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2026-04-14·15 min read·sota.io team

EU AI Act Art.113: Application Dates — When Does the AI Act Apply? Complete Timeline Developer Guide (2026)

Article 113 is the single most-searched provision in the EU AI Act — the article that answers "when does what apply?" It establishes four layered application dates, each activating different obligations for different AI system categories. This guide decodes the full Art.113 cascade and shows how to build your compliance roadmap from it.

The One Article Every Developer Must Know

If you read only one article in the EU AI Act, read Article 113.

While the regulation officially entered into force on August 1, 2024 (per Art.109), the application of its obligations follows a staggered four-phase schedule. Art.113 defines that schedule. Every compliance deadline, every "by when do we need this?" question in EU AI Act planning ultimately traces back to Art.113.

The structure is a cascade:

Application DateMonths After EIFWhat Becomes Applicable
February 2, 20256 monthsProhibited practices (Art.5) + AI literacy (Art.4)
August 2, 202512 monthsGPAI models (Art.51–68) + Governance structures
August 2, 202624 monthsFull application — default date for most obligations
August 2, 202736 monthsArt.6(1) — Annex I product safety legislation AI

Understanding this cascade is the foundation of every EU AI Act compliance roadmap.

Phase 1: February 2, 2025 — Prohibited Practices and AI Literacy

What Applied on February 2, 2025

Six months after the regulation's entry into force, the first wave of obligations became binding:

Art.5 — Prohibited AI Practices: All eight categories of prohibited AI systems became unlawful on February 2, 2025. These prohibitions apply immediately and without transition — there is no grace period, no Art.108 shelter, no delayed application for legacy systems. If your AI system uses:

…it was required to be shut down or fundamentally redesigned by February 2, 2025.

Art.4 — AI Literacy: Providers and deployers must ensure their personnel have sufficient AI literacy by February 2, 2025. This is an ongoing obligation — not a one-time certification — covering technical understanding, operational context, and awareness of AI system capabilities and limitations.

Art.84(1) — First Evaluation Report: The Commission's obligation to submit an evaluation report on the implementation and impact of the regulation began from this date.

What Did NOT Apply in Phase 1

Everything else. The high-risk AI requirements (Art.6–51), the GPAI obligations (Art.51–68), the transparency requirements (Art.50), the conformity assessments, the registration database — none of these applied on February 2, 2025.

Common Mistake: Teams that saw the February 2025 date assumed the entire Act was in force. It was not. Only the prohibited practices prohibition and AI literacy requirements applied.

Phase 2: August 2, 2025 — GPAI Models and Governance Infrastructure

What Applied on August 2, 2025

Twelve months after entry into force, the GPAI (General Purpose AI) framework became operational:

Chapter V — GPAI Models (Art.51–68): Providers of general-purpose AI models — including large language models, multimodal models, and foundation models — became subject to binding obligations covering:

GPAI Code of Practice: The AI Office's GPAI Code of Practice became the primary voluntary compliance instrument for GPAI providers. Compliance with the Code creates a presumption of conformity with Chapter V.

Governance Structures:

Notified Body Regime: The framework for conformity assessment bodies to begin notified body procedures under Art.43 became active.

What Did NOT Apply in Phase 2

High-risk AI obligations (Art.6–51 for Annex II/III systems) remained inapplicable until August 2026. A GPAI model provider subject to Chapter V did not need to meet Art.9–15 requirements (risk management, data governance, technical documentation for high-risk AI, logging, transparency, human oversight, accuracy/robustness) unless their model was itself a high-risk AI system — which triggers different analysis.

Phase 3: August 2, 2026 — Full Application (The Default Date)

The Core Date for Most AI Systems

August 2, 2026 is the date most compliance teams mean when they say "the EU AI Act." This is the default application date under Art.113(3) — all provisions of the regulation that are not covered by earlier or later dates apply from this point.

What Became Fully Applicable:

High-Risk AI Obligations (Art.6–51):

High-Risk AI Classification (Annex III): All eight categories in Annex III became fully operative as high-risk classifiers:

  1. Biometric identification and categorization
  2. Critical infrastructure management
  3. Education and vocational training
  4. Employment, worker management, self-employment
  5. Access to essential private/public services
  6. Law enforcement
  7. Migration, asylum, border control
  8. Administration of justice and democratic processes

Market Surveillance and Enforcement:

Transparency Obligations for Certain AI Systems (Art.50): Systems generating synthetic content, emotion recognition, deep fakes, and certain chatbots must meet transparency requirements regardless of high-risk classification.

