diff --git a/noxfile.py b/noxfile.py
index d7d5229cb2..11f8292c97 100644
--- a/noxfile.py
+++ b/noxfile.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 
 stubs_deps = [
     "mypy==1.11.2",
-    "typing-extensions",
+    "typing-extensions>=4.4",
 ]
 
 def install_rustworkx(session):
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/pyright-compatibility-f78cafca4a95696d.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/pyright-compatibility-f78cafca4a95696d.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d6e4403d9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/pyright-compatibility-f78cafca4a95696d.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    Enhanced the compatibility of the type annotations with `pyright` in strict
+    mode. See `issue 1242 <https://github.com/Qiskit/rustworkx/issues/1242>`__ for
+    more details.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/rustworkx/__init__.pyi b/rustworkx/__init__.pyi
index 63f5f4be4b..1624af0386 100644
--- a/rustworkx/__init__.pyi
+++ b/rustworkx/__init__.pyi
@@ -9,11 +9,17 @@
 # This file contains only type annotations for PyO3 functions and classes
 # For implementation details, see __init__.py and src/lib.rs
 
+import sys
 import numpy as np
 
-from typing import Generic, TypeVar, Any, Callable, overload
+from typing import Generic, Any, Callable, overload
 from collections.abc import Iterator, Sequence
 
+if sys.version_info >= (3, 13):
+    from typing import TypeVar
+else:
+    from typing_extensions import TypeVar
+
 # Re-Exports of rust native functions in rustworkx.rustworkx
 # To workaround limitations in mypy around re-exporting objects from the inner
 # rustworkx module we need to explicitly re-export every inner function from
@@ -264,8 +270,8 @@ from .rustworkx import AllPairsMultiplePathMapping as AllPairsMultiplePathMappin
 from .rustworkx import PyGraph as PyGraph
 from .rustworkx import PyDiGraph as PyDiGraph
 
-_S = TypeVar("_S")
-_T = TypeVar("_T")
+_S = TypeVar("_S", default=Any)
+_T = TypeVar("_T", default=Any)
 _BFSVisitor = TypeVar("_BFSVisitor", bound=visit.BFSVisitor)
 _DFSVisitor = TypeVar("_DFSVisitor", bound=visit.DFSVisitor)
 _DijkstraVisitor = TypeVar("_DijkstraVisitor", bound=visit.DijkstraVisitor)
diff --git a/rustworkx/rustworkx.pyi b/rustworkx/rustworkx.pyi
index 6e690a2c2c..c9c8e24f59 100644
--- a/rustworkx/rustworkx.pyi
+++ b/rustworkx/rustworkx.pyi
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@
 
 from .visit import BFSVisitor, DFSVisitor, DijkstraVisitor
 from typing import (
-    TypeVar,
     Callable,
     final,
     Any,
@@ -35,9 +34,15 @@ from rustworkx import generators  # noqa
 from typing_extensions import Self
 
 import numpy as np
+import sys
 
-_S = TypeVar("_S")
-_T = TypeVar("_T")
+if sys.version_info >= (3, 13):
+    from typing import TypeVar
+else:
+    from typing_extensions import TypeVar
+
+_S = TypeVar("_S", default=Any)
+_T = TypeVar("_T", default=Any)
 
 class DAGHasCycle(Exception): ...
 class DAGWouldCycle(Exception): ...
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 712139c017..8cf7a04dc5 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ commands =
 basepython = python3
 deps =
   mypy==1.8.0
-  typing-extensions
+  typing-extensions>=4.4
 extras =
   mpl
   graphviz