{"head":{"title":"When Do EU AI Act Rules Apply? Every Date in One Place","description":"EU AI Act dates after the 2026 Digital Omnibus: bans from February 2025, general-purpose AI from August 2025, high-risk rules from December 2027 and 2028.","canonical":"https://oceanlab.in/questions/when-do-eu-ai-act-rules-apply"},"crumbs":[{"name":"Home","path":"/"},{"name":"Questions","path":"/questions"},{"name":"When do the EU AI Act rules apply?","path":"/questions/when-do-eu-ai-act-rules-apply"}],"question":"When do the EU AI Act rules apply?","answer":["In stages. Bans on prohibited practices and AI literacy duties apply from 2 February 2025, general-purpose AI model rules from 2 August 2025, and most other rules, including transparency duties, from 2 August 2026. After the 2026 Digital Omnibus, the high-risk rules apply from 2 December 2027 for Annex III systems and 2 August 2028 for Annex I systems."],"sections":[{"heading":"The dates, in order","body":[],"bullets":[["2 February 2025: Chapters I and II apply, including the prohibited practices in Article 5 and AI literacy."],["2 August 2025: rules for general-purpose AI models, governance, penalties and confidentiality."],["2 August 2026: the general date of application, including Article 50 transparency duties such as telling people they are talking to an AI."],["2 December 2026: new bans added by the Digital Omnibus on AI that generates non-consensual intimate images of identifiable people or child sexual abuse material. Providers of generative systems already on the market before 2 August 2026 must also meet the Article 50(2) marking duty by this date."],["2 December 2027: high-risk rules for systems in the Annex III areas, such as hiring, credit, education and essential services."],["2 August 2028: high-risk rules for AI that is a safety component of products under the Annex I laws, such as machinery."]]},{"heading":"Why the high-risk dates moved","body":[["The original Act set 2 August 2026 for Annex III and 2 August 2027 for Annex I. Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, the Digital Omnibus on AI, moved them because standards, guidance and national authorities were not ready in time. If you plan a ",{"href":"/glossary/high-risk-ai-system","text":"high-risk system"},", these are the dates to build towards."]],"bullets":[]},{"heading":"What to do now","body":[["Find out which class your system falls in, check that nothing is prohibited, and add transparency features now, since those apply from August 2026. For high-risk systems, start on logging, ",{"href":"/glossary/human-in-the-loop","text":"human oversight"},", documentation and ",{"href":"/glossary/llm-evals","text":"evaluation"}," during the build: they are hard to add later."]],"bullets":[]}],"faqs":[{"question":"Did the Digital Omnibus delay everything?","answer":"No. It moved the high-risk dates and adjusted some details. The bans, the general-purpose AI rules and the August 2026 general date stand."},{"question":"Does the Act apply to systems already on the market?","answer":"Partly. High-risk systems placed on the market before the high-risk rules apply are mostly caught only if they later change significantly, with stricter rules for systems used by public authorities. Check Article 111 as amended."},{"question":"Where can I check my system's class?","answer":"Use our EU AI Act risk checker for a first pass, then confirm with the official text or a lawyer."}],"terms":[{"href":"/glossary/high-risk-ai-system","label":"high-risk AI system"},{"href":"/glossary/human-in-the-loop","label":"human-in-the-loop"},{"href":"/glossary/llm-evals","label":"LLM evals"},{"href":"/glossary/ai-agent","label":"AI agent"}],"tools":[{"href":"/tools/eu-ai-act-risk-checker","label":"EU AI act risk checker","detail":"Free tool"},{"href":"/tools/ai-readiness-assessment","label":"AI readiness assessment","detail":"Free tool"}],"links":[{"href":"/compliance/eu-ai-act","label":"EU AI Act guide","detail":"Risk classes, duties and the current dates."},{"href":"/compliance","label":"Compliance guides","detail":"What each rule means for the software you build."},{"href":"/ai","label":"AI by industry","detail":"AI use cases, costs and risks per industry."}],"related":[{"href":"/questions/is-my-ai-system-high-risk","label":"Is my AI system high-risk under the EU AI Act?","detail":"Question"},{"href":"/questions/does-gdpr-apply-to-us-companies","label":"Does GDPR apply to US companies?","detail":"Question"},{"href":"/questions/how-to-measure-ai-roi","label":"How do I measure AI ROI?","detail":"Question"},{"href":"/compare/ai-agent-vs-workflow-automation","label":"AI agent vs workflow automation","detail":"Comparison"},{"href":"/compare/rag-vs-fine-tuning","label":"RAG vs fine-tuning","detail":"Comparison"},{"href":"/glossary","label":"Glossary","detail":"Every term, in plain words."}],"sources":[{"title":"Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the AI Act (Official Journal)","url":"https://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj","checkedAt":"2026-10-25"},{"title":"Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, Digital Omnibus on AI (Official Journal)","url":"https://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2026/1744/oj","checkedAt":"2026-10-25"},{"title":"European Commission, AI Act overview","url":"https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai","checkedAt":"2026-10-25"}],"legal":true,"updatedAt":"2026-10-25"}