diff --git a/src/Psalm/Internal/Provider/FunctionReturnTypeProvider.php b/src/Psalm/Internal/Provider/FunctionReturnTypeProvider.php
index de1e27d7a..ab43dcf5c 100644
--- a/src/Psalm/Internal/Provider/FunctionReturnTypeProvider.php
+++ b/src/Psalm/Internal/Provider/FunctionReturnTypeProvider.php
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ use Psalm\Internal\Provider\ReturnTypeProvider\ParseUrlReturnTypeProvider;
 use Psalm\Internal\Provider\ReturnTypeProvider\PowReturnTypeProvider;
 use Psalm\Internal\Provider\ReturnTypeProvider\RandReturnTypeProvider;
 use Psalm\Internal\Provider\ReturnTypeProvider\RoundReturnTypeProvider;
+use Psalm\Internal\Provider\ReturnTypeProvider\SprintfReturnTypeProvider;
 use Psalm\Internal\Provider\ReturnTypeProvider\StrReplaceReturnTypeProvider;
 use Psalm\Internal\Provider\ReturnTypeProvider\StrTrReturnTypeProvider;
 use Psalm\Internal\Provider\ReturnTypeProvider\TriggerErrorReturnTypeProvider;
@@ -105,6 +106,7 @@ class FunctionReturnTypeProvider
         $this->registerClass(MbInternalEncodingReturnTypeProvider::class);
         $this->registerClass(DateReturnTypeProvider::class);
         $this->registerClass(PowReturnTypeProvider::class);
+        $this->registerClass(SprintfReturnTypeProvider::class);
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/Psalm/Internal/Provider/ReturnTypeProvider/SprintfReturnTypeProvider.php b/src/Psalm/Internal/Provider/ReturnTypeProvider/SprintfReturnTypeProvider.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5bdf54dae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Psalm/Internal/Provider/ReturnTypeProvider/SprintfReturnTypeProvider.php
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Psalm\Internal\Provider\ReturnTypeProvider;
+
+use Psalm\Plugin\EventHandler\Event\FunctionReturnTypeProviderEvent;
+use Psalm\Plugin\EventHandler\FunctionReturnTypeProviderInterface;
+use Psalm\Type;
+use Psalm\Type\Atomic\TClassString;
+use Psalm\Type\Atomic\TFloat;
+use Psalm\Type\Atomic\TInt;
+use Psalm\Type\Atomic\TLiteralString;
+use Psalm\Type\Atomic\TNonEmptyString;
+use Psalm\Type\Atomic\TNumeric;
+use Psalm\Type\Union;
+
+use function array_fill;
+use function count;
+use function sprintf;
+
+/**
+ * @internal
+ */
+class SprintfReturnTypeProvider implements FunctionReturnTypeProviderInterface
+{
+    /**
+     * @return array<lowercase-string>
+     */
+    public static function getFunctionIds(): array
+    {
+        return [
+            'sprintf',
+        ];
+    }
+
+    public static function getFunctionReturnType(FunctionReturnTypeProviderEvent $event): Union
+    {
+        $statements_source = $event->getStatementsSource();
+        $node_type_provider = $statements_source->getNodeTypeProvider();
+
+        $call_args = $event->getCallArgs();
+        foreach ($call_args as $index => $call_arg) {
+            $type = $node_type_provider->getType($call_arg->value);
+            if ($type === null) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            if ($index === 0 && $type->isSingleStringLiteral()) {
+                // use empty string dummies to check if the format itself produces a non-empty return value
+                // faster than validating the pattern and checking all args separately
+                $dummy = array_fill(0, count($call_args) - 1, '');
+                if (sprintf($type->getSingleStringLiteral()->value, ...$dummy) !== '') {
+                    return Type::getNonEmptyString();
+                }
+            }
+
+            if ($index === 0) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            // if the function has more arguments than the pattern has placeholders, this could be a false positive
+            // if the param is not used in the pattern
+            // however we would need to analyze the format arg to check that
+            // can be done eventually to also implement https://github.com/vimeo/psalm/issues/9818
+            // and https://github.com/vimeo/psalm/issues/9817
+            if ($type->isNonEmptyString() || $type->isInt() || $type->isFloat()) {
+                return Type::getNonEmptyString();
+            }
+
+            // check for unions of either
+            $atomic_types = $type->getAtomicTypes();
+            if ($atomic_types === []) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            foreach ($atomic_types as $atomic_type) {
+                if ($atomic_type instanceof TNonEmptyString
+                    || $atomic_type instanceof TClassString
+                    || ($atomic_type instanceof TLiteralString && $atomic_type->value !== '')
+                    || $atomic_type instanceof TInt
+                    || $atomic_type instanceof TFloat
+                    || $atomic_type instanceof TNumeric) {
+                    // valid non-empty types, potentially there are more though
+                    continue;
+                }
+
+                // empty or generic string
+                // or other unhandled type
+                continue 2;
+            }
+
+            return Type::getNonEmptyString();
+        }
+
+        return Type::getString();
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/ReturnTypeProvider/SprintfTest.php b/tests/ReturnTypeProvider/SprintfTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b0759da0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/ReturnTypeProvider/SprintfTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Psalm\Tests\ReturnTypeProvider;
+
+use Psalm\Tests\TestCase;
+use Psalm\Tests\Traits\ValidCodeAnalysisTestTrait;
+
+class SprintfTest extends TestCase
+{
+    use ValidCodeAnalysisTestTrait;
+
+    public function providerValidCodeParse(): iterable
+    {
+        yield 'sprintfDNonEmpty' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $val = sprintf("%d", implode("", array()));
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'non-empty-string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfFormatNonEmpty' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $val = sprintf("%s %s", "", "");
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'non-empty-string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfArgnumFormatNonEmpty' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $val = sprintf("%2\$s %1\$s", "", "");
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'non-empty-string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfLiteralFormatNonEmpty' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $val = sprintf("%s hello", "");
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'non-empty-string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfStringPlaceholderLiteralIntParamFormatNonEmpty' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $val = sprintf("%s", 15);
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'non-empty-string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfStringPlaceholderIntParamFormatNonEmpty' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $val = sprintf("%s", crc32(uniqid()));
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'non-empty-string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfStringPlaceholderFloatParamFormatNonEmpty' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $val = sprintf("%s", microtime(true));
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'non-empty-string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfStringPlaceholderIntStringParamFormatNonEmpty' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $tmp = rand(0, 10) > 5 ? time() : implode("", array()) . "hello";
+                $val = sprintf("%s", $tmp);
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'non-empty-string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfStringPlaceholderLiteralStringParamFormat' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $val = sprintf("%s", "");
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfStringPlaceholderStringParamFormat' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $val = sprintf("%s", implode("", array()));
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfStringArgnumPlaceholderStringParamsFormat' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $val = sprintf("%2\$s%1\$s", "", implode("", array()));
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'string',
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        yield 'sprintfStringPlaceholderIntStringParamFormat' => [
+            'code' => '<?php
+                $tmp = rand(0, 10) > 5 ? time() : implode("", array());
+                $val = sprintf("%s", $tmp);
+            ',
+            'assertions' => [
+                '$val===' => 'string',
+            ],
+        ];
+    }
+}