diff --git a/include/pybind11/pytypes.h b/include/pybind11/pytypes.h
index 0ab0b73e1f..f240ba92e7 100644
--- a/include/pybind11/pytypes.h
+++ b/include/pybind11/pytypes.h
@@ -1640,6 +1640,9 @@ class str : public object {
     str(std::u8string_view s) : str(reinterpret_cast<const char *>(s.data()), s.size()) {}
 #    endif
 
+    // Avoid ambiguity when converting from kwargs (GCC)
+    explicit str(const kwargs &k) : str(static_cast<handle>(k)) {}
+
 #endif
 
     explicit str(const bytes &b);
diff --git a/tests/test_pytypes.cpp b/tests/test_pytypes.cpp
index 7d5423e549..948101b9f5 100644
--- a/tests/test_pytypes.cpp
+++ b/tests/test_pytypes.cpp
@@ -1212,3 +1212,7 @@ TEST_SUBMODULE(pytypes, m) {
         return py::isinstance<RealNumber>(x);
     });
 }
+
+TEST_SUBMODULE(pytypes, kwargs_str) {
+    m.def("kwargs_to_str", [](py::kwargs kwargs) { return py::str(kwargs); });
+}