diff --git a/sklearn/neighbors/_base.py b/sklearn/neighbors/_base.py
index 8ba1f4fa7d093..9af85a38f0b6c 100644
--- a/sklearn/neighbors/_base.py
+++ b/sklearn/neighbors/_base.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
 from ..utils.multiclass import check_classification_targets
 from ..utils.validation import check_is_fitted
 from ..utils.validation import check_non_negative
-from ..utils._param_validation import Interval, StrOptions
+from ..utils._param_validation import Interval, StrOptions, validate_params
 from ..utils.parallel import delayed, Parallel
 from ..utils.fixes import parse_version, sp_base_version, sp_version
 from ..exceptions import DataConversionWarning, EfficiencyWarning
@@ -197,6 +197,13 @@ def _check_precomputed(X):
     return graph
 
 
+@validate_params(
+    {
+        "graph": ["sparse matrix"],
+        "copy": ["boolean"],
+        "warn_when_not_sorted": ["boolean"],
+    }
+)
 def sort_graph_by_row_values(graph, copy=False, warn_when_not_sorted=True):
     """Sort a sparse graph such that each row is stored with increasing values.
 
@@ -224,9 +231,6 @@ def sort_graph_by_row_values(graph, copy=False, warn_when_not_sorted=True):
         Distance matrix to other samples, where only non-zero elements are
         considered neighbors. Matrix is in CSR format.
     """
-    if not issparse(graph):
-        raise TypeError(f"Input graph must be a sparse matrix, got {graph!r} instead.")
-
     if graph.format == "csr" and _is_sorted_by_data(graph):
         return graph
 
diff --git a/sklearn/neighbors/tests/test_neighbors.py b/sklearn/neighbors/tests/test_neighbors.py
index 3e22193ba55c0..092b85ad9dcd0 100644
--- a/sklearn/neighbors/tests/test_neighbors.py
+++ b/sklearn/neighbors/tests/test_neighbors.py
@@ -497,10 +497,6 @@ def test_sort_graph_by_row_values_copy():
     with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="Use copy=True to allow the conversion"):
         sort_graph_by_row_values(X.tocsc(), copy=False)
 
-    # raise if X is not even sparse
-    with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="Input graph must be a sparse matrix"):
-        sort_graph_by_row_values(X.toarray())
-
 
 def test_sort_graph_by_row_values_warning():
     # Test that the parameter warn_when_not_sorted works as expected.
diff --git a/sklearn/tests/test_public_functions.py b/sklearn/tests/test_public_functions.py
index 62513b0f63cce..03b4ad9725748 100644
--- a/sklearn/tests/test_public_functions.py
+++ b/sklearn/tests/test_public_functions.py
@@ -238,6 +238,7 @@ def _check_function_param_validation(
     "sklearn.metrics.top_k_accuracy_score",
     "sklearn.metrics.zero_one_loss",
     "sklearn.model_selection.train_test_split",
+    "sklearn.neighbors.sort_graph_by_row_values",
     "sklearn.preprocessing.add_dummy_feature",
     "sklearn.preprocessing.binarize",
     "sklearn.preprocessing.label_binarize",