diff --git a/pandas/_libs/algos.pyi b/pandas/_libs/algos.pyi
index 60bdb504c545b..0cc9209fbdfc5 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/algos.pyi
+++ b/pandas/_libs/algos.pyi
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ def rank_1d(
     ascending: bool = ...,
     pct: bool = ...,
     na_option=...,
+    mask: npt.NDArray[np.bool_] | None = ...,
 ) -> np.ndarray: ...  # np.ndarray[float64_t, ndim=1]
 def rank_2d(
     in_arr: np.ndarray,  # ndarray[numeric_object_t, ndim=2]
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/algos.pyx b/pandas/_libs/algos.pyx
index 6c28b4f821080..d33eba06988e9 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/algos.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/algos.pyx
@@ -889,6 +889,7 @@ def rank_1d(
     bint ascending=True,
     bint pct=False,
     na_option="keep",
+    const uint8_t[:] mask=None,
 ):
     """
     Fast NaN-friendly version of ``scipy.stats.rankdata``.
@@ -918,6 +919,8 @@ def rank_1d(
         * keep: leave NA values where they are
         * top: smallest rank if ascending
         * bottom: smallest rank if descending
+    mask : np.ndarray[bool], optional, default None
+        Specify locations to be treated as NA, for e.g. Categorical.
     """
     cdef:
         TiebreakEnumType tiebreak
@@ -927,7 +930,6 @@ def rank_1d(
         float64_t[::1] out
         ndarray[numeric_object_t, ndim=1] masked_vals
         numeric_object_t[:] masked_vals_memview
-        uint8_t[:] mask
         bint keep_na, nans_rank_highest, check_labels, check_mask
         numeric_object_t nan_fill_val
 
@@ -956,6 +958,7 @@ def rank_1d(
         or numeric_object_t is object
         or (numeric_object_t is int64_t and is_datetimelike)
     )
+    check_mask = check_mask or mask is not None
 
     # Copy values into new array in order to fill missing data
     # with mask, without obfuscating location of missing data
@@ -965,7 +968,9 @@ def rank_1d(
     else:
         masked_vals = values.copy()
 
-    if numeric_object_t is object:
+    if mask is not None:
+        pass
+    elif numeric_object_t is object:
         mask = missing.isnaobj(masked_vals)
     elif numeric_object_t is int64_t and is_datetimelike:
         mask = (masked_vals == NPY_NAT).astype(np.uint8)
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/groupby.pyi b/pandas/_libs/groupby.pyi
index 197a8bdc0cd7c..2f0c3980c0c02 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/groupby.pyi
+++ b/pandas/_libs/groupby.pyi
@@ -128,6 +128,7 @@ def group_rank(
     ascending: bool = ...,
     pct: bool = ...,
     na_option: Literal["keep", "top", "bottom"] = ...,
+    mask: npt.NDArray[np.bool_] | None = ...,
 ) -> None: ...
 def group_max(
     out: np.ndarray,  # groupby_t[:, ::1]
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/groupby.pyx b/pandas/_libs/groupby.pyx
index 9bc89eef089cd..03f318d08d8cb 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/groupby.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/groupby.pyx
@@ -1262,6 +1262,7 @@ def group_rank(
     bint ascending=True,
     bint pct=False,
     str na_option="keep",
+    const uint8_t[:, :] mask=None,
 ) -> None:
     """
     Provides the rank of values within each group.
@@ -1294,6 +1295,7 @@ def group_rank(
         * keep: leave NA values where they are
         * top: smallest rank if ascending
         * bottom: smallest rank if descending
+    mask : np.ndarray[bool] or None, default None
 
     Notes
     -----
@@ -1302,10 +1304,16 @@ def group_rank(
     cdef:
         Py_ssize_t i, k, N
         ndarray[float64_t, ndim=1] result
+        const uint8_t[:] sub_mask
 
     N = values.shape[1]
 
     for k in range(N):
+        if mask is None:
+            sub_mask = None
+        else:
+            sub_mask = mask[:, k]
+
         result = rank_1d(
             values=values[:, k],
             labels=labels,
@@ -1313,7 +1321,8 @@ def group_rank(
             ties_method=ties_method,
             ascending=ascending,
             pct=pct,
-            na_option=na_option
+            na_option=na_option,
+            mask=sub_mask,
         )
         for i in range(len(result)):
             # TODO: why can't we do out[:, k] = result?
diff --git a/pandas/core/groupby/ops.py b/pandas/core/groupby/ops.py
index 09954bd6be4e4..a769c92e0b542 100644
--- a/pandas/core/groupby/ops.py
+++ b/pandas/core/groupby/ops.py
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@
     ensure_platform_int,
     is_1d_only_ea_dtype,
     is_bool_dtype,
-    is_categorical_dtype,
     is_complex_dtype,
     is_datetime64_any_dtype,
     is_float_dtype,
@@ -56,12 +55,14 @@
     is_timedelta64_dtype,
     needs_i8_conversion,
 )
+from pandas.core.dtypes.dtypes import CategoricalDtype
 from pandas.core.dtypes.missing import (
     isna,
     maybe_fill,
 )
 
 from pandas.core.arrays import (
+    Categorical,
     DatetimeArray,
     ExtensionArray,
     PeriodArray,
@@ -142,7 +143,15 @@ def __init__(self, kind: str, how: str, has_dropped_na: bool) -> None:
 
