diff --git a/cubed_xarray/cubedmanager.py b/cubed_xarray/cubedmanager.py
index 9ea5212..9ad0735 100644
--- a/cubed_xarray/cubedmanager.py
+++ b/cubed_xarray/cubedmanager.py
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 
+from tlz import partition
+
 from xarray.core import utils
 from xarray.core.parallelcompat import ChunkManagerEntrypoint
 from xarray.core.pycompat import is_chunked_array, is_duck_dask_array
@@ -192,9 +194,17 @@ def unify_chunks(
         *args: Any,  # can't type this as mypy assumes args are all same type, but dask unify_chunks args alternate types
         **kwargs,
     ) -> tuple[dict[str, T_NormalizedChunks], list["CubedArray"]]:
+        from cubed.array_api import asarray
         from cubed.core import unify_chunks
 
-        return unify_chunks(*args, **kwargs)
+        # Ensure that args are Cubed arrays. Note that we do this here and not in Cubed, following
+        # https://numpy.org/neps/nep-0047-array-api-standard.html#the-asarray-asanyarray-pattern
+        arginds = [
+            (asarray(a) if ind is not None else a, ind) for a, ind in partition(2, args)
+        ]
+        array_args = [item for pair in arginds for item in pair]
+
+        return unify_chunks(*array_args, **kwargs)
 
     def store(
         self,