What are all the EU AI Act deadlines?
Updated 9 August 2026 for Regulation (EU) 2026/1744.
The EU AI Act has eighteen dates, from publication on 12 July 2024 to the 31 December 2030 transitional cut-off. Each row names the provision that sets it, so you can check any of them against the text. Four moved or arrived when Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 amended the Act in July 2026.
Quick answer
- The one most companies plan around is 2 December 2027 — Annex III high-risk systems. It was 2 August 2026 until July 2026.
- The Annex I track is separate and later: 2 August 2028, moved from 2 August 2027. Two tracks, two dates, one point (c).
- Three dates arrived in 2026 that no earlier version of this table carried: 1 August 2027, 2 September 2027 and 28 January 2028.
- Five rows are Commission-side, included on one test — a delay pushes back guidance you need.
- Nothing here is a grace period. Article 111's transitional relief is never relief from the Article 5 prohibitions.
The table
| Date | What applies | Article |
|---|---|---|
| 12 July 2024 | Published in the Official Journal — the date Article 113's twenty-day clock runs from; the Regulation itself does not state it | OJ L, 12.7.2024 |
| 1 August 2024 | Entry into force | Article 113 |
| 2 November 2024 | Member States identify the public authorities or bodies supervising fundamental-rights obligations for Annex III systems | Article 77(2) |
| 2 November 2024 | Member States identify the public authorities or bodies supervising fundamental-rights obligations for Annex III systems | Article 77(2) |
| 2 February 2025 | Chapters I and II: eight of the ten prohibited practices, and AI literacy. Points (ba) and (bb) and Article 5(1a) and (1b) are excepted to 2 December 2026 | Article 5, Article 113, third para, point (a), as amended |
| 2 May 2025 | GPAI codes of practice deadline | Article 56(9) |
| 2 August 2025 | Chapter III Section 4 (notifying authorities and notified bodies), Chapter V (GPAI), Chapter VII (governance), Chapter XII (penalties) and Article 78 (confidentiality) — with the exception of Article 101, the GPAI fines, which follows the general date | Article 113, third para, point (b) |
| 2 February 2026 | Commission guidelines on Article 6 classification due | Article 6(5) |
| 27 July 2026 | Reg. 2026/1744 enters into force; Arts. 102 to 110 apply | Article 113, third para, point (d) |
| 2 August 2026 | General application date: Article 50 transparency, Chapter III Section 5, remainder of the Act. Pre-existing synthetic-content systems get to 2 December 2026 for 50(2) | Article 113; Article 111(4) |
| 2 December 2026 | The two prohibitions added by Reg. 2026/1744 and Article 5(1a) and (1b); Article 50(2) compliance for synthetic-content systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026 | Article 113, third para, point (a); Article 111(4) |
| 1 August 2027 | Commission guidelines on Article 8(2), 9(10) and 17(3) due (note: 1 August, not 2) | Article 96(1), point (g) |
| 2 August 2027 | Earlier GPAI providers must comply; national sandboxes operational; Commission delegated acts limiting Arts. 9 to 15 and 17 to 25 for Annex I systems due | Article 111(3), Article 57(1), Article 2(13) |
| 2 September 2027 | Commission guidance and template on the post-market monitoring plan due | Article 72(3), as replaced |
| 2 December 2027 | High-risk regime (Chapter III, Sections 1, 2 and 3) for Annex III systems | Article 113, third para, point (c)(i) |
| 28 January 2028 | Notified bodies notified under legislation in Section A of Annex I must apply for designation under Section 4 of Chapter III | Article 43(3), as replaced |
| 2 August 2028 | The same regime for Annex I systems under Article 6(1) | Article 113, third para, point (c)(ii) |
| 2 August 2030 | High-risk systems used by public authorities | Article 111(2) |
| 31 December 2030 | Large-scale EU IT systems (Annex X) placed on the market or put into service before 2 August 2027 | Article 111(1) |
Several rows fall on the Commission or on Member States rather than on providers or deployers — 2 November 2024 and 2 August 2027 (Member States), and 2 May 2025, 2 February 2026, 1 August 2027 and 2 September 2027 (the Commission). The 2 August 2027 row is mixed: Article 111(3) binds GPAI providers, Article 57(1) binds Member States and Article 2(13) binds the Commission. They are included on one test: a delay to any of them pushes back guidance you need for your own deadlines. Article 112's review and evaluation dates (2 August 2028, 2 August 2029, 2 August 2031) fail that test — they evaluate the Regulation rather than supply anything you have to comply with — so they are deliberately absent.
