diff --git a/tensorrt_llm/commands/serve.py b/tensorrt_llm/commands/serve.py
index ff189e3be9..9eb271551a 100644
--- a/tensorrt_llm/commands/serve.py
+++ b/tensorrt_llm/commands/serve.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ from torch.cuda import device_count
 from tensorrt_llm import LLM as PyTorchLLM
 from tensorrt_llm import MultimodalEncoder
 from tensorrt_llm._tensorrt_engine import LLM
-from tensorrt_llm._utils import get_free_port, mpi_rank
+from tensorrt_llm._utils import mpi_rank
 from tensorrt_llm.executor.utils import LlmLauncherEnvs
 from tensorrt_llm.inputs.multimodal import MultimodalServerConfig
 from tensorrt_llm.llmapi import (BuildConfig, CapacitySchedulerPolicy,
@@ -189,25 +189,12 @@ def launch_server(
     with socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) as s:
         # If disagg cluster config is provided and port is not specified, try to find a free port, otherwise try to bind to the specified port
         assert port > 0 or disagg_cluster_config is not None, "Port must be specified if disagg cluster config is not provided"
-        if port > 0:
-            port_retries = 1
-        else:
-            port_retries = 100
-            port = get_free_port()
-        while port_retries > 0:
-            try:
-                s.bind((host, port))
-                break
-            except OSError as e:
-                port_retries -= 1
-                if port_retries == 0:
-                    raise RuntimeError(
-                        f"Failed to bind socket to {host}:{port}: {e}")
-                else:
-                    logger.warning(
-                        f"Failed to bind socket to {host}:{port}: {e}, retrying {port_retries}..."
-                    )
-                port = get_free_port()
+        try:
+            s.bind((host, port))
+            if port == 0:
+                port = s.getsockname()[1]
+        except OSError as e:
+            raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to bind socket to {host}:{port}: {e}")
 
         if backend == 'pytorch':
             llm_args.pop("build_config", None)