diff --git a/scripts/compare-commits.sh b/scripts/compare-commits.sh
index 70679f4e5..8b9b1ad39 100755
--- a/scripts/compare-commits.sh
+++ b/scripts/compare-commits.sh
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ fi
 set -e
 set -x
 
+# verify at the start that the compare script has all the necessary dependencies installed
+./scripts/compare-llama-bench.py --check
+
 bench_args="${@:3}"
 
 rm -f llama-bench.sqlite > /dev/null
diff --git a/scripts/compare-llama-bench.py b/scripts/compare-llama-bench.py
index 92b9e682a..e45e83ce8 100755
--- a/scripts/compare-llama-bench.py
+++ b/scripts/compare-llama-bench.py
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ help_s = (
     "If the columns are manually specified, then the results for each unique combination of the "
     "specified values are averaged WITHOUT weighing by the --repetitions parameter of llama-bench."
 )
+parser.add_argument("--check", action="store_true", help="check if all required Python libraries are installed")
 parser.add_argument("-s", "--show", help=help_s)
 parser.add_argument("--verbose", action="store_true", help="increase output verbosity")
 
@@ -99,6 +100,10 @@ known_args, unknown_args = parser.parse_known_args()
 
 logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG if known_args.verbose else logging.INFO)
 
+if known_args.check:
+    # Check if all required Python libraries are installed. Would have failed earlier if not.
+    sys.exit(0)
+
 if unknown_args:
     logger.error(f"Received unknown args: {unknown_args}.\n")
     parser.print_help()