diff --git a/src/fairchem/core/common/relaxation/ase_utils.py b/src/fairchem/core/common/relaxation/ase_utils.py
index 2dacce2cb7..237f35b592 100644
--- a/src/fairchem/core/common/relaxation/ase_utils.py
+++ b/src/fairchem/core/common/relaxation/ase_utils.py
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ def __init__(
         max_neighbors: int = 50,
         cpu: bool = True,
         seed: int | None = None,
+        only_output: list[str] | None = None,
     ) -> None:
         """
         OCP-ASE Calculator
@@ -170,6 +171,20 @@ def __init__(
         self.config["checkpoint"] = checkpoint_path
         del config["dataset"]["src"]
 
+        # some models that are published have configs that include tasks
+        # which are not output by the model
+        if only_output is not None:
+            assert isinstance(
+                only_output, list
+            ), "only output must be a list of targets to output"
+            for key in only_output:
+                assert (
+                    key in config["outputs"]
+                ), f"{key} listed in only_outputs is not present in current model outputs {config['outputs'].keys()}"
+            remove_outputs = set(config["outputs"].keys()) - set(only_output)
+            for key in remove_outputs:
+                config["outputs"].pop(key)
+
         self.trainer = registry.get_trainer_class(config["trainer"])(
             task=config.get("task", {}),
             model=config["model"],
diff --git a/src/fairchem/core/trainers/ocp_trainer.py b/src/fairchem/core/trainers/ocp_trainer.py
index 9a13faed69..152cddd93b 100644
--- a/src/fairchem/core/trainers/ocp_trainer.py
+++ b/src/fairchem/core/trainers/ocp_trainer.py
@@ -291,7 +291,8 @@ def _forward(self, batch):
                 )
             else:
                 raise AttributeError(
-                    f"Output target: '{target_key}', not found in model outputs: {list(out.keys())}"
+                    f"Output target: '{target_key}', not found in model outputs: {list(out.keys())}\n"
+                    + "If this is being called from OCPCalculator consider using only_output=[..]"
                 )
 
             ### not all models are consistent with the output shape
diff --git a/tests/core/common/__snapshots__/test_ase_calculator.ambr b/tests/core/common/__snapshots__/test_ase_calculator.ambr
index 71435c0ebd..49d8fb3e07 100644
--- a/tests/core/common/__snapshots__/test_ase_calculator.ambr
+++ b/tests/core/common/__snapshots__/test_ase_calculator.ambr
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 # serializer version: 1
+# name: test_energy_with_is2re_model
+  1.09
+# ---
 # name: test_relaxation_final_energy
   0.92
 # ---
diff --git a/tests/core/common/test_ase_calculator.py b/tests/core/common/test_ase_calculator.py
index 3d62c35e1a..d59a506084 100644
--- a/tests/core/common/test_ase_calculator.py
+++ b/tests/core/common/test_ase_calculator.py
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ def atoms() -> Atoms:
         "PaiNN-S2EF-OC20-All",
         "GemNet-OC-Large-S2EF-OC20-All+MD",
         "SCN-S2EF-OC20-All+MD",
+        "PaiNN-IS2RE-OC20-All",
         # Equiformer v2  # already tested in test_relaxation_final_energy
         # "EquiformerV2-153M-S2EF-OC20-All+MD"
         # eSCNm # already tested in test_random_seed_final_energy
@@ -54,6 +55,27 @@ def test_calculator_setup(checkpoint_path):
     _ = OCPCalculator(checkpoint_path=checkpoint_path, cpu=True)
 
 
+def test_energy_with_is2re_model(atoms, tmp_path, snapshot):
+    random.seed(1)
+    torch.manual_seed(1)
+
+    with pytest.raises(AttributeError):  # noqa
+        calc = OCPCalculator(
+            checkpoint_path=model_name_to_local_file("PaiNN-IS2RE-OC20-All", tmp_path),
+            cpu=True,
+        )
+        atoms.set_calculator(calc)
+        atoms.get_potential_energy()
+
+    calc = OCPCalculator(
+        checkpoint_path=model_name_to_local_file("PaiNN-IS2RE-OC20-All", tmp_path),
+        cpu=True,
+        only_output=["energy"],
+    )
+    atoms.set_calculator(calc)
+    assert snapshot == round(atoms.get_potential_energy(), 2)
+
+
 # test relaxation with EqV2
 def test_relaxation_final_energy(atoms, tmp_path, snapshot) -> None:
     random.seed(1)