The Art.108 Interaction

Systems already placed on market or put into service before August 2, 2026 may qualify for Art.108 transitional provisions — grace periods extending compliance obligations to August 2, 2028 (Annex III) or August 2, 2029 (Annex I Machinery/MDR). The critical trigger: substantial modification eliminates the grace period regardless of when the system was originally deployed.

Phase 4: August 2, 2027 — Annex I Product Safety Legislation

The Sector-Specific Extension

Art.113(4) applies to a specific subset of high-risk AI: systems covered by Art.6(1) — AI systems that are safety components of products, or are products themselves, falling under the Union harmonization legislation listed in Annex I.

Annex I Legislation Categories:

For AI systems integrated into Annex I-regulated products, full AI Act compliance for the product-integrated AI is required from August 2, 2027 — giving these sectors an additional 12 months beyond the default August 2026 date.

Why the Extension? Annex I products already undergo complex conformity assessment under their sectoral legislation. Adding AI Act compliance on top requires coordination between notified bodies, updated standards from CEN/CENELEC, and alignment between the AI Act's requirements and existing CE marking procedures. The 36-month window acknowledges this complexity.

Digital Omnibus Impact on Art.113 Timelines

In 2025, the European Commission proposed the Digital Omnibus package, which includes modifications to the AI Act's application dates. As of this writing, the Digital Omnibus proposal is advancing through the legislative process but has not yet been adopted as final law.

Proposed Changes (Not Yet Final Law):

System CategoryOriginal Art.113 DateDigital Omnibus Proposed Extension
Annex III High-Risk AIAugust 2, 2026December 31, 2027
Annex I Product Safety AIAugust 2, 2027August 2, 2028
GPAI ModelsAugust 2, 2025Unchanged
Prohibited PracticesFebruary 2, 2025Unchanged

Developer Implication: If Digital Omnibus is adopted in its current form, Annex III high-risk AI systems would gain approximately 16 additional months of transition time. However, planning purely on the basis of proposed extensions is a compliance risk — the proposal could be modified or delayed. The prudent approach: plan for the original Art.113 dates and treat any Digital Omnibus extension as a risk buffer.

Determining Which Date Applies to Your System

Use this decision tree to determine which Art.113 application date governs your AI system:

Step 1 — Is your system a prohibited practice (Art.5)? → YES: February 2, 2025 already passed. You must have ceased operation or redesigned. → NO: Continue.

Step 2 — Is your system a GPAI model (Art.3(63) — general purpose AI model)? → YES: Chapter V obligations applied from August 2, 2025. → NO: Continue.

Step 3 — Is your system high-risk under Art.6(2) and Annex III? → YES: Default application date August 2, 2026. Art.108 may provide transitional relief if placed on market before this date. → NO: Continue.

Step 4 — Is your system high-risk under Art.6(1) — Annex I product/component? → YES: Extended application date August 2, 2027. → NO: Continue.

Step 5 — Does Art.50 transparency apply (chatbot, synthetic content, emotion recognition, deep fake)? → YES: August 2, 2026 application date. → NO: Your system is likely a limited-risk or minimal-risk AI system with no mandatory EU AI Act compliance obligations beyond Art.4 AI literacy (already applied February 2025).

Application Date Monitoring: What You Should Track

For a development team building EU AI Act compliance infrastructure, these are the Art.113 milestones to track:

Already Passed:

Approaching (as of 2026-04-14):

Compliance Implications for Current Development: Any Annex III high-risk AI system currently in development that has not yet been placed on market will need to meet full Art.9–51 requirements before deployment — there is no grace period for systems first placed on market after August 2, 2026.

Python Tooling for Art.113 Compliance Scheduling

from datetime import date, timedelta
from enum import Enum

class AISystemCategory(Enum):
    PROHIBITED_PRACTICE = "prohibited_practice"
    GPAI_MODEL = "gpai_model"
    HIGH_RISK_ANNEX_III = "high_risk_annex_iii"
    HIGH_RISK_ANNEX_I = "high_risk_annex_i"
    TRANSPARENCY_ONLY = "transparency_only"
    LIMITED_RISK = "limited_risk"

class Art113ApplicationDateSchedule:
    """Computes EU AI Act application dates per Art.113."""
    
