diff --git a/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/comet/expressions/CometCast.scala b/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/comet/expressions/CometCast.scala
index e14fb086b12..a3193931f06 100644
--- a/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/comet/expressions/CometCast.scala
+++ b/spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/comet/expressions/CometCast.scala
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 
 package org.apache.comet.expressions
 
+import scala.util.control.NonFatal
+
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.{Attribute, Cast, Expression, Literal}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.internal.SQLConf
 import org.apache.spark.sql.types.{ArrayType, DataType, DataTypes, DecimalType, MapType, NullType, StructType, TimestampNTZType, TimestampType}
@@ -41,6 +43,10 @@ object CometCast
   private[comet] val negativeScaleDecimalToStringReason: String =
     "Negative-scale decimal requires spark.sql.legacy.allowNegativeScaleOfDecimal=true"
 
+  private[comet] val literalCastConditionalEvalReason: String =
+    "Cast of a literal threw during planning; Spark leaves it for conditional evaluation " +
+      "so it may never be reached at runtime."
+
   // When `spark.sql.legacy.castComplexTypesToString.enabled` is true, Spark wraps maps and
   // structs with `[]` (instead of `{}`) when casting to string, and omits NULL elements of
   // structs/maps/arrays (instead of rendering them as the literal "null"). Comet's native
@@ -98,9 +104,9 @@ object CometCast
 
   override def getSupportLevel(cast: Cast): SupportLevel = {
     if (cast.child.isInstanceOf[Literal]) {
-      // A cast whose child is a literal is folded by Spark at planning time via `cast.eval()`
-      // (see `convert`), so the cast never executes natively and the result matches Spark by
-      // definition. `CometLiteral` then validates the resulting literal's data type, except
+      // A successfully evaluated literal cast is folded via `cast.eval()` (see `convert`).
+      // Spark can leave a throwing literal cast in an unvisited conditional branch, so `convert`
+      // falls back when evaluation fails. `CometLiteral` validates a folded literal, except
       // for `VariantType` which must be rejected here: the fold produces a `Literal[VariantType]`
       // that no downstream Comet serde can serialize.
       if (isVariantType(cast.child.dataType) || isVariantType(cast.dataType)) {
@@ -121,7 +127,19 @@ object CometCast
     val cometEvalMode = evalMode(cast)
     cast.child match {
       case _: Literal =>
-        exprToProtoInternal(Literal.create(cast.eval(), cast.dataType), inputs, binding)
+        val value =
+          try {
+            cast.eval()
+          } catch {
+            case NonFatal(_) =>
+              // ConstantFolding.tryFold leaves failed conditional expressions unfolded. Its
+              // FAILED_TO_EVALUATE tag is private[sql], so evaluate defensively here instead.
+              // Deliberately keep this in convert: a codegen-dispatched projection evaluates
+              // a whole batch and can reach a throwing row that Spark skips under LIMIT.
+              withFallbackReason(cast, literalCastConditionalEvalReason)
+              return None
+          }
+        exprToProtoInternal(Literal.create(value, cast.dataType), inputs, binding)
       case _ =>
         if (isAlwaysCastToNull(cast.child.dataType, cast.dataType, cometEvalMode)) {
           exprToProtoInternal(Literal.create(null, cast.dataType), inputs, binding)
diff --git a/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/comet/CometNativeCastSuite.scala b/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/comet/CometNativeCastSuite.scala
index 4db950e73c9..73949a2c320 100644
--- a/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/comet/CometNativeCastSuite.scala
+++ b/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/comet/CometNativeCastSuite.scala
@@ -29,8 +29,9 @@ import scala.util.Random
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path
 import org.apache.spark.SparkConf
 import org.apache.spark.sql.{CometTestBase, DataFrame, Row, SaveMode}
-import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.Cast
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.{Cast, Literal}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.parser.ParseException
+import org.apache.spark.sql.comet.{CometNativeScanExec, CometProjectExec}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.adaptive.AdaptiveSparkPlanHelper
 import org.apache.spark.sql.functions.{col, monotonically_increasing_id}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.internal.SQLConf
@@ -65,6 +66,70 @@ class CometNativeCastSuite extends CometTestBase with AdaptiveSparkPlanHelper {
 
