diff --git a/crates/polars-io/src/json/infer.rs b/crates/polars-io/src/json/infer.rs
index 0ff83225e97f..cbee672baccc 100644
--- a/crates/polars-io/src/json/infer.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-io/src/json/infer.rs
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ use std::num::NonZeroUsize;
 
 use polars_core::prelude::DataType;
 use polars_core::utils::try_get_supertype;
-use polars_error::{polars_bail, PolarsResult};
+use polars_error::{polars_bail, PolarsError, PolarsResult};
 use simd_json::BorrowedValue;
 
 pub(crate) fn json_values_to_supertype(
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pub(crate) fn json_values_to_supertype(
     infer_schema_len: NonZeroUsize,
 ) -> PolarsResult<DataType> {
     // struct types may have missing fields so find supertype
-    values
+    let out_opt: Option<Result<DataType, PolarsError>> = values
         .iter()
         .take(infer_schema_len.into())
         .map(|value| polars_json::json::infer(value).map(|dt| DataType::from(&dt)))
@@ -18,8 +18,21 @@ pub(crate) fn json_values_to_supertype(
             let l = l?;
             let r = r?;
             try_get_supertype(&l, &r)
-        })
-        .unwrap_or_else(|| polars_bail!(ComputeError: "could not infer data-type"))
+        });
+    match (out_opt, values.len()==0) {
+        (Some(out), true) => {
+            match out {
+                Ok(out)=>Ok(out),
+                _=>Err(PolarsError::NoData("no data".into()))
+            }
+        },
+        (Some(out), false) => {
+            out
+        },
+        (None, true) => Err(PolarsError::NoData("no data".into())),
+        (None, false) => polars_bail!(ComputeError: "could not infer data-type")
+
+    }
 }
 
 pub(crate) fn dtypes_to_supertype<I: Iterator<Item = DataType>>(
diff --git a/crates/polars-io/src/json/mod.rs b/crates/polars-io/src/json/mod.rs
index 1a8f9eb8f5a4..1d909bb12dce 100644
--- a/crates/polars-io/src/json/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-io/src/json/mod.rs
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ use std::ops::Deref;
 use arrow::legacy::conversion::chunk_to_struct;
 use polars_core::error::to_compute_err;
 use polars_core::prelude::*;
-use polars_error::{polars_bail, PolarsResult};
+use polars_error::{polars_bail, PolarsError, PolarsResult};
 use polars_json::json::write::FallibleStreamingIterator;
 #[cfg(feature = "serde")]
 use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
@@ -274,27 +274,41 @@ where
                 let mut bytes = rb.deref().to_vec();
                 let json_value =
                     simd_json::to_borrowed_value(&mut bytes).map_err(to_compute_err)?;
-
-                // struct type
-                let dtype = if let Some(mut schema) = self.schema {
+                let dtype_result = if let Some(mut schema) = self.schema {
                     if let Some(overwrite) = self.schema_overwrite {
                         let mut_schema = Arc::make_mut(&mut schema);
                         overwrite_schema(mut_schema, overwrite)?;
                     }
-
-                    DataType::Struct(schema.iter_fields().collect()).to_arrow(CompatLevel::newest())
+                    Ok(DataType::Struct(schema.iter_fields().collect())
+                        .to_arrow(CompatLevel::newest()))
                 } else {
                     // infer
-                    let inner_dtype = if let BorrowedValue::Array(values) = &json_value {
-                        infer::json_values_to_supertype(
+                    let inner_dtype_result = if let BorrowedValue::Array(values) = &json_value {
+                        let supertype = infer::json_values_to_supertype(
                             values,
                             self.infer_schema_len
                                 .unwrap_or(NonZeroUsize::new(usize::MAX).unwrap()),
-                        )?
-                        .to_arrow(CompatLevel::newest())
+                        );
+                        match supertype {
+                            Ok(supertype) => Ok(supertype.to_arrow(CompatLevel::newest())),
+                            Err(e) => Err(e),
+                        }
                     } else {
-                        polars_json::json::infer(&json_value)?
+                        polars_json::json::infer(&json_value)
                     };
+                    if inner_dtype_result.is_err() {
+                        match &json_value {
+                            BorrowedValue::Array(array) => {
+                                if array.is_empty() {
+                                    return Ok(DataFrame::empty());
+                                }
+                            },
+                            _ => {
+                                polars_bail!(ComputeError: "could not infer data-type")
+                            },
+                        }
+                    }
+                    let inner_dtype = inner_dtype_result?;
 
                     if let Some(overwrite) = self.schema_overwrite {
                         let ArrowDataType::Struct(fields) = inner_dtype else {
@@ -304,18 +318,23 @@ where
                         let mut schema = Schema::from_iter(fields.iter().map(Into::<Field>::into));
                         overwrite_schema(&mut schema, overwrite)?;
 
-                        DataType::Struct(
+                        Ok(DataType::Struct(
                             schema
                                 .into_iter()
                                 .map(|(name, dt)| Field::new(name, dt))
                                 .collect(),
                         )
-                        .to_arrow(CompatLevel::newest())
+                        .to_arrow(CompatLevel::newest()))
                     } else {
-                        inner_dtype
+                        Ok(inner_dtype)
                     }
                 };
-
+                if let Err(e) = &dtype_result {
+                    if let PolarsError::NoData(_) = e {
+                        return Ok(DataFrame::empty());
+                    }
+                };
+                let dtype = dtype_result?;
                 let dtype = if let BorrowedValue::Array(_) = &json_value {
                     ArrowDataType::LargeList(Box::new(arrow::datatypes::Field::new(
                         PlSmallStr::from_static("item"),
diff --git a/py-polars/tests/unit/io/test_json.py b/py-polars/tests/unit/io/test_json.py
index 4bce4ee4e0ce..6670d0bf6a42 100644
--- a/py-polars/tests/unit/io/test_json.py
+++ b/py-polars/tests/unit/io/test_json.py
@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ def test_ndjson_null_inference_13183() -> None:
     }
 
 
-@pytest.mark.write_disk
+@pytest.mark.write_disk()
 @typing.no_type_check
 def test_json_wrong_input_handle_textio(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
     # this shouldn't be passed, but still we test if we can handle it gracefully
@@ -385,3 +385,13 @@ def test_empty_json() -> None:
     df = pl.read_json(b'{"j":{}}')
     assert df.dtypes == [pl.Struct([])]
     assert df.shape == (0, 1)
+
+
+def test_empty_list_json() -> None:
+    df = pl.read_json(io.StringIO("[]"))
+    assert df.shape == (0, 0)
+    assert isinstance(df, pl.DataFrame)
+
+    df = pl.read_json(b"[]")
+    assert df.shape == (0, 0)
+    assert isinstance(df, pl.DataFrame)