diff --git a/backend/.gitignore b/backend/.gitignore
index 93163afa..6dfe2dc3 100644
--- a/backend/.gitignore
+++ b/backend/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 .venv/
 .vscode/
 __pycache__/
+*.onnx
diff --git a/backend/classification/load_model.py b/backend/classification/load_model.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0b20ba1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/classification/load_model.py
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+from os import path
+import hashlib
+import sys
+from requests import get
+import onnxruntime
+
+SCRIPT_PATH = path.dirname(path.realpath(sys.argv[0]))
+MODEL_FILENAME = 'model.onnx'
+MODEL_PATH = f'{SCRIPT_PATH}/{MODEL_FILENAME}'
+MODEL_REPO = 'polycortex/polydodo-model'
+MODEL_URL = f'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/{MODEL_REPO}/master/{MODEL_FILENAME}'
+
+
+def _download_file(url, output):
+    with open(output, 'wb') as f:
+        f.write(get(url).content)
+
+
+def _get_latest_model_githash():
+    request = f'https://api.github.com/repos/{MODEL_REPO}/commits/master'
+    repo = get(request).json()
+    model_info = [file_info for file_info in repo['files'] if file_info['filename'] == MODEL_FILENAME][0]
+    return model_info["sha"]
+
+
+def _get_file_githash(filepath):
+    BUF_SIZE = 65536
+
+    sha1 = hashlib.sha1()
+
+    # https://stackoverflow.com/a/1869911
+    filesize = path.getsize(filepath)
+    git_hash_header = f'blob {filesize}\0'.encode('utf-8')
+    sha1.update(git_hash_header)
+
+    # https://stackoverflow.com/a/22058673
+    with open(filepath, 'rb') as f:
+        while True:
+            data = f.read(BUF_SIZE)
+            if not data:
+                break
+            sha1.update(data)
+    return sha1.hexdigest()
+
+
+def load_model():
+    if not path.exists(MODEL_PATH) or _get_file_githash(MODEL_PATH) != _get_latest_model_githash():
+        _download_file(MODEL_URL, MODEL_PATH)
+    return onnxruntime.InferenceSession(MODEL_PATH)
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index 246c7204..e062c41a 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ Flask-Cors==1.10.3
 waitress==1.4.4
 
 mne==0.21.0
+onnxruntime==1.5.2
 numpy==1.19.2
 scipy==1.5.2
 scikit-learn==0.23.2