diff --git a/stdlib/_codecs.pyi b/stdlib/_codecs.pyi
index 89f97edb9ba8..89cb78c33571 100644
--- a/stdlib/_codecs.pyi
+++ b/stdlib/_codecs.pyi
@@ -77,7 +77,9 @@ def ascii_decode(data: ReadableBuffer, errors: str | None = None, /) -> tuple[st
 def ascii_encode(str: str, errors: str | None = None, /) -> tuple[bytes, int]: ...
 def charmap_decode(data: ReadableBuffer, errors: str | None = None, mapping: _CharMap | None = None, /) -> tuple[str, int]: ...
 def charmap_encode(str: str, errors: str | None = None, mapping: _CharMap | None = None, /) -> tuple[bytes, int]: ...
-def escape_decode(data: str | ReadableBuffer, errors: str | None = None, /) -> tuple[str, int]: ...
+
+# Docs say this accepts a bytes-like object, but in practice it also accepts str.
+def escape_decode(data: str | ReadableBuffer, errors: str | None = None, /) -> tuple[bytes, int]: ...
 def escape_encode(data: bytes, errors: str | None = None, /) -> tuple[bytes, int]: ...
 def latin_1_decode(data: ReadableBuffer, errors: str | None = None, /) -> tuple[str, int]: ...
 def latin_1_encode(str: str, errors: str | None = None, /) -> tuple[bytes, int]: ...