diff --git a/modules/imgcodecs/src/grfmt_exr.cpp b/modules/imgcodecs/src/grfmt_exr.cpp
index e93448e355..0ffd0d2618 100644
--- a/modules/imgcodecs/src/grfmt_exr.cpp
+++ b/modules/imgcodecs/src/grfmt_exr.cpp
@@ -235,6 +235,17 @@ bool  ExrDecoder::readData( Mat& img )
                                 ( (m_iscolor && !m_ischroma) || color) ? 3 : alphasupported ? 2 : 1 ); // number of channels to read may exceed channels in output img
     size_t xStride = floatsize * channelstoread;
 
+    // See https://github.com/opencv/opencv/issues/26705
+    // If ALGO_HINT_ACCURATE is set, read BGR and swap to RGB.
+    // If ALGO_HINT_APPROX is set,   read RGB directly.
+    bool doReadRGB = m_use_rgb;
+    bool doPostColorSwap = false; // After decoding, swap BGR to RGB
+    if(m_use_rgb && (getDefaultAlgorithmHint() == ALGO_HINT_ACCURATE) )
+    {
+        doReadRGB = false;
+        doPostColorSwap = true;
+    }
+
     AutoBuffer<char> copy_buffer;
 
     if( !justcopy )
@@ -373,7 +384,7 @@ bool  ExrDecoder::readData( Mat& img )
 
         if( m_iscolor )
         {
-            if (m_use_rgb)
+            if (doReadRGB)
             {
                 if( m_red && (m_red->xSampling != 1 || m_red->ySampling != 1) )
                     UpSample( data, channelstoread, step / xstep, m_red->xSampling, m_red->ySampling );
@@ -397,7 +408,7 @@ bool  ExrDecoder::readData( Mat& img )
 
         if( chromatorgb )
         {
-            if (m_use_rgb)
+            if (doReadRGB)
                 ChromaToRGB( (float *)data, m_height, channelstoread, step / xstep );
             else
                 ChromaToBGR( (float *)data, m_height, channelstoread, step / xstep );
@@ -424,7 +435,7 @@ bool  ExrDecoder::readData( Mat& img )
             {
                 if( chromatorgb )
                 {
-                    if (m_use_rgb)
+                    if (doReadRGB)
                         ChromaToRGB( (float *)buffer, 1, defaultchannels, step );
                     else
                         ChromaToBGR( (float *)buffer, 1, defaultchannels, step );
@@ -452,7 +463,7 @@ bool  ExrDecoder::readData( Mat& img )
         }
         if( color )
         {
-            if (m_use_rgb)
+            if (doReadRGB)
             {
                 if( m_red && (m_red->xSampling != 1 || m_red->ySampling != 1) )
                     UpSampleY( data, defaultchannels, step / xstep, m_red->ySampling );
@@ -477,6 +488,11 @@ bool  ExrDecoder::readData( Mat& img )
 
     close();
 
+    if(doPostColorSwap)
+    {
+        cvtColor( img, img, cv::COLOR_BGR2RGB );
+    }
+
     return result;
 }
 
diff --git a/modules/imgcodecs/test/test_exr.impl.hpp b/modules/imgcodecs/test/test_exr.impl.hpp
index 32984ff731..6b4ac0b8d1 100644
--- a/modules/imgcodecs/test/test_exr.impl.hpp
+++ b/modules/imgcodecs/test/test_exr.impl.hpp
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ TEST(Imgcodecs_EXR, readWrite_32FC1)
 
     ASSERT_TRUE(cv::imwrite(filenameOutput, img));
     // Check generated file size to ensure that it's compressed with proper options
-    ASSERT_EQ(396u, getFileSize(filenameOutput));
+    ASSERT_LE(396u, getFileSize(filenameOutput));       // OpenEXR 2
+    ASSERT_LE(      getFileSize(filenameOutput), 440u); // OpenEXR 3.2+
     const Mat img2 = cv::imread(filenameOutput, IMREAD_UNCHANGED);
     ASSERT_EQ(img2.type(), img.type());
     ASSERT_EQ(img2.size(), img.size());
@@ -199,7 +200,11 @@ TEST(Imgcodecs_EXR, read_YC_changeDepth)
 
     cvtColor(img_rgb, img_rgb, COLOR_RGB2BGR);
 
-    EXPECT_TRUE(cvtest::norm(img, img_rgb, NORM_INF) == 0);
+    // See https://github.com/opencv/opencv/issues/26705
+    // If ALGO_HINT_ACCURATE is set, norm should be 0.
+    // If ALGO_HINT_APPROX is set,   norm should be 1(or 0).
+    EXPECT_LE(cvtest::norm(img, img_rgb, NORM_INF),
+             (cv::getDefaultAlgorithmHint() == ALGO_HINT_ACCURATE)?0:1);
 
     // Cannot test writing, EXR encoder doesn't support 8U depth
 }