diff --git a/tests/v1/core/test_scheduler.py b/tests/v1/core/test_scheduler.py
index 89a73b675c..c8ac4dec64 100644
--- a/tests/v1/core/test_scheduler.py
+++ b/tests/v1/core/test_scheduler.py
@@ -437,6 +437,52 @@ def test_schedule_partial_requests():
     assert requests[2].request_id not in output.num_scheduled_tokens
 
 
+def test_encoder_only_prompt_longer_than_budget_is_chunked():
+    """The engine switches chunked prefill off for an encoder-only instance,
+    but the token budget must still split its prompt across steps instead of
+    leaving the request waiting forever."""
+    scheduler = create_scheduler(
+        model="llava-hf/llava-1.5-7b-hf",
+        max_num_batched_tokens=1024,
+        max_model_len=4096,
+        mm_encoder_only=True,
+    )
+    # EngineCore turns this off after config validation whenever the instance
+    # holds no KV cache, which is every encoder-only instance.
+    scheduler.scheduler_config.enable_chunked_prefill = False
+    (request,) = create_requests(
+        num_requests=1,
+        num_tokens=2500,
+        mm_positions=[[PlaceholderRange(offset=100, length=600)]],
+    )
+    scheduler.add_request(request)
+
+    def advance(output):
+        scheduler.update_from_output(
+            output,
+            ModelRunnerOutput(
+                req_ids=[request.request_id],
+                req_id_to_index={request.request_id: 0},
+                sampled_token_ids=[[]],
+                logprobs=None,
+                prompt_logprobs_dict={},
+                pooler_output=[],
+            ),
+        )
+
+    first = scheduler.schedule()
+    assert first.num_scheduled_tokens[request.request_id] == 1024
+    assert request.request_id in first.scheduled_encoder_inputs
+    advance(first)
+
+    second = scheduler.schedule()
+    assert second.num_scheduled_tokens[request.request_id] == 1024
+    advance(second)
+
+    third = scheduler.schedule()
+    assert third.num_scheduled_tokens[request.request_id] == 452
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("has_running", [True, False])
 def test_schedule_prefills_gating(has_running: bool):
     """DP prefill-balancing gate: when `throttle_prefills` is True, a new
diff --git a/tests/v1/core/utils.py b/tests/v1/core/utils.py
index 46ca29f67b..49aaca3d7c 100644
--- a/tests/v1/core/utils.py
+++ b/tests/v1/core/utils.py
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ def create_scheduler(
     long_prefill_token_threshold: int = 0,
     long_prefill_token_threshold_adaptive: bool = False,
     disable_chunked_mm_input: bool = False,
+    mm_encoder_only: bool = False,
     use_kv_connector: None | bool | str | MockKVConfig = None,
     kv_role: str = "kv_both",
     num_blocks: int = 10000,
@@ -109,6 +110,8 @@ def create_scheduler(
         # SchedulerConfig one, so both must agree.
         max_model_len=max_model_len,
     )
+    if mm_encoder_only:
+        model_config.multimodal_config.mm_encoder_only = True
     if use_ec_connector and ec_role == "ec_producer":
         model_config.multimodal_config = MultiModalConfig()
     if max_model_len is None:
diff --git a/vllm/v1/core/sched/scheduler.py b/vllm/v1/core/sched/scheduler.py
index 24ecc4534d..fc924b876c 100644
--- a/vllm/v1/core/sched/scheduler.py
+++ b/vllm/v1/core/sched/scheduler.py
@@ -1115,6 +1115,7 @@ class Scheduler(SchedulerInterface):
                     if (
                         not self.scheduler_config.enable_chunked_prefill
                         and num_new_tokens > request_token_budget
+                        and not self.is_mm_encoder_only
                     ):
                         # If chunked_prefill is disabled,
                         # we can stop the scheduling here.