    # Art.109 Entry into Force
    ENTRY_INTO_FORCE = date(2024, 8, 1)
    
    # Art.113 application dates
    PHASE_1_DATE = date(2025, 2, 2)   # 6 months: Prohibited practices + AI literacy
    PHASE_2_DATE = date(2025, 8, 2)   # 12 months: GPAI + Governance
    PHASE_3_DATE = date(2026, 8, 2)   # 24 months: Full application (default)
    PHASE_4_DATE = date(2027, 8, 2)   # 36 months: Annex I product safety AI
    
    # Digital Omnibus proposed extensions (NOT YET LAW)
    DIGITAL_OMNIBUS_ANNEX_III = date(2027, 12, 31)  # Proposed: Annex III extension
    DIGITAL_OMNIBUS_ANNEX_I = date(2028, 8, 2)       # Proposed: Annex I extension
    
    def __init__(self, system_category: AISystemCategory, 
                 placed_on_market: date = None,
                 consider_digital_omnibus: bool = False):
        self.system_category = system_category
        self.placed_on_market = placed_on_market
        self.consider_digital_omnibus = consider_digital_omnibus
        self.today = date.today()
    
    def get_application_date(self) -> date:
        """Returns the primary Art.113 application date for this system category."""
        if self.system_category == AISystemCategory.PROHIBITED_PRACTICE:
            return self.PHASE_1_DATE
        elif self.system_category == AISystemCategory.GPAI_MODEL:
            return self.PHASE_2_DATE
        elif self.system_category == AISystemCategory.HIGH_RISK_ANNEX_III:
            if self.consider_digital_omnibus:
                return self.DIGITAL_OMNIBUS_ANNEX_III
            return self.PHASE_3_DATE
        elif self.system_category == AISystemCategory.HIGH_RISK_ANNEX_I:
            if self.consider_digital_omnibus:
                return self.DIGITAL_OMNIBUS_ANNEX_I
            return self.PHASE_4_DATE
        else:
            return self.PHASE_3_DATE
    
    def days_remaining(self) -> int:
        """Days until application date from today."""
        app_date = self.get_application_date()
        delta = app_date - self.today
        return max(0, delta.days)
    
    def is_applicable_now(self) -> bool:
        """Is the regulation currently applicable to this system?"""
        return self.today >= self.get_application_date()
    
    def check_art108_eligibility(self) -> dict:
        """
        Check if Art.108 transitional provisions could apply.
        Returns eligibility assessment and grace period dates.
        """
        if self.placed_on_market is None:
            return {
                "eligible": "UNKNOWN",
                "reason": "Placed-on-market date not provided",
                "grace_period_end": None
            }
        
        application_date = self.get_application_date()
        
        if self.placed_on_market >= application_date:
            return {
                "eligible": False,
                "reason": "System placed on market on or after application date — Art.108 grace period does not apply",
                "grace_period_end": None
            }
        
        # System placed before application date — may qualify for Art.108
        if self.system_category == AISystemCategory.HIGH_RISK_ANNEX_III:
            grace_period_end = date(2028, 8, 2)  # Art.108 + 2 years from Aug 2026
        elif self.system_category == AISystemCategory.HIGH_RISK_ANNEX_I:
            grace_period_end = date(2029, 8, 2)  # Art.108 + 2 years from Aug 2027
        else:
            return {
                "eligible": False,
                "reason": f"Category {self.system_category.value} does not have Art.108 grace period",
                "grace_period_end": None
            }
        
        return {
            "eligible": True,
            "reason": f"System placed on market before {application_date} — Art.108 transitional relief may apply until {grace_period_end}",
            "grace_period_end": grace_period_end,
            "warning": "SUBSTANTIAL MODIFICATION eliminates grace period regardless of this analysis"
        }
    
