diff --git a/pandas/core/indexes/base.py b/pandas/core/indexes/base.py
index e633d6b28a8c5..9b0c85abc7ebd 100644
--- a/pandas/core/indexes/base.py
+++ b/pandas/core/indexes/base.py
@@ -148,6 +148,7 @@
 from pandas.core.ops.invalid import make_invalid_op
 from pandas.core.sorting import (
     ensure_key_mapped,
+    get_group_index_sorter,
     nargsort,
 )
 from pandas.core.strings import StringMethods
@@ -4098,9 +4099,7 @@ def _get_leaf_sorter(labels):
                 return np.empty(0, dtype="int64")
 
             if len(labels) == 1:
-                lab = ensure_int64(labels[0])
-                sorter, _ = libalgos.groupsort_indexer(lab, 1 + lab.max())
-                return sorter
+                return get_group_index_sorter(labels[0])
 
             # find indexers of beginning of each set of
             # same-key labels w.r.t all but last level
diff --git a/pandas/core/reshape/reshape.py b/pandas/core/reshape/reshape.py
index 543bf44e61216..271bb2ca8dd75 100644
--- a/pandas/core/reshape/reshape.py
+++ b/pandas/core/reshape/reshape.py
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 
-import pandas._libs.algos as libalgos
 import pandas._libs.reshape as libreshape
 from pandas._libs.sparse import IntIndex
 from pandas._typing import Dtype
@@ -42,6 +41,7 @@
     decons_obs_group_ids,
     get_compressed_ids,
     get_group_index,
+    get_group_index_sorter,
 )
 
 
@@ -139,8 +139,7 @@ def _indexer_and_to_sort(self):
         comp_index, obs_ids = get_compressed_ids(to_sort, sizes)
         ngroups = len(obs_ids)
 
-        indexer = libalgos.groupsort_indexer(comp_index, ngroups)[0]
-        indexer = ensure_platform_int(indexer)
+        indexer = get_group_index_sorter(comp_index, ngroups)
 
         return indexer, to_sort
 
diff --git a/pandas/core/sorting.py b/pandas/core/sorting.py
index 0195969de1f17..973fed2c1436f 100644
--- a/pandas/core/sorting.py
+++ b/pandas/core/sorting.py
@@ -567,7 +567,9 @@ def get_indexer_dict(
 # sorting levels...cleverly?
 
 
-def get_group_index_sorter(group_index, ngroups: int):
+def get_group_index_sorter(
+    group_index: np.ndarray, ngroups: int | None = None
+) -> np.ndarray:
     """
     algos.groupsort_indexer implements `counting sort` and it is at least
     O(ngroups), where
@@ -581,6 +583,8 @@ def get_group_index_sorter(group_index, ngroups: int):
     groupby operations. e.g. consider:
         df.groupby(key)[col].transform('first')
     """
+    if ngroups is None:
+        ngroups = 1 + group_index.max()
     count = len(group_index)
     alpha = 0.0  # taking complexities literally; there may be
     beta = 1.0  # some room for fine-tuning these parameters