diff --git a/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py b/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
index 13d58ff11438..e245b6f8f1e6 100644
--- a/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
+++ b/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 import deepspeed
 
 from deepspeed.runtime.utils import see_memory_usage, DummyOptim
+from .zero.offload_config import OffloadDeviceEnum
 from deepspeed.runtime.zero.stage_1_and_2 import DeepSpeedZeroOptimizer
 from deepspeed.runtime.zero.partition_parameters import ZeroParamStatus
 from deepspeed.runtime.zero.utils import is_zero_supported_optimizer, ZeRORuntimeException
@@ -646,7 +647,9 @@ def zero_offload_param(self):
         return self._config.zero_config.offload_param
 
     def zero_cpu_offload(self):
-        return self._config.zero_config.offload_optimizer is not None
+        if self._config.zero_config.offload_optimizer is not None:
+            return self._config.zero_config.offload_optimizer.device == OffloadDeviceEnum.cpu
+        return False
 
     def zero_sub_group_size(self):
         return self._config.zero_config.sub_group_size