     # "group_any" and "group_all" are also support masks, but don't go
     #  through WrappedCythonOp
-    _MASKED_CYTHON_FUNCTIONS = {"cummin", "cummax", "min", "max", "last", "first"}
+    _MASKED_CYTHON_FUNCTIONS = {
+        "cummin",
+        "cummax",
+        "min",
+        "max",
+        "last",
+        "first",
+        "rank",
+    }
 
     _cython_arity = {"ohlc": 4}  # OHLC
 
@@ -229,12 +238,17 @@ def _disallow_invalid_ops(self, dtype: DtypeObj, is_numeric: bool = False):
             # never an invalid op for those dtypes, so return early as fastpath
             return
 
-        if is_categorical_dtype(dtype):
+        if isinstance(dtype, CategoricalDtype):
             # NotImplementedError for methods that can fall back to a
             #  non-cython implementation.
             if how in ["add", "prod", "cumsum", "cumprod"]:
                 raise TypeError(f"{dtype} type does not support {how} operations")
-            raise NotImplementedError(f"{dtype} dtype not supported")
+            elif how not in ["rank"]:
+                # only "rank" is implemented in cython
+                raise NotImplementedError(f"{dtype} dtype not supported")
+            elif not dtype.ordered:
+                # TODO: TypeError?
+                raise NotImplementedError(f"{dtype} dtype not supported")
 
         elif is_sparse(dtype):
             # categoricals are only 1d, so we
@@ -332,6 +346,25 @@ def _ea_wrap_cython_operation(
                 **kwargs,
             )
 
+        elif isinstance(values, Categorical) and self.uses_mask():
+            assert self.how == "rank"  # the only one implemented ATM
+            assert values.ordered  # checked earlier
+            mask = values.isna()
+            npvalues = values._ndarray
+
+            res_values = self._cython_op_ndim_compat(
+                npvalues,
+                min_count=min_count,
+                ngroups=ngroups,
+                comp_ids=comp_ids,
+                mask=mask,
+                **kwargs,
+            )
+
+            # If we ever have more than just "rank" here, we'll need to do
+            #  `if self.how in self.cast_blocklist` like we do for other dtypes.
+            return res_values
+
         npvalues = self._ea_to_cython_values(values)
 
         res_values = self._cython_op_ndim_compat(
@@ -551,6 +584,9 @@ def _call_cython_op(
         else:
             # TODO: min_count
             if self.uses_mask():
+                if self.how != "rank":
+                    # TODO: should rank take result_mask?
+                    kwargs["result_mask"] = result_mask
                 func(
                     out=result,
                     values=values,
@@ -558,7 +594,6 @@ def _call_cython_op(
                     ngroups=ngroups,
                     is_datetimelike=is_datetimelike,
                     mask=mask,
-                    result_mask=result_mask,
                     **kwargs,
                 )
             else:
diff --git a/pandas/tests/groupby/test_rank.py b/pandas/tests/groupby/test_rank.py
index 7830c229ece2f..8bbe38d3379ac 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/groupby/test_rank.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/groupby/test_rank.py
@@ -458,6 +458,8 @@ def test_rank_avg_even_vals(dtype, upper):
 
     result = df.groupby("key").rank()
     exp_df = DataFrame([2.5, 2.5, 2.5, 2.5], columns=["val"])
+    if upper:
+        exp_df = exp_df.astype("Float64")
     tm.assert_frame_equal(result, exp_df)
 
 
@@ -663,3 +665,17 @@ def test_non_unique_index():
         name="value",
     )
     tm.assert_series_equal(result, expected)
+
+
+def test_rank_categorical():
+    cat = pd.Categorical(["a", "a", "b", np.nan, "c", "b"], ordered=True)
+    cat2 = pd.Categorical([1, 2, 3, np.nan, 4, 5], ordered=True)
+
+    df = DataFrame({"col1": [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1], "col2": cat, "col3": cat2})
+
+    gb = df.groupby("col1")
+
+    res = gb.rank()
+
+    expected = df.astype(object).groupby("col1").rank()
+    tm.assert_frame_equal(res, expected)