diff --git a/timm/layers/__init__.py b/timm/layers/__init__.py
index f9148db665..1d13483c0c 100644
--- a/timm/layers/__init__.py
+++ b/timm/layers/__init__.py
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 from .create_conv2d import create_conv2d
 from .create_norm import get_norm_layer, create_norm_layer
 from .create_norm_act import get_norm_act_layer, create_norm_act_layer, get_norm_act_layer
+from .diff_attention import DiffAttention
 from .drop import DropBlock2d, DropPath, drop_block_2d, drop_path, calculate_drop_path_rates
 from .eca import EcaModule, CecaModule, EfficientChannelAttn, CircularEfficientChannelAttn
 from .evo_norm import (
diff --git a/timm/layers/diff_attention.py b/timm/layers/diff_attention.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..daa2a67cdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/timm/layers/diff_attention.py
@@ -0,0 +1,175 @@
+"""Differential Attention
+
+Paper: 'Differential Transformer' - https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.05258
+
+Reference impl: https://github.com/microsoft/unilm/tree/master/Diff-Transformer
+
+Hacked together by / Copyright 2024, Ross Wightman
+"""
+import math
+from typing import Optional, Type
+
+import torch
+import torch.nn as nn
+import torch.nn.functional as F
+
+from .attention import maybe_add_mask
+from .config import use_fused_attn
+from .norm import RmsNorm
+
+
+class DiffAttention(nn.Module):
+    """Differential Attention module.
+
+    Computes attention as the difference between two softmax attention maps, which helps
+    cancel out noise and promotes sparse attention patterns. The module splits Q and K
+    into two groups, computes separate attention maps, and subtracts one from the other
+    scaled by a learnable lambda parameter.
+
+    The attention output is computed as:
+        Attn = softmax(Q1 @ K1^T) - lambda * softmax(Q2 @ K2^T)
+        Output = Attn @ V
+
+    Supports both fused (scaled_dot_product_attention) and manual implementations.
+    """
+    fused_attn: torch.jit.Final[bool]
+
+    def __init__(
+            self,
+            dim: int,
+            num_heads: int = 8,
+            qkv_bias: bool = False,
+            qk_norm: bool = False,
+            scale_norm: bool = False,
+            proj_bias: bool = True,
+            attn_drop: float = 0.,
+            proj_drop: float = 0.,
+            norm_layer: Optional[Type[nn.Module]] = None,
+            depth: int = 0,
+            dual_lambda: bool = False,
+            device=None,
+            dtype=None,
+    ) -> None:
+        """Initialize the DiffAttention module.
+
+        Args:
+            dim: Input dimension of the token embeddings.
+            num_heads: Number of attention heads.
+            qkv_bias: Whether to use bias in the query, key, value projections.
+            qk_norm: Whether to apply normalization to query and key vectors.
+            scale_norm: Whether to apply normalization before the output projection.
+            proj_bias: Whether to use bias in the output projection.
+            attn_drop: Dropout rate applied to the attention weights.
+            proj_drop: Dropout rate applied after the output projection.
+            norm_layer: Normalization layer constructor (defaults to RmsNorm).
+            depth: Block depth index, used to compute depth-dependent lambda_init.
+            dual_lambda: If True, use simplified dual scalar lambda parameterization
+                (2 params). If False, use the paper's original formulation with
+                lambda_q/k vectors (4 * head_dim params).
