diff --git a/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala b/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala
index 87dce7146b305..0266120d0ed47 100644
--- a/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala
+++ b/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala
@@ -1070,6 +1070,35 @@ class Dataset[T] private[sql] (val sparkSession: SparkSession, private[sql] val
       proto.Aggregate.GroupType.GROUP_TYPE_GROUPBY)
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Groups the Dataset using the specified columns, so that we can run aggregation on them. See
+   * [[RelationalGroupedDataset]] for all the available aggregate functions.
+   *
+   * This is a variant of groupBy that can only group by existing columns using column names (i.e.
+   * cannot construct expressions).
+   *
+   * {{{
+   *   // Compute the average for all numeric columns grouped by department.
+   *   ds.groupBy("department").avg()
+   *
+   *   // Compute the max age and average salary, grouped by department and gender.
+   *   ds.groupBy($"department", $"gender").agg(Map(
+   *     "salary" -> "avg",
+   *     "age" -> "max"
+   *   ))
+   * }}}
+   * @group untypedrel
+   * @since 3.4.0
+   */
+  @scala.annotation.varargs
+  def groupBy(col1: String, cols: String*): RelationalGroupedDataset = {
+    val colNames: Seq[String] = col1 +: cols
+    new RelationalGroupedDataset(
+      toDF(),
+      colNames.map(colName => Column(colName).expr),
+      proto.Aggregate.GroupType.GROUP_TYPE_GROUPBY)
+  }
+
   /**
    * Create a multi-dimensional rollup for the current Dataset using the specified columns, so we
    * can run aggregation on them. See [[RelationalGroupedDataset]] for all the available aggregate
@@ -1990,14 +2019,14 @@ class Dataset[T] private[sql] (val sparkSession: SparkSession, private[sql] val
       viewName: String,
       replace: Boolean,
       global: Boolean): Unit = {
-    val command = session.newCommand { builder =>
+    val command = sparkSession.newCommand { builder =>
       builder.getCreateDataframeViewBuilder
         .setInput(plan.getRoot)
         .setName(viewName)
         .setIsGlobal(global)
         .setReplace(replace)
     }
-    session.execute(command)
+    sparkSession.execute(command)
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/PlanGenerationTestSuite.scala b/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/PlanGenerationTestSuite.scala
index 48d5f0cb409d0..6a789b1494f21 100644
--- a/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/PlanGenerationTestSuite.scala
+++ b/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/PlanGenerationTestSuite.scala
@@ -1892,6 +1892,12 @@ class PlanGenerationTestSuite
         "a" -> "count")
   }
 
+  test("groupby agg string") {
+    simple
+      .groupBy("id", "b")
+      .agg("a" -> "max", "a" -> "count")
+  }
+
   test("groupby agg columns") {
     simple
       .groupBy(Column("id"))
diff --git a/connector/connect/common/src/test/resources/query-tests/explain-results/groupby_agg_string.explain b/connector/connect/common/src/test/resources/query-tests/explain-results/groupby_agg_string.explain
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..1c2b2f68c64c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/connector/connect/common/src/test/resources/query-tests/explain-results/groupby_agg_string.explain
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Aggregate [id#0L, b#0], [id#0L, b#0, max(a#0) AS max(a)#0, count(a#0) AS count(a)#0L]
++- LocalRelation <empty>, [id#0L, a#0, b#0]
diff --git a/connector/connect/common/src/test/resources/query-tests/queries/groupby_agg_string.json b/connector/connect/common/src/test/resources/query-tests/queries/groupby_agg_string.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..26320d404835f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/connector/connect/common/src/test/resources/query-tests/queries/groupby_agg_string.json
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+{
+  "common": {
+    "planId": "1"
+  },
+  "aggregate": {
+    "input": {
+      "common": {
+        "planId": "0"
+      },
+      "localRelation": {
+        "schema": "struct\u003cid:bigint,a:int,b:double\u003e"
+      }
+    },
+    "groupType": "GROUP_TYPE_GROUPBY",
+    "groupingExpressions": [{
+      "unresolvedAttribute": {
+        "unparsedIdentifier": "id"
+      }
+    }, {
+      "unresolvedAttribute": {
+        "unparsedIdentifier": "b"
+      }
+    }],
+    "aggregateExpressions": [{
+      "unresolvedFunction": {
+        "functionName": "max",
+        "arguments": [{
+          "unresolvedAttribute": {
+            "unparsedIdentifier": "a",
+            "planId": "0"
+          }
+        }]
+      }
+    }, {
+      "unresolvedFunction": {
+        "functionName": "count",
+        "arguments": [{
+          "unresolvedAttribute": {
+            "unparsedIdentifier": "a",
+            "planId": "0"
+          }
+        }]
+      }
+    }]
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/connector/connect/common/src/test/resources/query-tests/queries/groupby_agg_string.proto.bin b/connector/connect/common/src/test/resources/query-tests/queries/groupby_agg_string.proto.bin
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..818146f7f6935
Binary files /dev/null and b/connector/connect/common/src/test/resources/query-tests/queries/groupby_agg_string.proto.bin differ