diff --git a/api/onnx_web/chain/pipeline.py b/api/onnx_web/chain/pipeline.py
index 60554071e..221c7cf47 100644
--- a/api/onnx_web/chain/pipeline.py
+++ b/api/onnx_web/chain/pipeline.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
 from PIL import Image
 
-from ..errors import RetryException
+from ..errors import CancelledException, RetryException
 from ..output import save_image
 from ..params import ImageParams, Size, StageParams
 from ..server import ServerContext
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ def __call__(
                 kwargs.pop("params")
 
             # the stage must be split and tiled if any image is larger than the selected/max tile size
-            must_tile = "mask" in stage_kwargs or any(
+            must_tile = has_mask(stage_kwargs) or any(
                 [
                     needs_tile(
                         stage_pipe.max_tile,
@@ -192,6 +192,10 @@ def stage_tile(
                                     save_image(server, f"last-tile-{j}.png", image)
 
                             return tile_result
+                        except CancelledException as err:
+                            worker.retries = 0
+                            logger.exception("job was cancelled while tiling")
+                            raise err
                         except Exception:
                             worker.retries = worker.retries - 1
                             logger.exception(
@@ -234,6 +238,10 @@ def stage_tile(
                         # does not like, so it throws
                         stage_sources = stage_result
                         break
+                    except CancelledException as err:
+                        worker.retries = 0
+                        logger.exception("job was cancelled during stage")
+                        raise err
                     except Exception:
                         worker.retries = worker.retries - 1
                         logger.exception(
@@ -264,3 +272,9 @@ def stage_tile(
             len(stage_sources),
         )
         return stage_sources
+
+
+MASK_KEYS = ["mask", "stage_mask", "tile_mask"]
+
+def has_mask(args: List[str]) -> bool:
+    return any([key in args for key in MASK_KEYS])