diff --git a/onnxruntime/python/onnxruntime_pybind_mlvalue.cc b/onnxruntime/python/onnxruntime_pybind_mlvalue.cc
index f470e9f6b6ed1..0bbcee12ea5cf 100644
--- a/onnxruntime/python/onnxruntime_pybind_mlvalue.cc
+++ b/onnxruntime/python/onnxruntime_pybind_mlvalue.cc
@@ -659,7 +659,12 @@ static bool CheckIfInputIsSequenceType(const std::string& name_input,
   if (!temp) {
     throw std::runtime_error("Corresponding type_proto is null");
   } else {
-    type_proto = *temp;
+    if (temp->has_optional_type()) {
+      const ::onnx::TypeProto_Optional& optional_type_proto = temp->optional_type();
+      type_proto = optional_type_proto.elem_type();
+    } else {
+      type_proto = *temp;
+    }
   }
 
   return type_proto.has_sequence_type();
diff --git a/onnxruntime/test/python/onnxruntime_test_python.py b/onnxruntime/test/python/onnxruntime_test_python.py
index e210917e7ad9a..68e441c87860e 100644
--- a/onnxruntime/test/python/onnxruntime_test_python.py
+++ b/onnxruntime/test/python/onnxruntime_test_python.py
@@ -650,6 +650,14 @@ def do_test_get_and_set_tuning_results(ep):
         if "ROCMExecutionProvider" in onnxrt.get_available_providers():
             do_test_get_and_set_tuning_results("ROCMExecutionProvider")
 
+    def test_run_model_with_optional_sequence_input(self):
+        sess = onnxrt.InferenceSession(get_name("identity_opt.onnx"))
+        x = [np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]).astype(np.float32)]
+        input_name = sess.get_inputs()[0].name
+        output_name = sess.get_outputs()[0].name
+        res = sess.run([output_name], {input_name: x})
+        np.testing.assert_allclose(res[0], x)
+
     def test_run_model(self):
         sess = onnxrt.InferenceSession(get_name("mul_1.onnx"), providers=available_providers)
         x = np.array([[1.0, 2.0], [3.0, 4.0], [5.0, 6.0]], dtype=np.float32)
diff --git a/onnxruntime/test/testdata/identity_opt.onnx b/onnxruntime/test/testdata/identity_opt.onnx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..24c05f7b7227f
Binary files /dev/null and b/onnxruntime/test/testdata/identity_opt.onnx differ