diff --git a/irc/jwt/bearer.go b/irc/jwt/bearer.go
index a9280b0b..4526ae8a 100644
--- a/irc/jwt/bearer.go
+++ b/irc/jwt/bearer.go
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ func (j *JWTAuthTokenConfig) keyBytes() (result []byte, err error) {
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
+		defer o.Close()
 		return io.ReadAll(o)
 	}
 	if j.KeyString != "" {