diff --git a/src/itsdangerous/serializer.py b/src/itsdangerous/serializer.py
index 362bf79..8705dd0 100644
--- a/src/itsdangerous/serializer.py
+++ b/src/itsdangerous/serializer.py
@@ -10,13 +10,20 @@
 from .signer import _make_keys_list
 from .signer import Signer
 
+_TAnyStr = t.TypeVar("_TAnyStr", str, bytes, covariant=True)
 
-def is_text_serializer(serializer: t.Any) -> bool:
+
+class _PDataSerializer(t.Protocol[_TAnyStr]):
+    def loads(self, payload: str | bytes) -> t.Any: ...
+    def dumps(self, obj: t.Any, **kwargs: t.Any) -> _TAnyStr: ...
+
+
+def is_text_serializer(serializer: _PDataSerializer[t.Any]) -> bool:
     """Checks whether a serializer generates text or binary."""
     return isinstance(serializer.dumps({}), str)
 
 
-class Serializer:
+class Serializer(t.Generic[_TAnyStr]):
     """A serializer wraps a :class:`~itsdangerous.signer.Signer` to
     enable serializing and securely signing data other than bytes. It
     can unsign to verify that the data hasn't been changed.
@@ -71,7 +78,7 @@ class Serializer:
     #: The default serialization module to use to serialize data to a
     #: string internally. The default is :mod:`json`, but can be changed
     #: to any object that provides ``dumps`` and ``loads`` methods.
-    default_serializer: t.Any = json
+    default_serializer: _PDataSerializer[_TAnyStr] = json  # type: ignore[assignment]
 
     #: The default ``Signer`` class to instantiate when signing data.
     #: The default is :class:`itsdangerous.signer.Signer`.
@@ -82,11 +89,43 @@ class Serializer:
         dict[str, t.Any] | tuple[type[Signer], dict[str, t.Any]] | type[Signer]
     ] = []
 
+    # Tell type checkers that the default type is Serializer[str] if no
+    # data serializer is provided.
+    @t.overload
+    def __init__(
+        self: Serializer[str],
+        secret_key: str | bytes | cabc.Iterable[str] | cabc.Iterable[bytes],
+        salt: str | bytes | None = b"itsdangerous",
+        serializer: None = None,
+        serializer_kwargs: dict[str, t.Any] | None = None,
+        signer: type[Signer] | None = None,
+        signer_kwargs: dict[str, t.Any] | None = None,
+        fallback_signers: list[
+            dict[str, t.Any] | tuple[type[Signer], dict[str, t.Any]] | type[Signer]
+        ]
+        | None = None,
+    ): ...
+
+    @t.overload
+    def __init__(
+        self: Serializer[_TAnyStr],
+        secret_key: str | bytes | cabc.Iterable[str] | cabc.Iterable[bytes],
+        salt: str | bytes | None = b"itsdangerous",
+        serializer: _PDataSerializer[_TAnyStr] = ...,
+        serializer_kwargs: dict[str, t.Any] | None = None,
+        signer: type[Signer] | None = None,
+        signer_kwargs: dict[str, t.Any] | None = None,
+        fallback_signers: list[
+            dict[str, t.Any] | tuple[type[Signer], dict[str, t.Any]] | type[Signer]
+        ]
+        | None = None,
+    ): ...
+
     def __init__(
         self,
         secret_key: str | bytes | cabc.Iterable[str] | cabc.Iterable[bytes],
         salt: str | bytes | None = b"itsdangerous",
-        serializer: t.Any = None,
+        serializer: _PDataSerializer[_TAnyStr] | None = None,
         serializer_kwargs: dict[str, t.Any] | None = None,
         signer: type[Signer] | None = None,
         signer_kwargs: dict[str, t.Any] | None = None,
@@ -111,7 +150,7 @@ def __init__(
         if serializer is None:
             serializer = self.default_serializer
 
-        self.serializer: t.Any = serializer
+        self.serializer: _PDataSerializer[_TAnyStr] = serializer
         self.is_text_serializer: bool = is_text_serializer(serializer)
 
         if signer is None:
@@ -135,7 +174,9 @@ def secret_key(self) -> bytes:
         """
         return self.secret_keys[-1]
 