   import testImplicits._
 
+  test("literal cast failure in an unvisited conditional branch does not fail planning") {
+    withTempPath { path =>
+      withSQLConf(CometConf.COMET_ENABLED.key -> "false") {
+        spark
+          .range(2)
+          .selectExpr("id", "CAST(id AS STRING) AS value")
+          .coalesce(1)
+          .write
+          .parquet(path.getCanonicalPath)
+      }
+      withSQLConf(SQLConf.ANSI_ENABLED.key -> "true") {
+        withParquetTable(path.getCanonicalPath, "cast_branch_rows") {
+          val cast = "CAST(IF(id = 1, 'bad', value) AS INT)"
+          val masked = s"SELECT $cast AS parsed FROM cast_branch_rows LIMIT 1"
+          withSQLConf(CometConf.COMET_ENABLED.key -> "false") {
+            assert(sql(masked).collect().toSeq == Seq(Row(0)))
+          }
+          // ConstantFolding must leave the throwing literal cast inside the conditional.
+          val badCasts = sql(masked).queryExecution.optimizedPlan
+            .flatMap(_.expressions)
+            .flatMap(_.collect {
+              case c: Cast
+                  if c.child.isInstanceOf[Literal] &&
+                    Option(c.child.asInstanceOf[Literal].value).exists(_.toString == "bad") =>
+                c
+            })
+          assert(badCasts.nonEmpty)
+          val (_, plan) =
+            checkSparkAnswerAndFallbackReason(masked, CometCast.literalCastConditionalEvalReason)
+          assert(collect(plan) { case scan: CometNativeScanExec => scan }.nonEmpty)
+          checkSparkError(
+            sql(s"SELECT $cast FROM cast_branch_rows"),
+            "CAST_INVALID_INPUT",
+            checkNative = false)
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("successful literal casts and non-ANSI invalid casts retain native projection") {
+    withParquetTable(Seq(Tuple1(0), Tuple1(1)), "cast_branch_controls") {
+      for (ansi <- Seq("true", "false")) {
+        withSQLConf(SQLConf.ANSI_ENABLED.key -> ansi) {
+          val query = "SELECT CAST(IF(_1 = 1, '1', CAST(_1 AS STRING)) AS INT) " +
+            "FROM cast_branch_controls"
+          val (_, plan) = checkSparkAnswerAndOperator(sql(query))
+          assert(collect(plan) { case project: CometProjectExec => project }.nonEmpty)
+          assert(
+            !plan.exists(_.getTagValue(CometExplainInfo.FALLBACK_REASONS)
+              .exists(_.contains(CometCast.literalCastConditionalEvalReason))))
+        }
+      }
+      withSQLConf(SQLConf.ANSI_ENABLED.key -> "false") {
+        val query = "SELECT CAST(IF(_1 = 1, 'bad', CAST(_1 AS STRING)) AS INT) " +
+          "FROM cast_branch_controls"
+        val (_, plan) = checkSparkAnswerAndOperator(sql(query))
+        assert(collect(plan) { case project: CometProjectExec => project }.nonEmpty)
+        assert(
+          !plan.exists(_.getTagValue(CometExplainInfo.FALLBACK_REASONS)
+            .exists(_.contains(CometCast.literalCastConditionalEvalReason))))
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   // Casts in this suite predominantly test non-ANSI semantics (silent overflow/null on
   // invalid input); tests that target ANSI behavior opt in explicitly via withSQLConf.
   override protected def sparkConf: SparkConf =
diff --git a/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/CometTestBase.scala b/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/CometTestBase.scala
index 8903f43769b..6e2511ccb3c 100644
--- a/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/CometTestBase.scala
+++ b/spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/CometTestBase.scala
@@ -452,11 +452,14 @@ abstract class CometTestBase
     }
   }
 
-  /** Checks native execution and Spark exception type, error class and SQLSTATE parity. */
+  /** Checks Spark exception parity and, by default, native execution. */
   protected def checkSparkError(
       df: DataFrame,
-      errorClass: String): SparkThrowable with Throwable = {
-    checkCometOperators(stripAQEPlan(df.queryExecution.executedPlan))
+      errorClass: String,
+      checkNative: Boolean = true): SparkThrowable with Throwable = {
+    if (checkNative) {
+      checkCometOperators(stripAQEPlan(df.queryExecution.executedPlan))
+    }
     val (sparkError, cometError) = checkSparkAnswerMaybeThrows(df)
 
     def structuredError(