diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e678be0e965fe..169308718e569 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 
 
 - Fault Tolerant Manual
+    * Add `_SupportsStateDict` protocol to detect if classes are stateful ([#10646](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/issues/10646))
     * Add `_FaultTolerantMode` enum used to track different supported fault tolerant modes ([#10645](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/issues/10645))
 
 
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/utilities/auto_restart.py b/pytorch_lightning/utilities/auto_restart.py
index 228e16e4e9c8c..23583852f4f39 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/utilities/auto_restart.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/utilities/auto_restart.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 import torch
 from torch.utils.data import Dataset, get_worker_info, Sampler
 from torch.utils.data.dataloader import _MultiProcessingDataLoaderIter, DataLoader, IterableDataset
+from typing_extensions import Protocol, runtime_checkable
 
 import pytorch_lightning as pl
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.enums import AutoRestartBatchKeys
@@ -570,3 +571,14 @@ def reload_dataloader_state_dict(dataloader: DataLoader, state_dict: Dict[str, A
 
     else:
         raise MisconfigurationException("This shouldn't happen. Please, open an issue on PyTorch Lightning Github.")
+
+
+@runtime_checkable
+class _SupportsStateDict(Protocol):
+    """This class is used to detect if an object is stateful using `isinstance(obj, _SupportsStateDict)`."""
+
+    def state_dict(self) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+        ...
+
+    def load_state_dict(self, state_dict: Dict[str, Any]) -> None:
+        ...
diff --git a/tests/utilities/test_auto_restart.py b/tests/utilities/test_auto_restart.py
index b9eb97cb42ae8..5152874b39469 100644
--- a/tests/utilities/test_auto_restart.py
+++ b/tests/utilities/test_auto_restart.py
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
     _add_capture_metadata_collate,
     _dataloader_load_state_dict,
     _dataloader_to_state_dict,
+    _SupportsStateDict,
     CaptureIterableDataset,
     CaptureMapDataset,
     FastForwardSampler,
@@ -1195,6 +1196,29 @@ def test_auto_restart_under_signal(on_last_batch, val_check_interval, failure_on
         assert "dataloader_state_dict" in state_dict
 
 
+def test_supports_state_dict_protocol():
+    class StatefulClass:
+        def state_dict(self):
+            pass
+
+        def load_state_dict(self, state_dict):
+            pass
+
+    assert isinstance(StatefulClass(), _SupportsStateDict)
+
+    class NotStatefulClass:
+        def state_dict(self):
+            pass
+
+    assert not isinstance(NotStatefulClass(), _SupportsStateDict)
+
+    class NotStateful2Class:
+        def load_state_dict(self, state_dict):
+            pass
+
+    assert not isinstance(NotStateful2Class(), _SupportsStateDict)
+
+
 def test_fault_tolerant_mode_enum():
     with mock.patch.dict(os.environ, {"PL_FAULT_TOLERANT_TRAINING": "0"}):
         assert _FaultTolerantMode.DISABLED == _FaultTolerantMode.detect_current_mode()