diff --git a/py-polars/src/polars/dataframe/group_by.py b/py-polars/src/polars/dataframe/group_by.py
index 80899c7043e8..4fdcd595b751 100644
--- a/py-polars/src/polars/dataframe/group_by.py
+++ b/py-polars/src/polars/dataframe/group_by.py
@@ -365,14 +365,13 @@ def map_groups(self, function: Callable[[DataFrame], DataFrame]) -> DataFrame:
         if self.named_by:
             msg = "cannot call `map_groups` when grouping by named expressions"
             raise TypeError(msg)
-        if not all(isinstance(c, str) for c in self.by):
+        by = list(_parse_inputs_as_iterable(self.by))
+        if not all(isinstance(c, str) for c in by):
             msg = "cannot call `map_groups` when grouping by an expression"
             raise TypeError(msg)
 
-        by_strs: list[str] = self.by  # type: ignore[assignment]
-
         return self.df.__class__._from_pydf(
-            self.df._df.group_by_map_groups(by_strs, function, self.maintain_order)
+            self.df._df.group_by_map_groups(by, function, self.maintain_order)
         )
 
     def head(self, n: int = 5) -> DataFrame:
diff --git a/py-polars/tests/unit/operations/map/test_map_groups.py b/py-polars/tests/unit/operations/map/test_map_groups.py
index 70c731ba883d..dccee909cb77 100644
--- a/py-polars/tests/unit/operations/map/test_map_groups.py
+++ b/py-polars/tests/unit/operations/map/test_map_groups.py
@@ -287,6 +287,12 @@ def test_map_groups_with_slice_25805() -> None:
     assert_frame_equal(df, pl.DataFrame({"a": [1], "b": [1]}, schema=schema))
 
 
+def test_map_groups_group_by_list_26672() -> None:
+    df = pl.DataFrame({"a": [1, 1, 2], "b": [4, 4, 5], "x": [1, 2, 3], "y": [4, 5, 6]})
+    result = df.group_by(["a", "b"]).map_groups(lambda df: df)
+    assert_frame_equal(result, df, check_row_order=False)
+
+
 def test_map_groups_udf_error_does_not_panic_26647() -> None:
     with pytest.raises(ComputeError, match="UDF failed"):
         pl.select(x=1).group_by("x").map_groups(lambda x, y: x)  # type: ignore[arg-type, misc]