diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 6ba5bcab427..ffa634ad15c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -112,4 +112,4 @@ jobs:
           slack_channel: ${{ env.CI_SLACK_CHANNEL }}
           title: 🤗 Results of the TRL CI with dev dependencies
           status: ${{ job.status }}
-          slack_token: ${{ secrets.SLACK_CIFEEDBACK_BOT_TOKEN }}
\ No newline at end of file
+          slack_token: ${{ secrets.SLACK_CIFEEDBACK_BOT_TOKEN }}
diff --git a/trl/trainer/online_dpo_trainer.py b/trl/trainer/online_dpo_trainer.py
index 2575c2f8865..790e5463872 100644
--- a/trl/trainer/online_dpo_trainer.py
+++ b/trl/trainer/online_dpo_trainer.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 
 import datasets
 import jinja2
+import numpy as np
 import torch
 import torch.nn as nn
 import torch.nn.functional as F
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@
     is_apex_available,
     is_wandb_available,
 )
-from transformers.trainer_utils import EvalPrediction, seed_worker
+from transformers.trainer_utils import PREFIX_CHECKPOINT_DIR, EvalPrediction, seed_worker
 from transformers.training_args import OptimizerNames
 from transformers.utils import is_peft_available, is_sagemaker_mp_enabled, logging
 
@@ -614,11 +615,57 @@ def _maybe_log_save_evaluate(self, tr_loss, grad_norm, model, trial, epoch, igno
         metrics = None
         if self.control.should_evaluate:
             metrics = self._evaluate(trial, ignore_keys_for_eval)
+            is_new_best_metric = self._determine_best_metric(metrics=metrics, trial=trial)
+
+            if self.args.save_strategy == "best":
+                self.control.should_save = is_new_best_metric
 
         if self.control.should_save:
-            self._save_checkpoint(model, trial, metrics=metrics)
+            self._save_checkpoint(model, trial)
             self.control = self.callback_handler.on_save(self.args, self.state, self.control)
 
+    # Copy-pasted from transformers.Trainer to maintain compatibility with earlier versions.
+    # This can be removed once the minimum transformers version is updated to 4.47.
+    # Refer to https://github.com/huggingface/trl/pull/2288 for more details.
+    def _determine_best_metric(self, metrics, trial):
+        """
+        Determine if the model should be saved based on the evaluation metrics.
+        If args.metric_for_best_model is not set, the loss is used.
+        Returns:
+            bool: True if a new best metric was found, else False
+        """
+        is_new_best_metric = False
+
+        if self.args.metric_for_best_model is not None:
+            metric_to_check = self.args.metric_for_best_model
+
+            if not metric_to_check.startswith("eval_"):
+                metric_to_check = f"eval_{metric_to_check}"
+
+            try:
+                metric_value = metrics[metric_to_check]
+            except KeyError as exc:
+                raise KeyError(
+                    f"The `metric_for_best_model` training argument is set to '{metric_to_check}', which is not found in the evaluation metrics. "
+                    f"The available evaluation metrics are: {list(metrics.keys())}. Consider changing the `metric_for_best_model` via the TrainingArguments."
+                ) from exc
+
+            operator = np.greater if self.args.greater_is_better else np.less
+
+            if self.state.best_metric is None:
+                self.state.best_metric = float("-inf") if self.args.greater_is_better else float("inf")
+
+            if operator(metric_value, self.state.best_metric):
+                run_dir = self._get_output_dir(trial=trial)
+                checkpoint_folder = f"{PREFIX_CHECKPOINT_DIR}-{self.state.global_step}"
+                output_dir = os.path.join(run_dir, checkpoint_folder)
+                self.state.best_metric = metric_value
+                self.state.best_model_checkpoint = output_dir
+
+                is_new_best_metric = True
+
+        return is_new_best_metric
+
     def create_model_card(
         self,
         model_name: Optional[str] = None,
diff --git a/trl/trainer/ppo_trainer.py b/trl/trainer/ppo_trainer.py
index e491b0622ad..b36be8ffff2 100644
--- a/trl/trainer/ppo_trainer.py
+++ b/trl/trainer/ppo_trainer.py
@@ -566,7 +566,7 @@ def repeat_generator():
             self.lr_scheduler.step()
             self.control = self.callback_handler.on_step_end(args, self.state, self.control)
             if self.control.should_save:
-                self._save_checkpoint(model, trial=None, metrics=metrics)
+                self._save_checkpoint(model, trial=None)
                 self.control = self.callback_handler.on_save(self.args, self.state, self.control)
             del kl, mean_kl, mean_entropy, mean_non_score_reward, scores, metrics, non_score_reward
             torch.cuda.empty_cache()
diff --git a/trl/trainer/rloo_trainer.py b/trl/trainer/rloo_trainer.py
index 18066976cad..941a90e0a7d 100644
--- a/trl/trainer/rloo_trainer.py
+++ b/trl/trainer/rloo_trainer.py
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@ def repeat_generator():
             self.lr_scheduler.step()
             self.control = self.callback_handler.on_step_end(args, self.state, self.control)
             if self.control.should_save:
-                self._save_checkpoint(model, trial=None, metrics=metrics)
+                self._save_checkpoint(model, trial=None)
                 self.control = self.callback_handler.on_save(self.args, self.state, self.control)
             torch.cuda.empty_cache()
             gc.collect()