---
authoritative: false
representation: annotated-page
publisher: AstroKube
methodology: https://ai-act.astrokube.com/about/
source_verified_on: '2026-09-15'
site_content_updated_on: '2026-09-15'
title: 'Article 18: Documentation keeping | EU AI Act | AstroKube'
description: 'Article 18, EU AI Act: 1. The provider shall, for a period ending 10 years after the high-risk AI system has been placed on the market or put into service…'
language: en
source: https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-18/
---

1.  [Start](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/)
2.  [The law](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/)
3.  Article 18

Chapter III · Section 3 · Obligations of providers and deployers of high-risk AI systems and other parties

# Article 18 — Documentation keeping

▼ Primary text, verbatim. Our annotations appear below, visibly separated.

[1\.](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-18/#p-1) The provider shall, for a period ending 10 years after the high-risk AI system has been placed on the market or put into service, keep at the disposal of the national competent authorities:

(a) the technical documentation referred to in Article 11;

(b) the documentation concerning the quality management system referred to in Article 17;

(c) the documentation concerning the changes approved by notified bodies, where applicable;

(d) the decisions and other documents issued by the notified bodies, where applicable;

(e) the EU declaration of conformity referred to in Article 47.

[2\.](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-18/#p-2) Each Member State shall determine conditions under which the documentation referred to in paragraph 1 remains at the disposal of the national competent authorities for the period indicated in that paragraph for the cases when a provider or its authorised representative established on its territory goes bankrupt or ceases its activity prior to the end of that period.

[3\.](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-18/#p-3) Providers that are financial institutions subject to requirements regarding their internal governance, arrangements or processes under Union financial services law shall maintain the technical documentation as part of the documentation kept under the relevant Union financial services law.

This text is meant purely as a documentation tool and has no legal effect. The Union's institutions do not assume any liability for its contents. The authentic versions of the relevant acts, including their preambles, are those published in the Official Journal of the European Union and available in EUR-Lex.

[

Recital 71 — interpretive context

Having comprehensible information on how high-risk AI systems have been developed and how they perform throughout their lifetime is essential to enable traceability of those systems, verify compliance with the requirements under this Regulation, as well as monitoring of their operations and post market monitoring. This requires keeping records and the availability of technical documentation, containing information…

](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/recital-71/)

## What this means for you

In your terms · Keeping the documentation for ten years

The technical file you generate today must still be producible a decade from now.

## Obligations derived from this article

[Keeping the documentation for ten yearsArt. 18(1)](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/explorer/?art=art-18)

## If you would rather not read the law

The basics page explains the Regulation's own categories in order: scope, role, tier, date. The engineering view groups the obligations by the platform capability they demand.

[Start with the basics →](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/basics/) [Open the engineering view →](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/engineering/)

## About this provision

### Status

Upcoming 2 Dec 2027

Moved from ~2 Aug 2026~

### Regime

High-risk

### Binds

Provider

### Type

Article · Chapter III · Section 3

### Amended by

Not amended

### Recitals

[71](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/recital-71/)

### Related

[Article 11](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-11/) [Article 17](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-17/)

### Cited capture

regulation-2024-1689/en-2026-08-18.html sha256 8f0b656302f9864c…

[Authentic text (EUR-Lex) →](http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj) [This version (EUR-Lex) →](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02024R1689-20260727)

### Machine readable

[/law/art-18.md](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-18.md) [/api/law.json](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/api/law.json)

### Found an error?

[Write to us →](https://astrokube.com/contact)