diff --git a/examples/scripts/prm.py b/examples/scripts/prm.py
index df3ab1702f..e363f594cb 100644
--- a/examples/scripts/prm.py
+++ b/examples/scripts/prm.py
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@
     get_peft_config,
     get_quantization_config,
 )
+from trl.trainer.utils import is_token_in_vocab
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
@@ -89,6 +90,16 @@
     # Align padding tokens between tokenizer and model
     model.config.pad_token_id = tokenizer.pad_token_id
 
+    # Check if the step separator is in the vocabulary, if it's not, add it
+    if not is_token_in_vocab(tokenizer, training_args.step_token):
+        tokenizer.add_special_tokens({"additional_special_tokens": [training_args.step_separator]})
+        model.resize_token_embeddings(
+            len(tokenizer),
+            pad_to_multiple_of=(
+                training_args.resize_to_multiple_of if training_args.resize_to_multiple_of is not None else None
+            ),
+        )
+
     if model_config.use_peft and model_config.lora_task_type != "TOKEN_CLS":
         warnings.warn(
             "You are using a `task_type` that is different than `TOKEN_CLS` for PEFT. This will lead to silent bugs"
diff --git a/tests/test_utils.py b/tests/test_utils.py
index 0061dd5e5e..90c42c6a34 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
     flush_left,
     generate_model_card,
     get_peft_config,
+    is_token_in_vocab,
     pad,
 )
 
@@ -451,3 +452,15 @@ def test_no_tensors(self):
         expected_mask = torch.tensor([[1, 1, 1], [1, 1, 0]])
 
         self.assertTrue(torch.equal(new_mask, expected_mask))
+
+
+class TestIsTokenInVocab(unittest.TestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("trl-internal-testing/tiny-Qwen2ForCausalLM-2.5")
+
+    def test_token_in_vocab(self):
+        for token in ["<|im_start|>", "\n", "\n\n", "a"]:
+            self.assertTrue(is_token_in_vocab(self.tokenizer, token))
+
+    def test_token_not_in_vocab(self):
+        self.assertFalse(is_token_in_vocab(self.tokenizer, "<step_token>"))
diff --git a/trl/trainer/prm_config.py b/trl/trainer/prm_config.py
index ddff854859..1152d61e55 100644
--- a/trl/trainer/prm_config.py
+++ b/trl/trainer/prm_config.py
@@ -39,8 +39,11 @@ class PRMConfig(TrainingArguments):
             Maximum length of the completion used for truncation. The completion is the concatenation of the steps.
         disable_dropout (`bool`, *optional*, defaults to `True`):
             Whether to disable dropout in the model.
-        step_separator (`str`, *optional*, defaults to `"\n"`):
-            Separator used to separate each step of the reasoning process.
+        step_separator (`str`, *optional*, defaults to `"<|step_token|>"`):
+            Separator used to separate each step of the reasoning process. It will be used as the specific token for
+            the steps to predict the rewards afterwards. If the token is not in the vocabulary, it will be added.
+        resize_to_multiple_of (`int`, *optional*, defaults to `64`):
+            Resize the input to multiple of this value. Only takes effect if `step_token` is not `None`.
         train_on_last_step_only (`bool`, *optional*, defaults to `False`):
             Whether to train only on the last step.
         dataset_num_proc (`int`, *optional*, defaults to `None`):
@@ -73,9 +76,20 @@ class PRMConfig(TrainingArguments):
         default=True,
         metadata={"help": "Whether to disable dropout in the model and reference model."},
     )
-    step_separator: str = field(
-        default="\n",
-        metadata={"help": "Separator used to separate each step of the reasoning process."},
+    step_separator: Optional[str] = field(
+        default="<|step_token|>",
+        metadata={
+            "help": (
+                "Separator used to separate each step of the reasoning process. It will be used as the specific token for "
+                "the steps to predict the rewards afterwards. If the token is not in the vocabulary, it will be added."
+            )
+        },
+    )
+    resize_to_multiple_of: Optional[int] = field(
+        default=64,
+        metadata={
+            "help": "Resize the input to multiple of this value. Only takes effect if `step_token` is not `None`."
+        },
     )
     train_on_last_step_only: bool = field(
         default=False,
diff --git a/trl/trainer/utils.py b/trl/trainer/utils.py
index 719d952f1f..bcc1c3b6b5 100644
--- a/trl/trainer/utils.py
+++ b/trl/trainer/utils.py
@@ -1647,3 +1647,22 @@ def flush_left(mask: torch.Tensor, *tensors: torch.Tensor) -> tuple[torch.Tensor
         return mask
     else:
         return mask, *tensors
+
+
+def is_token_in_vocab(tokenizer: PreTrainedTokenizerBase, token: str) -> bool:
+    # Use repr() to handle special characters, and remove the extra quotes
+    # Try direct vocab check
+    if token in tokenizer.get_vocab():
+        return True
+
+    # Try escaped representation, use repr() to handle special characters, and remove the extra quotes
+    escaped = repr(token)[1:-1]
+    if escaped in tokenizer.get_vocab():
+        return True
+
+    # Check if token gets encoded to a single ID
+    try:
+        token_ids = tokenizer.encode(token, add_special_tokens=False)
+        return len(token_ids) == 1
+    except Exception:
+        return False