diff --git a/evoprompt/models.py b/evoprompt/models.py
index 91467761f682a2f21519335a9acfeecc2746bbfe..bbfebaffa351f52ce54b578bd4f15fae1e25cf86 100644
--- a/evoprompt/models.py
+++ b/evoprompt/models.py
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ class LLMModel(ABC):
 
         # set up caching for model calls
         self._call_model_cached = None
-        if "disable_cache" not in self.kwargs or not self.kwargs["disable_cache"]:
+        if not self.kwargs.get("disable_cache", False):
             cache = Cache(Path(".cache_dir", self.model_cache_key))
 
             @cache.memoize(typed=True, ignore=[0, "func"])