diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 3b2ea59..df81e2b 100755
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 Changelog
 =========
 
+[0.2.2] (2024-10-21)
+--------------------
+Added
+*******
+- expose onnxruntime execution provider
+
 [0.2.1] (2023-12-05)
 --------------------
 Added
diff --git a/ukis_csmask/__init__.py b/ukis_csmask/__init__.py
index c19de65..7977696 100755
--- a/ukis_csmask/__init__.py
+++ b/ukis_csmask/__init__.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "0.2.1"
+__version__ = "0.2.2"
diff --git a/ukis_csmask/mask.py b/ukis_csmask/mask.py
index fd57341..33583b2 100755
--- a/ukis_csmask/mask.py
+++ b/ukis_csmask/mask.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ def __init__(
         invalid_buffer=4,
         intra_op_num_threads=0,
         inter_op_num_threads=0,
+        providers=None,
     ):
         """
         :param img: Input satellite image of shape (rows, cols, bands). (ndarray).
@@ -42,6 +43,8 @@ def __init__(
         :param invalid_buffer: Number of pixels that should be buffered around invalid areas. (int).
         :param intra_op_num_threads: Sets the number of threads used to parallelize the execution within nodes. Default is 0 to let onnxruntime choose. (int).
         :param inter_op_num_threads: Sets the number of threads used to parallelize the execution of the graph (across nodes). Default is 0 to let onnxruntime choose. (int).
+        :param providers: onnxruntime session providers. Default is None to let onnxruntime choose. (list).
+            >>> providers = ["CUDAExecutionProvider", "OpenVINOExecutionProvider", "CPUExecutionProvider"]
         """
         # consistency checks on input image
         if isinstance(img, np.ndarray) is False:
@@ -98,9 +101,8 @@ def __init__(
         so = onnxruntime.SessionOptions()
         so.intra_op_num_threads = intra_op_num_threads
         so.inter_op_num_threads = inter_op_num_threads
-        self.sess = onnxruntime.InferenceSession(
-            model_file, sess_options=so, providers=onnxruntime.get_available_providers()
-        )
+        providers = onnxruntime.get_available_providers() if providers is None else providers
+        self.sess = onnxruntime.InferenceSession(model_file, sess_options=so, providers=providers)
 
         self.img = img
         self.band_order = band_order