+        """
+        super().__init__()
+        dd = {'device': device, 'dtype': dtype}
+        assert dim % num_heads == 0, 'dim should be divisible by num_heads'
+        if norm_layer is None:
+            norm_layer = RmsNorm
+        self.num_heads = num_heads
+        self.head_dim = dim // num_heads // 2
+        self.scale = self.head_dim ** -0.5
+        self.fused_attn = use_fused_attn()
+
+        self.qkv = nn.Linear(dim, dim * 3, bias=qkv_bias, **dd)
+        self.q_norm = norm_layer(self.head_dim, **dd) if qk_norm else nn.Identity()
+        self.k_norm = norm_layer(self.head_dim, **dd) if qk_norm else nn.Identity()
+        self.attn_drop = nn.Dropout(attn_drop)
+        self.attn_drop_p = attn_drop
+        self.norm = norm_layer(dim, **dd) if scale_norm else nn.Identity()
+        self.proj = nn.Linear(dim, dim, bias=proj_bias, **dd)
+        self.proj_drop = nn.Dropout(proj_drop)
+
+        self.dual_lambda = dual_lambda
+        if dual_lambda:
+            self.lambda_a = nn.Parameter(torch.empty((), dtype=torch.float32, device=device))
+            self.lambda_b = nn.Parameter(torch.empty((), dtype=torch.float32, device=device))
+            self.lambda_q1 = self.lambda_k1 = self.lambda_q2 = self.lambda_k2 = None
+        else:
+            self.lambda_a = self.lambda_b = None
+            self.lambda_q1 = nn.Parameter(torch.empty(self.head_dim, dtype=torch.float32, device=device))
+            self.lambda_k1 = nn.Parameter(torch.empty(self.head_dim, dtype=torch.float32, device=device))
+            self.lambda_q2 = nn.Parameter(torch.empty(self.head_dim, dtype=torch.float32, device=device))
+            self.lambda_k2 = nn.Parameter(torch.empty(self.head_dim, dtype=torch.float32, device=device))
+
+        self.sub_norm = RmsNorm(2 * self.head_dim, eps=1e-5, **dd)
+
+        self.lambda_init = 0.8
+        self.set_lambda_init(depth)
+        self.reset_parameters()
+
+    def set_lambda_init(self, depth: int):
+        self.lambda_init = 0.8 - 0.6 * math.exp(-0.3 * depth)
+
+    def reset_parameters(self):
+        if self.dual_lambda:
+            nn.init.zeros_(self.lambda_a)
+            nn.init.zeros_(self.lambda_b)
+        else:
+            nn.init.normal_(self.lambda_q1, mean=0, std=0.1)
+            nn.init.normal_(self.lambda_k1, mean=0, std=0.1)
+            nn.init.normal_(self.lambda_q2, mean=0, std=0.1)
+            nn.init.normal_(self.lambda_k2, mean=0, std=0.1)
+
+    def _compute_lambda(self) -> torch.Tensor:
+        if self.lambda_a is not None:
+            lambda_1 = torch.exp(self.lambda_a)
+            lambda_2 = torch.exp(self.lambda_b)
+        else:
+            lambda_1 = torch.exp(torch.sum(self.lambda_q1 * self.lambda_k1, dim=-1).float())
+            lambda_2 = torch.exp(torch.sum(self.lambda_q2 * self.lambda_k2, dim=-1).float())
+        return lambda_1 - lambda_2 + self.lambda_init
+
+    def forward(
+            self,
+            x: torch.Tensor,
+            attn_mask: Optional[torch.Tensor] = None,
+    ) -> torch.Tensor:
+        B, N, C = x.shape
+
+        q, k, v = self.qkv(x).chunk(3, dim=2)
+        q = q.reshape(B, N, 2 * self.num_heads, self.head_dim).transpose(1, 2)
+        k = k.reshape(B, N, 2 * self.num_heads, self.head_dim).transpose(1, 2)
+        v = v.reshape(B, N, self.num_heads, 2 * self.head_dim).transpose(1, 2)
+
+        q, k = self.q_norm(q), self.k_norm(k)
+
+        lambda_full = self._compute_lambda().type_as(q)
+
+        if self.fused_attn:
+            q = q.reshape(B, self.num_heads, 2, N, self.head_dim)
+            k = k.reshape(B, self.num_heads, 2, N, self.head_dim)
+            q1, q2 = q.unbind(2)
+            k1, k2 = k.unbind(2)
+
+            dropout_p = self.attn_drop_p if self.training else 0.0
+            attn1 = F.scaled_dot_product_attention(q1, k1, v, attn_mask=attn_mask, dropout_p=dropout_p)
+            attn2 = F.scaled_dot_product_attention(q2, k2, v, attn_mask=attn_mask, dropout_p=dropout_p)
+
+            x = attn1 - lambda_full * attn2
+        else:
+            q = q * self.scale
+            attn = q @ k.transpose(-2, -1)
+            attn = maybe_add_mask(attn, attn_mask)
+            attn = attn.softmax(dim=-1)
+            attn = self.attn_drop(attn)
+
+            attn = attn.view(B, self.num_heads, 2, N, N)
+            attn = attn[:, :, 0] - lambda_full * attn[:, :, 1]
+            x = attn @ v
+
+        x = self.sub_norm(x)
+        x = x * (1 - self.lambda_init)
+        x = x.transpose(1, 2).reshape(B, N, C)
+
+        x = self.norm(x)
+        x = self.proj(x)
+        x = self.proj_drop(x)
+
+        return x
diff --git a/timm/models/eva.py b/timm/models/eva.py
index 761fee7644..fd7b0b8c3c 100644
--- a/timm/models/eva.py
+++ b/timm/models/eva.py
@@ -389,6 +389,7 @@ def __init__(
             attn_head_dim: Optional[int] = None,
             device=None,
             dtype=None,
+            **kwargs,
     ):
         """ Initialize the post-norm EVA transformer block.
