diff --git a/mlx/backend/metal/kernels/expm1f.h b/mlx/backend/metal/kernels/expm1f.h
index b649dd99a..68224e179 100644
--- a/mlx/backend/metal/kernels/expm1f.h
+++ b/mlx/backend/metal/kernels/expm1f.h
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ float expm1f(float a) {
   r = expm1f_scaled_unchecked(a, 1.0f);
   /* handle severe overflow and underflow */
   if (abs(a - 1.0f) > 88.0f) {
+    r = pow(2, a);
     r = fma(r, r, -1.0f);
   }
   return r;
diff --git a/python/tests/test_ops.py b/python/tests/test_ops.py
index 4b0abebdb..e8b1cfc38 100644
--- a/python/tests/test_ops.py
+++ b/python/tests/test_ops.py
@@ -845,7 +845,7 @@ class TestOps(mlx_tests.MLXTestCase):
         self.assertTrue(np.allclose(result, expected))
 
     def test_expm1(self):
-        a = mx.array([0, 0.5, -0.5, 5])
+        a = mx.array([-88, -87, 0, 0.5, -0.5, 5, 87, 88, 89, 90])
         result = mx.expm1(a)
         expected = np.expm1(a, dtype=np.float32)