diff --git a/src/outlines/processors/tensor_adapters/numpy.py b/src/outlines/processors/tensor_adapters/numpy.py
index 831220444d..5ee17840a3 100644
--- a/src/outlines/processors/tensor_adapters/numpy.py
+++ b/src/outlines/processors/tensor_adapters/numpy.py
@@ -42,9 +42,7 @@ def boolean_ones_like(self, tensor):
         return self.numpy.ones_like(tensor, dtype=bool)
 
     def apply_mask(self, tensor, mask, value):
-        result = tensor.copy()
-        result[mask] = value
-        return result
+        return self.numpy.where(mask, value, tensor)
 
     def argsort_descending(self, tensor):
         return self.numpy.argsort(-tensor)
diff --git a/tests/processors/test_tensor_adapters.py b/tests/processors/test_tensor_adapters.py
index 064afe85d2..b8563ddd87 100644
--- a/tests/processors/test_tensor_adapters.py
+++ b/tests/processors/test_tensor_adapters.py
@@ -243,6 +243,33 @@ def test_tensor_adapter_apply_mask(framework):
                 assert masked[i, j] == tensor[i, j]
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("framework", frameworks)
+def test_tensor_adapter_apply_mask_broadcasts_lower_rank_mask(framework):
+    """A mask with fewer dimensions than the tensor (e.g. the same banned-token
+    mask reused for every row of a batch) must broadcast, matching torch's
+    masked_fill semantics, instead of requiring an exact shape match."""
+    tensor = create_tensor(framework, (2, 3))
+
+    if framework == "torch":
+        mask = torch.tensor([True, False, True])
+    elif framework == "numpy":
+        mask = np.array([True, False, True])
+    elif framework == "mlx":
+        if not HAS_MLX:
+            pytest.skip("MLX not available")
+        mask = mx.array([True, False, True])
+
+    masked = adapters[framework].apply_mask(tensor, mask, float("-inf"))
+
+    assert masked.shape == (2, 3)
+    for i in range(2):
+        for j in range(3):
+            if mask[j]:
+                assert masked[i, j] == float("-inf")
+            else:
+                assert masked[i, j] == tensor[i, j]
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("framework", frameworks)
 def test_tensor_adapter_argsort_descending(framework):
     tensor = create_tensor(framework, (2, 3))