 
diff --git a/timm/models/naflexvit.py b/timm/models/naflexvit.py
index 4e8e691b61..aa4fff0544 100644
--- a/timm/models/naflexvit.py
+++ b/timm/models/naflexvit.py
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ class NaFlexVitCfg:
     act_layer: Optional[str] = None  # Activation layer for MLP blocks
     block_fn: Optional[str] = None  # Transformer block implementation class name
     mlp_layer: Optional[str] = None  # MLP implementation class name
+    attn_layer: Optional[str] = None  # Attention layer implementation (e.g., 'attn', 'diff')
 
     # EVA-specific parameters
     attn_type: str = 'standard'  # Attention type: 'standard', 'eva', 'rope'
@@ -289,13 +290,15 @@ def get_block_fn(cfg: NaFlexVitCfg) -> Callable:
     else:
         # Standard ViT block
         block_fn = cfg.block_fn or Block
+        block_kwargs = {}
         if cfg.scale_mlp_norm or cfg.scale_attn_inner_norm:
             # param names differ between EVA vs non-EVA block types
-            block_fn = partial(
-                block_fn,
-                scale_mlp_norm=cfg.scale_mlp_norm,
-                scale_attn_norm=cfg.scale_attn_inner_norm
-            )
+            block_kwargs['scale_mlp_norm'] = cfg.scale_mlp_norm
+            block_kwargs['scale_attn_norm'] = cfg.scale_attn_inner_norm
+        if cfg.attn_layer:
+            block_kwargs['attn_layer'] = cfg.attn_layer
+        if block_kwargs:
+            block_fn = partial(block_fn, **block_kwargs)
         return block_fn
 
 
@@ -1214,6 +1217,7 @@ def __init__(
                 norm_layer=norm_layer,
                 act_layer=act_layer,
                 mlp_layer=mlp_layer,
+                depth=i,
                 **dd,
             )
             for i in range(cfg.depth)
diff --git a/timm/models/vision_transformer.py b/timm/models/vision_transformer.py
index 1a31d8ddd5..b0d1b24298 100644
--- a/timm/models/vision_transformer.py
+++ b/timm/models/vision_transformer.py
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@
 )
 from timm.layers import (
     Attention,
+    DiffAttention,
     AttentionPoolLatent,
     PatchEmbed,
     Mlp,
@@ -79,6 +80,49 @@
 _logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
+ATTN_LAYERS = {
+    '': Attention,
+    'attn': Attention,
+    'diff': DiffAttention,
+}
+
+
+def _create_attn(
+        attn_layer: LayerType,
+        dim: int,
+        num_heads: int,
+        qkv_bias: bool = False,
+        qk_norm: bool = False,
+        scale_norm: bool = False,
+        proj_bias: bool = True,
+        attn_drop: float = 0.,
+        proj_drop: float = 0.,
+        norm_layer: Optional[Type[nn.Module]] = None,
+        depth: int = 0,
+        **kwargs,
+) -> nn.Module:
+    if isinstance(attn_layer, str):
+        attn_layer = ATTN_LAYERS.get(attn_layer, None)
+        assert attn_layer is not None, f'Unknown attn_layer: {attn_layer}'
+
+    # Only pass depth to attention layers that use it
+    if issubclass(attn_layer, DiffAttention):
+        kwargs['depth'] = depth
+
+    return attn_layer(
+        dim,
+        num_heads=num_heads,
+        qkv_bias=qkv_bias,
+        qk_norm=qk_norm,
+        scale_norm=scale_norm,
+        proj_bias=proj_bias,
+        attn_drop=attn_drop,
+        proj_drop=proj_drop,
+        norm_layer=norm_layer,
+        **kwargs,
+    )
+
+
 class Block(nn.Module):
     """Transformer block with pre-normalization."""
