diff --git a/doctr/datasets/utils.py b/doctr/datasets/utils.py
index adb6b54464..66b16b6b2c 100644
--- a/doctr/datasets/utils.py
+++ b/doctr/datasets/utils.py
@@ -5,8 +5,11 @@
 
 import string
 import unicodedata
+from collections.abc import Sequence
 from functools import partial
 from typing import Any, List, Optional
+from typing import Sequence as SequenceType
+from typing import Union
 
 import numpy as np
 
@@ -66,23 +69,25 @@ def encode_string(
 
 
 def decode_sequence(
-    input_array: np.array,
+    input_seq: Union[np.array, SequenceType[int]],
     mapping: str,
 ) -> str:
     """Given a predefined mapping, decode the sequence of numbers to a string
 
     Args:
-        input_array: array to decode
+        input_seq: array to decode
         mapping: vocabulary (string), the encoding is given by the indexing of the character sequence
 
     Returns:
-        A string, decoded from input_array
+        A string, decoded from input_seq
     """
 
-    if not input_array.dtype == np.int_ or input_array.max() >= len(mapping):
+    if not isinstance(input_seq, (Sequence, np.ndarray)):
+        raise TypeError("Invalid sequence type")
+    if isinstance(input_seq, np.ndarray) and (input_seq.dtype != np.int_ or input_seq.max() >= len(mapping)):
         raise AssertionError("Input must be an array of int, with max less than mapping size")
 
-    return ''.join(map(mapping.__getitem__, input_array))
+    return ''.join(map(mapping.__getitem__, input_seq))
 
 
 def encode_sequences(
diff --git a/doctr/models/recognition/crnn/pytorch.py b/doctr/models/recognition/crnn/pytorch.py
index c1e9dedae4..92c1db5e42 100644
--- a/doctr/models/recognition/crnn/pytorch.py
+++ b/doctr/models/recognition/crnn/pytorch.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 from torch import nn
 from torch.nn import functional as F
 
-from ....datasets import VOCABS
+from ....datasets import VOCABS, decode_sequence
 from ...backbones import mobilenet_v3_large_r, mobilenet_v3_small_r, vgg16_bn
 from ...utils import load_pretrained_params
 from ..core import RecognitionModel, RecognitionPostProcessor
@@ -69,20 +69,15 @@ def ctc_best_path(
         Returns:
             A list of tuples: (word, confidence)
         """
-        # compute softmax
-        probs = F.softmax(logits, dim=-1)
-        # get char indices along best path
-        best_path = torch.argmax(probs, dim=-1)
-        # define word proba as min proba of sequence
-        probs, _ = torch.max(probs, dim=-1)
-        probs, _ = torch.min(probs, dim=1)
-
-        words = []
-        for sequence in best_path:
-            # collapse best path (using itertools.groupby), map to chars, join char list to string
-            collapsed = [vocab[k] for k, _ in groupby(sequence) if k != blank]
-            res = ''.join(collapsed)
-            words.append(res)
+
+        # Gather the most confident characters, and assign the smallest conf among those to the sequence prob
+        probs = F.softmax(logits, dim=-1).max(dim=-1).values.min(dim=1).values
+
+        # collapse best path (using itertools.groupby), map to chars, join char list to string
+        words = [
+            decode_sequence([k for k, _ in groupby(seq.tolist()) if k != blank], vocab)
+            for seq in torch.argmax(logits, dim=-1)
+        ]
 
         return list(zip(words, probs.tolist()))
 
diff --git a/tests/common/test_datasets_utils.py b/tests/common/test_datasets_utils.py
index 35426e1aa1..b69c5d1daf 100644
--- a/tests/common/test_datasets_utils.py
+++ b/tests/common/test_datasets_utils.py
@@ -34,10 +34,22 @@ def test_encode_decode(input_str):
     mapping = """3K}7eé;5àÎYho]QwV6qU~W"XnbBvcADfËmy.9ÔpÛ*{CôïE%M4#ÈR:g@T$x?0î£|
         za1ù8,OG€P-kçHëÀÂ2É/ûIJ\'j(LNÙFut[)èZs+&°Sd=Ï!<â_Ç>rêi`l"""
     encoded = utils.encode_string(input_str, mapping)
-    decoded = utils.decode_sequence(np.array(encoded), mapping)
+    decoded = utils.decode_sequence(encoded, mapping)
     assert decoded == input_str
 
 
+def test_decode_sequence():
+    mapping = "abcdef"
+    with pytest.raises(TypeError):
+        utils.decode_sequence(123, mapping)
+    with pytest.raises(AssertionError):
+        utils.decode_sequence(np.array([2, 10]), mapping)
+    with pytest.raises(AssertionError):
+        utils.decode_sequence(np.array([2, 4.5]), mapping)
+
+    assert utils.decode_sequence([3, 4, 3, 4], mapping) == "dede"
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "sequences, vocab, target_size, sos, eos, pad, dynamic_len, error, out_shape, gts",
     [