diff --git a/deepspeed/runtime/zero/stage_1_and_2.py b/deepspeed/runtime/zero/stage_1_and_2.py
index 5870e9680b47..49a154b80b55 100755
--- a/deepspeed/runtime/zero/stage_1_and_2.py
+++ b/deepspeed/runtime/zero/stage_1_and_2.py
@@ -516,7 +516,14 @@ def is_moe_group(self, group):
         return 'moe' in group and group['moe']
 
     def _configure_moe_settings(self):
-        assert self.contiguous_gradients, "Contiguous Gradients in ZeRO Stage 2 must be set to True for MoE. Other code paths are not tested with MoE"
+        # if we're using ZeRO stage 2, ensure contiguous gradients are used
+        if self.partition_gradients:
+            assert self.contiguous_gradients, "Contiguous Gradients in ZeRO Stage 2 must be set to True for MoE. Other code paths are not tested with MoE"
+        # NOTE: To run ZeRO stage 1 with MoE, we need to set self.contiguous_gradients to True or ignore the assertion
+        if not self.partition_gradients and not self.contiguous_gradients:
+            logger.warn(
+                "ZeRO Stage 1 has not been thoroughly tested with MoE. This configuration is still experimental."
+            )
         assert self.reduce_scatter, "Reduce Scatter in ZeRO Stage 2 must be set to True for MoE. Other code paths are not tested with MoE"
 
         assert any([self.is_moe_group(group) for group in self.optimizer.param_groups]), "The model has moe layers, but None of the param groups are marked as MoE. Create a param group with 'moe' key set to True before creating optimizer"