diff --git a/paddle/operators/lookup_table_op.cc b/paddle/operators/lookup_table_op.cc
index bb03def4391da80c6219f7863d300fd3c8d8c7ac..54c326c1d9a39938fadbc9746730e071cd5b00de 100644
--- a/paddle/operators/lookup_table_op.cc
+++ b/paddle/operators/lookup_table_op.cc
@@ -66,6 +66,12 @@ class LookupTableOpMaker : public framework::OpProtoAndCheckerMaker {
                   "(boolean, default false) "
                   "Sparse update")
         .SetDefault(false);
+    AddAttr<int64_t>(
+        "padding_idx",
+        "(int64_t, default -1) "
+        " If given, pads the output with zeros whenever it encounters "
+        "the index.")
+        .SetDefault(-1);
     AddComment(R"DOC(
 Lookup Table Operator.
 
diff --git a/paddle/operators/lookup_table_op.h b/paddle/operators/lookup_table_op.h
index 2fd3335868406455ec01f9ded6bacc7bda5e2a67..2fa45e2437dedc49d5564c96a9c18b944e9240b2 100644
--- a/paddle/operators/lookup_table_op.h
+++ b/paddle/operators/lookup_table_op.h
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ class LookupTableKernel : public framework::OpKernel<T> {
     auto* table_t = context.Input<LoDTensor>("W");      // float tensor
     auto* ids_t = context.Input<LoDTensor>("Ids");      // int tensor
     auto* output_t = context.Output<LoDTensor>("Out");  // float tensor
+    int64_t padding_idx = context.Attr<int64_t>("padding_idx");
 
     int N = table_t->dims()[0];
     int D = table_t->dims()[1];
@@ -39,9 +40,13 @@ class LookupTableKernel : public framework::OpKernel<T> {
     auto* table = table_t->data<T>();
     auto* output = output_t->mutable_data<T>(context.GetPlace());
     for (int64_t i = 0; i < ids_t->numel(); ++i) {
-      PADDLE_ENFORCE_LT(ids[i], N);
-      PADDLE_ENFORCE_GE(ids[i], 0);
-      memcpy(output + i * D, table + ids[i] * D, D * sizeof(T));
+      if (ids[i] == padding_idx) {
+        memset(output + i * D, 0, D * sizeof(T));
+      } else {
+        PADDLE_ENFORCE_LT(ids[i], N);
+        PADDLE_ENFORCE_GE(ids[i], 0);
+        memcpy(output + i * D, table + ids[i] * D, D * sizeof(T));
+      }
     }
   }
 };
@@ -51,6 +56,8 @@ class LookupTableGradKernel : public framework::OpKernel<T> {
  public:
   void Compute(const framework::ExecutionContext& context) const override {
     bool is_sparse = context.Attr<bool>("is_sparse");
+    int64_t padding_idx = context.Attr<int64_t>("padding_idx");
+
     if (is_sparse) {
       auto* ids = context.Input<LoDTensor>("Ids");
       auto* table = context.Input<LoDTensor>("W");
@@ -63,6 +70,9 @@ class LookupTableGradKernel : public framework::OpKernel<T> {
       framework::Vector<int64_t> new_rows;
       new_rows.reserve(ids_dim[0]);
       for (int64_t i = 0; i < ids_dim[0]; i++) {
+        if (ids_data[i] == padding_idx)
+          continue;  // Paddings are not trainable and the gradient are not
+                     // necessary.
         new_rows.push_back(ids_data[i]);
       }
       d_table->set_rows(new_rows);
@@ -96,6 +106,9 @@ class LookupTableGradKernel : public framework::OpKernel<T> {
       memset(d_table_data, 0, d_table->numel() * sizeof(T));
 
       for (int64_t i = 0; i < ids->numel(); ++i) {
+        if (ids_data[i] == padding_idx)
+          continue;  // Paddings are not trainable and the gradient are not
+                     // necessary.
         PADDLE_ENFORCE_LT(ids_data[i], N);
         PADDLE_ENFORCE_GE(ids_data[i], 0);
         for (int j = 0; j < D; ++j) {