diff --git a/.github/workflows/pr_build_linux.yml b/.github/workflows/pr_build_linux.yml
index def2816607..80979acf69 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pr_build_linux.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pr_build_linux.yml
@@ -383,6 +383,7 @@ jobs:
               org.apache.comet.CometTemporalExpressionSuite
               org.apache.comet.CometArrayExpressionSuite
               org.apache.comet.CometNativeCastSuite
+              org.apache.comet.CometCastCollatedStringSuite
               org.apache.comet.CometDateTimeUtilsSuite
               org.apache.comet.CometMathExpressionSuite
               org.apache.comet.CometStringExpressionSuite
diff --git a/.github/workflows/pr_build_macos.yml b/.github/workflows/pr_build_macos.yml
index bac1dcd15b..a8db59edb8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pr_build_macos.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pr_build_macos.yml
@@ -199,6 +199,7 @@ jobs:
               org.apache.comet.CometTemporalExpressionSuite
               org.apache.comet.CometArrayExpressionSuite
               org.apache.comet.CometNativeCastSuite
+              org.apache.comet.CometCastCollatedStringSuite
               org.apache.comet.CometDateTimeUtilsSuite
               org.apache.comet.CometMathExpressionSuite
               org.apache.comet.CometStringExpressionSuite
diff --git a/spark/src/test/spark-4.x/org/apache/comet/CometCastCollatedStringSuite.scala b/spark/src/test/spark-4.x/org/apache/comet/CometCastCollatedStringSuite.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..684c1943ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spark/src/test/spark-4.x/org/apache/comet/CometCastCollatedStringSuite.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.comet
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.CometTestBase
+import org.apache.spark.sql.types.{DataType, DataTypes, IntegerType, StringType}
+
+import org.apache.comet.expressions.{CometCast, CometEvalMode}
+import org.apache.comet.serde.{Compatible, Unsupported}
+
+/**
+ * https://github.com/apache/datafusion-comet/issues/4489
+ *
+ * `CometCast.isSupported` matches string casts via `case (DataTypes.StringType, _)` and `case (_,
+ * DataTypes.StringType)`, where `DataTypes.StringType` is the singleton default-collation
+ * instance. Scala pattern equality means a non-default-collation `StringType` (e.g. `STRING
+ * COLLATE UTF8_LCASE`) does not match either case and falls through to the `unsupported(...)`
+ * catch-all (directly, or via `canCastFromString`/`canCastToString`'s own catch-all when only one
+ * side is collated), so the cast already falls back to Spark correctly. That was previously
+ * implicit and untested; this suite pins it down directly against `isSupported` rather than
+ * relying on Scala's pattern-match semantics never changing.
+ *
+ * This lives under `spark-4.x` (shared across every 4.x profile) rather than `spark-4.1+`,
+ * because collation is a Spark 4.0+ feature (`StringType(collationName)` already resolves on
+ * 4.0), unlike `TimeType` in #4490 which is 4.1-only.
+ */
+class CometCastCollatedStringSuite extends CometTestBase {
+
+  private val lcase = StringType("UTF8_LCASE")
+  private val unicode = StringType("UNICODE")
+
+  private def assertUnsupported(fromType: DataType, toType: DataType): Unit = {
+    Seq(CometEvalMode.LEGACY, CometEvalMode.TRY, CometEvalMode.ANSI).foreach { evalMode =>
+      CometCast.isSupported(fromType, toType, None, evalMode) match {
+        case _: Unsupported => // expected
+        case other =>
+          fail(s"expected Unsupported for $fromType -> $toType under $evalMode, got $other")
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("cast non-default collated string to IntegerType falls back (Unsupported)") {
+    assertUnsupported(lcase, IntegerType)
+  }
+
+  test("cast IntegerType to non-default collated string falls back (Unsupported)") {
+    assertUnsupported(IntegerType, lcase)
+  }
+
+  test("cast non-default collated string to default-collation StringType falls back") {
+    assertUnsupported(lcase, DataTypes.StringType)
+  }
+
+  test("cast default-collation StringType to non-default collated string falls back") {
+    assertUnsupported(DataTypes.StringType, lcase)
+  }
+
+  test("cast between two different non-default collations falls back") {
+    assertUnsupported(lcase, unicode)
+  }
+
+  // Boundary case, not a bug: an identity cast between two instances of the SAME collation is a
+  // byte-for-byte no-op that never touches collation-aware comparison/hashing/sorting semantics,
+  // so it is correctly Compatible() regardless of which collation it is. This documents that
+  // boundary so a future reader does not mistake it for the gap this issue describes.
+  test("cast identical non-default collation to itself is a Compatible no-op") {
+    Seq(CometEvalMode.LEGACY, CometEvalMode.TRY, CometEvalMode.ANSI).foreach { evalMode =>
+      assert(CometCast.isSupported(lcase, lcase, None, evalMode) == Compatible())
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("cast default-collation StringType to itself is a Compatible no-op (sanity baseline)") {
+    Seq(CometEvalMode.LEGACY, CometEvalMode.TRY, CometEvalMode.ANSI).foreach { evalMode =>
+      assert(
+        CometCast.isSupported(DataTypes.StringType, DataTypes.StringType, None, evalMode) ==
+          Compatible())
+    }
+  }
+}