diff --git a/cmd/interactive.go b/cmd/interactive.go
index 21c0a6a9..c078650a 100644
--- a/cmd/interactive.go
+++ b/cmd/interactive.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/ollama/ollama/api"
 	"github.com/ollama/ollama/progress"
 	"github.com/ollama/ollama/readline"
+	"github.com/ollama/ollama/types/errtypes"
 )
 
 type MultilineState int
@@ -281,7 +282,10 @@ func generateInteractive(cmd *cobra.Command, opts runOptions) error {
 			fn := func(resp api.ProgressResponse) error { return nil }
 			err = client.Create(cmd.Context(), req, fn)
 			if err != nil {
-				fmt.Println("error: couldn't save model")
+				if strings.Contains(err.Error(), errtypes.InvalidModelNameErrMsg) {
+					fmt.Printf("error: The model name '%s' is invalid\n", args[1])
+					continue
+				}
 				return err
 			}
 			fmt.Printf("Created new model '%s'\n", args[1])
diff --git a/server/routes.go b/server/routes.go
index d60a4d08..aaa461c2 100644
--- a/server/routes.go
+++ b/server/routes.go
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/ollama/ollama/llm"
 	"github.com/ollama/ollama/openai"
 	"github.com/ollama/ollama/server/envconfig"
+	"github.com/ollama/ollama/types/errtypes"
 	"github.com/ollama/ollama/types/model"
 	"github.com/ollama/ollama/version"
 )
@@ -517,7 +518,7 @@ func (s *Server) CreateModelHandler(c *gin.Context) {
 
 	name := model.ParseName(cmp.Or(req.Model, req.Name))
 	if !name.IsValid() {
-		c.AbortWithStatusJSON(http.StatusBadRequest, gin.H{"error": "invalid model name"})
+		c.AbortWithStatusJSON(http.StatusBadRequest, gin.H{"error": errtypes.InvalidModelNameErrMsg})
 		return
 	}
 
diff --git a/types/errtypes/errtypes.go b/types/errtypes/errtypes.go
index e3a18d0b..d3073114 100644
--- a/types/errtypes/errtypes.go
+++ b/types/errtypes/errtypes.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 )
 
 const UnknownOllamaKeyErrMsg = "unknown ollama key"
+const InvalidModelNameErrMsg = "invalid model name"
 
 // TODO: This should have a structured response from the API
 type UnknownOllamaKey struct {