diff --git a/packages/app/src/context/local.tsx b/packages/app/src/context/local.tsx
index 75d1334a5a5..14468d3587a 100644
--- a/packages/app/src/context/local.tsx
+++ b/packages/app/src/context/local.tsx
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import { useSync } from "./sync"
 import { base64Encode } from "@opencode-ai/util/encode"
 import { useProviders } from "@/hooks/use-providers"
 import { useModels } from "@/context/models"
+import { Persist, persisted } from "@/utils/persist"
 import { cycleModelVariant, getConfiguredAgentVariant, resolveModelVariant } from "./model-variant"
 
 export type ModelKey = { providerID: string; modelID: string }
@@ -93,11 +94,14 @@ export const { use: useLocal, provider: LocalProvider } = createSimpleContext({
     const model = (() => {
       const models = useModels()
 
-      const [ephemeral, setEphemeral] = createStore<{
-        model: Record<string, ModelKey | undefined>
-      }>({
-        model: {},
-      })
+      const [store, setStore] = persisted(
+        Persist.workspace(sdk.directory, "local-model"),
+        createStore<{
+          model: Record<string, ModelKey | undefined>
+        }>({
+          model: {},
+        }),
+      )
 
       const resolveConfigured = () => {
         if (!sync.data.config.model) return
@@ -136,7 +140,7 @@ export const { use: useLocal, provider: LocalProvider } = createSimpleContext({
         const a = agent.current()
         if (!a) return undefined
         const key = getFirstValidModel(
-          () => ephemeral.model[a.name],
+          () => store.model[a.name],
           () => a.model,
           fallbackModel,
         )
@@ -173,7 +177,7 @@ export const { use: useLocal, provider: LocalProvider } = createSimpleContext({
         batch(() => {
           const currentAgent = agent.current()
           const next = model ?? fallbackModel()
-          if (currentAgent) setEphemeral("model", currentAgent.name, next)
+          if (currentAgent) setStore("model", currentAgent.name, next)
           if (model) models.setVisibility(model, true)
           if (options?.recent && model) models.recent.push(model)
         })
diff --git a/packages/app/src/pages/session/session-model-helpers.test.ts b/packages/app/src/pages/session/session-model-helpers.test.ts
index 5f554dcd36a..3bffda74f9a 100644
--- a/packages/app/src/pages/session/session-model-helpers.test.ts
+++ b/packages/app/src/pages/session/session-model-helpers.test.ts
@@ -89,6 +89,37 @@ describe("syncSessionModel", () => {
 })
 
 describe("resetSessionModel", () => {
+  test("keeps the current model selection for new sessions", () => {
+    const calls: unknown[] = []
+
+    resetSessionModel({
+      agent: {
+        current() {
+          return {
+            model: { providerID: "anthropic", modelID: "claude-sonnet-4" },
+            variant: "high",
+          }
+        },
+        set() {},
+      },
+      model: {
+        set(value) {
+          calls.push(["model", value])
+        },
+        current() {
+          return { id: "gpt-5", provider: { id: "openai" } }
+        },
+        variant: {
+          set(value) {
+            calls.push(["variant", value])
+          },
+        },
+      },
+    })
+
+    expect(calls).toEqual([])
+  })
+
   test("restores the current agent defaults", () => {
     const calls: unknown[] = []
 
diff --git a/packages/app/src/pages/session/session-model-helpers.ts b/packages/app/src/pages/session/session-model-helpers.ts
index 7600f16d5c7..e7ee3d525d3 100644
--- a/packages/app/src/pages/session/session-model-helpers.ts
+++ b/packages/app/src/pages/session/session-model-helpers.ts
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ type Local = {
 }
 
 export const resetSessionModel = (local: Local) => {
+  if (local.model.current()) return
   const agent = local.agent.current()
   if (!agent) return
   batch(() => {