-    def load_payload(self, payload: bytes, serializer: t.Any | None = None) -> t.Any:
+    def load_payload(
+        self, payload: bytes, serializer: _PDataSerializer[_TAnyStr] | None = None
+    ) -> t.Any:
         """Loads the encoded object. This function raises
         :class:`.BadPayload` if the payload is not valid. The
         ``serializer`` parameter can be used to override the serializer
@@ -199,7 +240,7 @@ def iter_unsigners(self, salt: str | bytes | None = None) -> cabc.Iterator[Signe
             for secret_key in self.secret_keys:
                 yield fallback(secret_key, salt=salt, **kwargs)
 
-    def dumps(self, obj: t.Any, salt: str | bytes | None = None) -> str | bytes:
+    def dumps(self, obj: t.Any, salt: str | bytes | None = None) -> _TAnyStr:
         """Returns a signed string serialized with the internal
         serializer. The return value can be either a byte or unicode
         string depending on the format of the internal serializer.
@@ -208,9 +249,9 @@ def dumps(self, obj: t.Any, salt: str | bytes | None = None) -> str | bytes:
         rv = self.make_signer(salt).sign(payload)
 
         if self.is_text_serializer:
-            return rv.decode("utf-8")
+            return rv.decode("utf-8")  # type: ignore[return-value]
 
-        return rv
+        return rv  # type: ignore[return-value]
 
     def dump(self, obj: t.Any, f: t.IO[t.Any], salt: str | bytes | None = None) -> None:
         """Like :meth:`dumps` but dumps into a file. The file handle has
diff --git a/src/itsdangerous/timed.py b/src/itsdangerous/timed.py
index 8188b97..51dac0e 100644
--- a/src/itsdangerous/timed.py
+++ b/src/itsdangerous/timed.py
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
 from .serializer import Serializer
 from .signer import Signer
 
+_TAnyStr = t.TypeVar("_TAnyStr", str, bytes, covariant=True)
+
 
 class TimestampSigner(Signer):
     """Works like the regular :class:`.Signer` but also records the time
@@ -166,7 +168,7 @@ def validate(self, signed_value: str | bytes, max_age: int | None = None) -> boo
             return False
 
 
-class TimedSerializer(Serializer):
+class TimedSerializer(Serializer[_TAnyStr]):
     """Uses :class:`TimestampSigner` instead of the default
     :class:`.Signer`.
     """
diff --git a/src/itsdangerous/url_safe.py b/src/itsdangerous/url_safe.py
index e33b241..56a0793 100644
--- a/src/itsdangerous/url_safe.py
+++ b/src/itsdangerous/url_safe.py
@@ -7,17 +7,18 @@
 from .encoding import base64_decode
 from .encoding import base64_encode
 from .exc import BadPayload
+from .serializer import _PDataSerializer
 from .serializer import Serializer
 from .timed import TimedSerializer
 
 
-class URLSafeSerializerMixin(Serializer):
+class URLSafeSerializerMixin(Serializer[str]):
     """Mixed in with a regular serializer it will attempt to zlib
     compress the string to make it shorter if necessary. It will also
     base64 encode the string so that it can safely be placed in a URL.
     """
 
-    default_serializer = _CompactJSON
+    default_serializer: _PDataSerializer[str] = _CompactJSON
 
     def load_payload(
         self,
@@ -68,14 +69,14 @@ def dump_payload(self, obj: t.Any) -> bytes:
         return base64d
 
 
-class URLSafeSerializer(URLSafeSerializerMixin, Serializer):
+class URLSafeSerializer(URLSafeSerializerMixin, Serializer[str]):
     """Works like :class:`.Serializer` but dumps and loads into a URL
     safe string consisting of the upper and lowercase character of the
     alphabet as well as ``'_'``, ``'-'`` and ``'.'``.
     """
 
 
-class URLSafeTimedSerializer(URLSafeSerializerMixin, TimedSerializer):
+class URLSafeTimedSerializer(URLSafeSerializerMixin, TimedSerializer[str]):
     """Works like :class:`.TimedSerializer` but dumps and loads into a
     URL safe string consisting of the upper and lowercase character of
     the alphabet as well as ``'_'``, ``'-'`` and ``'.'``.