 
@@ -99,6 +143,8 @@ def __init__(
             act_layer: Type[nn.Module] = nn.GELU,
             norm_layer: Type[nn.Module] = LayerNorm,
             mlp_layer: Type[nn.Module] = Mlp,
+            attn_layer: LayerType = Attention,
+            depth: int = 0,
             device=None,
             dtype=None,
     ) -> None:
@@ -118,12 +164,15 @@ def __init__(
             act_layer: Activation layer.
             norm_layer: Normalization layer.
             mlp_layer: MLP layer.
+            attn_layer: Attention layer type (class or string).
+            depth: Block index, passed to attention layer for depth-dependent init.
         """
         super().__init__()
         dd = {'device': device, 'dtype': dtype}
 
         self.norm1 = norm_layer(dim, **dd)
-        self.attn = Attention(
+        self.attn = _create_attn(
+            attn_layer,
             dim,
             num_heads=num_heads,
             qkv_bias=qkv_bias,
@@ -133,7 +182,8 @@ def __init__(
             attn_drop=attn_drop,
             proj_drop=proj_drop,
             norm_layer=norm_layer,
-            **dd
+            depth=depth,
+            **dd,
         )
         self.ls1 = LayerScale(dim, init_values=init_values, **dd) if init_values else nn.Identity()
         self.drop_path1 = DropPath(drop_path) if drop_path > 0. else nn.Identity()
@@ -175,14 +225,17 @@ def __init__(
             act_layer: Type[nn.Module] = nn.GELU,
             norm_layer: Type[nn.Module] = LayerNorm,
             mlp_layer: Type[nn.Module] = Mlp,
-            device = None,
-            dtype = None,
+            attn_layer: LayerType = Attention,
+            depth: int = 0,
+            device=None,
+            dtype=None,
     ) -> None:
         super().__init__()
         dd = {'device': device, 'dtype': dtype}
         self.init_values = init_values
 
-        self.attn = Attention(
+        self.attn = _create_attn(
+            attn_layer,
             dim,
             num_heads=num_heads,
             qkv_bias=qkv_bias,
@@ -192,6 +245,7 @@ def __init__(
             attn_drop=attn_drop,
             proj_drop=proj_drop,
             norm_layer=norm_layer,
+            depth=depth,
             **dd,
         )
         self.norm1 = norm_layer(dim, **dd)
@@ -246,7 +300,9 @@ def __init__(
             drop_path: float = 0.,
             act_layer: Type[nn.Module] = nn.GELU,
             norm_layer: Type[nn.Module] = LayerNorm,
-            mlp_layer: Optional[Type[nn.Module]] = None,
+            mlp_layer: Optional[Type[nn.Module]] = None,  # not used
+            attn_layer: Optional[LayerType] = None,  # not used
+            depth: int = 0,  # not used
             device = None,
             dtype = None,
     ) -> None:
@@ -351,8 +407,10 @@ def __init__(
             act_layer: Type[nn.Module] = nn.GELU,
             norm_layer: Type[nn.Module] = LayerNorm,
             mlp_layer: Type[nn.Module] = Mlp,
-            device = None,
-            dtype = None
+            attn_layer: LayerType = Attention,
+            depth: int = 0,
+            device=None,
+            dtype=None,
     ) -> None:
         dd = {'device': device, 'dtype': dtype}
         super().__init__()
@@ -362,7 +420,8 @@ def __init__(
         for _ in range(num_parallel):
             self.attns.append(nn.Sequential(OrderedDict([
                 ('norm', norm_layer(dim, **dd)),
-                ('attn', Attention(
+                ('attn', _create_attn(
+                    attn_layer,
                     dim,
                     num_heads=num_heads,
                     qkv_bias=qkv_bias,
@@ -372,6 +431,7 @@ def __init__(
                     attn_drop=attn_drop,
                     proj_drop=proj_drop,
                     norm_layer=norm_layer,
+                    depth=depth,
                     **dd,
                 )),
                 ('ls', LayerScale(dim, init_values=init_values, **dd) if init_values else nn.Identity()),
@@ -482,6 +542,7 @@ def __init__(
             act_layer: Optional[LayerType] = None,
             block_fn: Type[nn.Module] = Block,
             mlp_layer: Type[nn.Module] = Mlp,
+            attn_layer: LayerType = Attention,
             device=None,
             dtype=None,
     ) -> None:
@@ -592,6 +653,8 @@ def __init__(
                 norm_layer=norm_layer,
                 act_layer=act_layer,
                 mlp_layer=mlp_layer,
+                attn_layer=attn_layer,
+                depth=i,
                 **dd,
             )
             for i in range(depth)])