diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 3c5108ed..096674d6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ on:
         description: "vLLM version"
         required: false
         type: string
-        default: "0.12.0"
+        default: "0.17.0"
       sglangVersion:
         description: "SGLang version"
         required: false
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ jobs:
     env:
       RELEASE_TAG: ${{ needs.prepare.outputs.release_tag }}
       LLAMA_SERVER_VERSION: ${{ inputs.llamaServerVersion || 'latest' }}
-      VLLM_VERSION: ${{ inputs.vllmVersion || '0.12.0' }}
+      VLLM_VERSION: ${{ inputs.vllmVersion }}
       SGLANG_VERSION: ${{ inputs.sglangVersion || '0.4.0' }}
       PUSH_LATEST: ${{ inputs.pushLatest || 'false' }}
       BUILD_MUSA_CANN: ${{ inputs.buildMusaCann || 'false' }}
@@ -340,8 +340,6 @@ jobs:
             "LLAMA_SERVER_VARIANT=cuda"
             "BASE_IMAGE=nvidia/cuda:13.0.2-runtime-ubuntu24.04"
             "VLLM_VERSION=${{ env.VLLM_VERSION }}"
-            "VLLM_CUDA_VERSION=cu130"
-            "VLLM_PYTHON_TAG=cp38-abi3"
             "VERSION=${{ env.RELEASE_TAG }}"
           push: true
           sbom: true
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 0c62726c..59d6f660 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ ENTRYPOINT ["/app/model-runner"]
 # --- vLLM variant ---
 FROM llamacpp AS vllm
 
-ARG VLLM_VERSION=0.12.0
+ARG VLLM_VERSION=0.17.0
 ARG VLLM_CUDA_VERSION=cu130
 ARG VLLM_PYTHON_TAG=cp38-abi3
 ARG TARGETARCH
@@ -106,13 +106,10 @@ USER modelrunner
 # Install uv and vLLM as modelrunner user
 RUN curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh \
     && ~/.local/bin/uv venv --python /usr/bin/python3 /opt/vllm-env \
-    && if [ "$TARGETARCH" = "amd64" ]; then \
-    WHEEL_ARCH="manylinux_2_31_x86_64"; \
-    WHEEL_URL="https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/releases/download/v${VLLM_VERSION}/vllm-${VLLM_VERSION}%2B${VLLM_CUDA_VERSION}-${VLLM_PYTHON_TAG}-${WHEEL_ARCH}.whl"; \
-    ~/.local/bin/uv pip install --python /opt/vllm-env/bin/python "$WHEEL_URL"; \
-    else \
-    ~/.local/bin/uv pip install --python /opt/vllm-env/bin/python "vllm==${VLLM_VERSION}"; \
-    fi
+    && printf '%s' "${VLLM_VERSION}" | grep -qE '^(nightly|[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+|[0-9a-f]{7,40})$' \
+            || { echo "Invalid VLLM_VERSION: must be a version (e.g. 0.16.0), 'nightly', or a hex commit hash"; exit 1; } \
+        && ~/.local/bin/uv pip install --python /opt/vllm-env/bin/python vllm \
+            --extra-index-url "https://wheels.vllm.ai/${VLLM_VERSION}/${VLLM_CUDA_VERSION}"
 
 RUN /opt/vllm-env/bin/python -c "import vllm; print(vllm.__version__)" > /opt/vllm-env/version
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 4d9435cc..8ceb495d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ LLAMA_SERVER_VERSION := latest
 LLAMA_SERVER_VARIANT := cpu
 BASE_IMAGE := ubuntu:24.04
 VLLM_BASE_IMAGE := nvidia/cuda:13.0.2-runtime-ubuntu24.04
+VLLM_VERSION ?= 0.17.0
 DOCKER_IMAGE := docker/model-runner:latest
 DOCKER_IMAGE_VLLM := docker/model-runner:latest-vllm-cuda
 DOCKER_IMAGE_SGLANG := docker/model-runner:latest-sglang
@@ -19,6 +20,7 @@ DOCKER_BUILD_ARGS := \
 	--build-arg LLAMA_SERVER_VERSION=$(LLAMA_SERVER_VERSION) \
 	--build-arg LLAMA_SERVER_VARIANT=$(LLAMA_SERVER_VARIANT) \
 	--build-arg BASE_IMAGE=$(BASE_IMAGE) \
+	--build-arg VLLM_VERSION='$(VLLM_VERSION)' \
 	--target $(DOCKER_TARGET) \
 	-t $(DOCKER_IMAGE)
 
@@ -232,13 +234,13 @@ vllm-metal-dev:
 	rm -rf "$(VLLM_METAL_INSTALL_DIR)"; \
 	$$PYTHON_BIN -m venv "$(VLLM_METAL_INSTALL_DIR)"; \
 	. "$(VLLM_METAL_INSTALL_DIR)/bin/activate" && \
-		VLLM_VERSION="0.13.0" && \
+		VLLM_UPSTREAM_VERSION="0.13.0" && \
 		WORK_DIR=$$(mktemp -d) && \
-		curl -fsSL -o "$$WORK_DIR/vllm.tar.gz" "https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/releases/download/v$$VLLM_VERSION/vllm-$$VLLM_VERSION.tar.gz" && \
+		curl -fsSL -o "$$WORK_DIR/vllm.tar.gz" "https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/releases/download/v$$VLLM_UPSTREAM_VERSION/vllm-$$VLLM_UPSTREAM_VERSION.tar.gz" && \
 		tar -xzf "$$WORK_DIR/vllm.tar.gz" -C "$$WORK_DIR" && \
-		pip install -r "$$WORK_DIR/vllm-$$VLLM_VERSION/requirements/cpu.txt" && \
+		pip install -r "$$WORK_DIR/vllm-$$VLLM_UPSTREAM_VERSION/requirements/cpu.txt" && \
 		pip install -e "$(VLLM_METAL_PATH)" && \
-		pip install -r "$$WORK_DIR/vllm-$$VLLM_VERSION/requirements/common.txt" && \
+		pip install -r "$$WORK_DIR/vllm-$$VLLM_UPSTREAM_VERSION/requirements/common.txt" && \
 		rm -rf "$$WORK_DIR" && \
 		echo "dev" > "$(VLLM_METAL_INSTALL_DIR)/.vllm-metal-version"; \
 	echo "vllm-metal dev installed from $(VLLM_METAL_PATH)"