Which dates moved in July 2026?
Four rows, and they are the ones most likely to be wrong in anything written before 27 July 2026.
2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028 — the high-risk regime. Article 113, third paragraph, point (c) was replaced. It now covers the whole of Chapter III, Sections 1, 2 and 3, with the exception of Article 6(5), on two dates: Annex III systems under Article 6(2) first, Annex I systems under Article 6(1) second. The two tracks moved from different places — Annex III from the general 2 August 2026 date, Article 6(1) from the 2 August 2027 the former point (c) had given it.
2 December 2026 — the two new prohibitions. Point (a) was replaced to except Article 5(1), first subparagraph, points (ba) and (bb), and Article 5(1a) and (1b) from the 2 February 2025 start. What those two ban is narrower than it first reads.
The legacy cut-off stopped being a date. Article 111(2) used to name 2 August 2026. It now points at "the date of application of Chapter III referred to in Article 113" — in the singular, while Article 113 carries two. Which governs a given system is not settled by the text; the legacy guide works through what turns on it.
The sandbox deadline moved too. Article 57(1) required national AI regulatory sandboxes to be "operational by 2 August 2026" in the 2024 text; as amended it is 2 August 2027. It is a Member State duty, not a provider one, which is why it is easy to miss — and missing it is what this section exists to prevent.
Three dates arrived that no earlier version of this table had: 1 August 2027 (Article 96(1), point (g) — and it is 1 August, not 2), 2 September 2027 (Article 72(3) as replaced) and 28 January 2028 (Article 43(3) as replaced).
What this means for you
If you're a provider: find your system's route before you pick a date, because the two high-risk tracks — 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028 (Article 113, third paragraph, point (c), as amended) — are eight months apart and the wrong one is a plausible mistake — the classification guide runs the test in order. Then work backwards: conformity assessment and Annex IV documentation are not late-2027 work. Complipath's guided risk classification returns the risk level with the provisions and reasoning it rests on, so the route is on record when you work backwards from these dates.
If you're a deployer: your dates come from the provider's classification, so verify it rather than inherit it. Article 26 sits in Section 3 and therefore carries both dates — 2 December 2027 for an Annex III system, 2 August 2028 for an Annex I one. If you run anything for a public authority, the Article 111(2) backstop of 2 August 2030 applies whatever the system's placing date.
Which rows are yours?
Classify your system now — 7 questions on the main line, plus follow-ups where they apply, no account, and the classification runs in your browser: answers stay there unless you choose to keep the result.
FAQ
What is the single most important EU AI Act deadline? For most software companies, 2 December 2027 — when Chapter III, Sections 1, 2 and 3 apply to Annex III high-risk systems under Article 113, third paragraph, point (c)(i). It was 2 August 2026 before Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 moved it.
Did the EU AI Act deadlines get delayed? Some did. The high-risk regime moved to 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028, and the sandbox deadline to 2 August 2027. Two prohibitions were added on a later date, and Article 111(4) gives synthetic-content systems already on the market until 2 December 2026 for Article 50(2). The GPAI obligations and the general application date did not move.
Which deadlines have already passed? Member State identification of fundamental-rights authorities (2 November 2024), entry into force (1 August 2024), eight of the ten Article 5 prohibitions and AI literacy (2 February 2025), the GPAI codes deadline (2 May 2025), the GPAI and governance package (2 August 2025), the Article 6(5) guidelines deadline (2 February 2026), the amending regulation's entry into force (27 July 2026) and the general application date (2 August 2026).
Is 31 December 2030 a general grace period? No. It applies only to AI components of the large-scale EU IT systems listed in Annex X, and only where they were placed on the market or put into service before 2 August 2027. Everything else runs on the earlier dates.
Sources: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (EUR-Lex), Articles 2, 5, 6, 43, 50, 56, 57, 70, 72, 96, 111, 112 and 113, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (EUR-Lex) — in force 27 July 2026 — in particular Article 1, points (3), (19), (22), (30), (36), (39) and (40). Every date in the table is taken from the provision named beside it and cross-checked against the regenerated extraction in content/date-table-2026-1744.md, not from memory or from a secondary source. Harmonised standards under Article 40 were still in development at the time of writing: where a deadline depends on a standard that has not been finalised, the date is the legal deadline and not a guarantee that supporting guidance will exist by then.