diff --git a/python/pyspark/sql/tests/test_serde.py b/python/pyspark/sql/tests/test_serde.py
index ea2a686cdd..052a5b2835 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/sql/tests/test_serde.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/sql/tests/test_serde.py
@@ -132,6 +132,10 @@ class SerdeTests(ReusedSQLTestCase):
         df = self.spark.createDataFrame(data, "array<integer>")
         self.assertEqual(len(list(filter(lambda r: None in r.value, df.collect()))), 0)
 
+    def test_bytes_as_binary_type(self):
+        df = self.spark.createDataFrame([[b"abcd"]], "col binary")
+        self.assertEqual(df.first().col, bytearray(b'abcd'))
+
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     import unittest
diff --git a/python/pyspark/sql/types.py b/python/pyspark/sql/types.py
index 0c7f4ce3dd..81fdd41435 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/sql/types.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/sql/types.py
@@ -1190,7 +1190,7 @@ _acceptable_types = {
     DoubleType: (float,),
     DecimalType: (decimal.Decimal,),
     StringType: (str, unicode),
-    BinaryType: (bytearray,),
+    BinaryType: (bytearray, bytes),
     DateType: (datetime.date, datetime.datetime),
     TimestampType: (datetime.datetime,),
     ArrayType: (list, tuple, array),