
+        dataset = grain.experimental.ConcatThenSplitIterDataset(
+            dataset,
+            length_struct=length_struct,
+            bos_handling=grain.experimental.BOSHandling.REPLACE_FIRST_TOKEN_WITH_BOS,
+            bos_token_id=tokenizer_model.bos_id,
+        )
+      else:
+        dataset = grain.experimental.ConcatThenSplitIterDataset(dataset, length_struct=length_struct)
+    else:
+      raise ValueError(f"Unknown packing type: {config.packing}")
+
     rekey_dict = {
         "targets_segmentation": "targets_segment_ids",
         "inputs_segmentation": "inputs_segment_ids",
diff --git a/src/MaxText/input_pipeline/_input_pipeline_utils.py b/src/MaxText/input_pipeline/_input_pipeline_utils.py
index 195a56b0a..3fad3e1a7 100644
--- a/src/MaxText/input_pipeline/_input_pipeline_utils.py
+++ b/src/MaxText/input_pipeline/_input_pipeline_utils.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 import dataclasses
 import warnings
 from threading import current_thread
+from typing import Any
 import datasets
 from datasets.distributed import split_dataset_by_node
 import grain.python as grain
@@ -389,6 +390,28 @@ def map(self, element):
       return {col: element[col].numpy() for col in self.column_names}
 
 
+@dataclasses.dataclass
+class KeepFeatures(grain.MapTransform):
+  """Keep only specified features in the dataset element.
+
+  This transform filters the input dictionary, retaining only the keys
+  that are present in `feature_names`.
+  """
+
+  def __init__(self, feature_names: list[str]):
+    """Initializes the KeepFeatures transform.
+
+    Args:
+      feature_names: A list of strings, where each string is the name of a
+        feature to be kept in the dataset element.
+    """
+    self.feature_names = feature_names
+
+  def map(self, element: dict[str, Any]) -> dict[str, Any]:
+    """Applies the feature filtering to the input element."""
+    return {k: v for k, v in element.items() if k in self.feature_names}
+
+
 @dataclasses.dataclass
 class Rekey(grain.MapTransform):
   """Rename keys according to a mapping dict"""
diff --git a/tests/grain_data_processing_test.py b/tests/grain_data_processing_test.py
index 1ae759851..6d5c44b50 100644
--- a/tests/grain_data_processing_test.py
+++ b/tests/grain_data_processing_test.py
@@ -198,6 +198,7 @@ def setUp(self):
         data_sharding=["data"],
         base_output_directory="gs://max-experiments/",
         dataset_type="grain",
+        grain_ram_budget_mb=512,
         grain_train_files=os.path.join(
             temp_dir, "gcsfuse", "array-record", "c4", "en", "3.0.1", "c4-train.array_record*"
         ),