    def generate_compliance_roadmap(self) -> list:
        """Generate ordered compliance milestones."""
        milestones = [
            {
                "date": self.PHASE_1_DATE,
                "label": "Phase 1: Prohibited Practices + AI Literacy",
                "status": "PASSED" if self.today > self.PHASE_1_DATE else "FUTURE",
                "applies_to": "All AI systems — Art.5 prohibitions + Art.4 AI literacy"
            },
            {
                "date": self.PHASE_2_DATE,
                "label": "Phase 2: GPAI Models + Governance",
                "status": "PASSED" if self.today > self.PHASE_2_DATE else "FUTURE",
                "applies_to": "GPAI model providers — Chapter V (Art.51–68)"
            },
            {
                "date": self.PHASE_3_DATE,
                "label": "Phase 3: Full Application (Default)",
                "status": "PASSED" if self.today > self.PHASE_3_DATE else f"{(self.PHASE_3_DATE - self.today).days} days remaining",
                "applies_to": "Annex III high-risk AI + Transparency AI (Art.50) — most developers"
            },
            {
                "date": self.PHASE_4_DATE,
                "label": "Phase 4: Annex I Product Safety AI",
                "status": "PASSED" if self.today > self.PHASE_4_DATE else f"{(self.PHASE_4_DATE - self.today).days} days remaining",
                "applies_to": "Art.6(1) AI in Annex I regulated products (MDR, Machinery, etc.)"
            },
        ]
        return [m for m in milestones]


# Usage examples
def assess_system_compliance_status(
    system_name: str,
    category: AISystemCategory,
    placed_on_market: date = None
) -> None:
    schedule = Art113ApplicationDateSchedule(category, placed_on_market)
    
    app_date = schedule.get_application_date()
    days_left = schedule.days_remaining()
    applicable = schedule.is_applicable_now()
    
    print(f"\n=== {system_name} ===")
    print(f"Category: {category.value}")
    print(f"Application Date: {app_date}")
    print(f"Status: {'APPLICABLE NOW' if applicable else f'{days_left} days remaining'}")
    
    art108 = schedule.check_art108_eligibility()
    print(f"Art.108 Eligibility: {art108['eligible']} — {art108['reason']}")
    
    print("\nCompliance Roadmap:")
    for milestone in schedule.generate_compliance_roadmap():
        print(f"  {milestone['date']}: {milestone['label']} [{milestone['status']}]")


# Example: High-risk AI in recruitment (Annex III category 4)
assess_system_compliance_status(
    "Resume Screening AI",
    AISystemCategory.HIGH_RISK_ANNEX_III,
    placed_on_market=date(2025, 6, 1)
)

# Example: Large language model provider
assess_system_compliance_status(
    "Foundation LLM",
    AISystemCategory.GPAI_MODEL
)

# Example: Medical device AI
assess_system_compliance_status(
    "Diagnostic Imaging AI (MDR Class IIb)",
    AISystemCategory.HIGH_RISK_ANNEX_I,
    placed_on_market=date(2024, 3, 15)
)

Art.113 in the Context of the Full EU AI Act Structure

Art.113 does not stand alone — it references provisions across the regulation. Understanding the cross-references helps compliance teams identify which obligations cluster around each application date:

February 2025 cluster (Art.113(1)):

August 2025 cluster (Art.113(2)):

August 2026 cluster (Art.113(3) — default): Everything not covered by earlier or later specific dates, including:

August 2027 cluster (Art.113(4)):

30-Item Art.113 Application Date Readiness Checklist

Application Date Classification (6 items)

Phase 1 Compliance (February 2025) (5 items)

Phase 2 Compliance (August 2025) (5 items)

Phase 3 Readiness (August 2026) (8 items)

Art.108 Transitional Analysis (4 items)

Phase 4 Readiness (August 2027) (2 items)

Key Takeaways

  1. Art.113 establishes four dates, not one. The "EU AI Act deadline" is a simplification. Prohibited practices applied February 2025, GPAI August 2025, full high-risk AI August 2026, and Annex I product safety AI August 2027.

  2. August 2, 2026 is the default deadline for most developers. If your AI system is a high-risk Annex III application — recruitment tool, biometric system, critical infrastructure AI, law enforcement decision support — this is your primary compliance date.

  3. Phase 1 (February 2025) is already active and non-negotiable. There is no transitional provision for prohibited practices. These applied from the start.

  4. GPAI providers have been in scope since August 2025. If you deploy or fine-tune a large foundation model, GPAI obligations are already binding.

  5. Digital Omnibus may extend Annex III dates to December 2027 — but as proposed law only. Plan for August 2026 and treat any extension as contingency buffer.

  6. Art.108 grace periods depend on placed-on-market date relative to Art.113 dates. The interaction between Art.113 and Art.108 determines whether your existing system needs immediate compliance or benefits from transitional relief.

Related: EU AI Act Art.5 — Prohibited AI Practices | EU AI Act Art.108 — Transitional Provisions | EU AI Act Art.109 — Entry into Force