--- 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 19: Automatically generated logs | EU AI Act | AstroKube' description: 'Article 19, EU AI Act: 1. Providers of high-risk AI systems shall keep the logs referred to in Article 12(1), automatically generated by their high-risk AI…' language: en source: https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-19/ --- 1. [Start](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/) 2. [The law](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/) 3. Article 19 Chapter III · Section 3 · Obligations of providers and deployers of high-risk AI systems and other parties # Article 19 — Automatically generated logs ▼ Primary text, verbatim. Our annotations appear below, visibly separated. [1\.](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-19/#p-1) Providers of high-risk AI systems shall keep the logs referred to in Article 12(1), automatically generated by their high-risk AI systems, to the extent such logs are under their control. Without prejudice to applicable Union or national law, the logs shall be kept for a period appropriate to the intended purpose of the high-risk AI system, of at least six months, unless provided otherwise in the applicable Union or national law, in particular in Union law on the protection of personal data. [2\.](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-19/#p-2) Providers that are financial institutions subject to requirements regarding their internal governance, arrangements or processes under Union financial services law shall maintain the logs automatically generated by their high-risk AI systems as part of the documentation kept under the relevant 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 automatically generated logs Log formats you change casually today are formats someone must still parse months from now. ## Obligations derived from this article [Keeping the automatically generated logsArt. 19(1)](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/explorer/?art=art-19) ## Commonly misquoted What gets said Logs have to be kept for seven years. What the provision says Article 19(1) sets a floor, not a fixed term: the provider keeps the logs its systems generate automatically, to the extent they are under its control, for a period appropriate to the intended purpose and of at least six months, unless other Union or national law says otherwise. Article 26(6) says the same to the deployer for the logs under its control. The long clock people are remembering is Article 18, which keeps technical documentation at the disposal of national competent authorities for ten years, and that is documentation rather than logs. [EU Art. 19(1)](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-19/ "Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act)") [EU Art. 26(6)](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-26/ "Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act)") [EU Art. 18(1)](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-18/ "Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act)") ## 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 12](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-12/) [Article 26](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-26/) ### 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-19.md](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/law/art-19.md) [/api/law.json](https://ai-act.astrokube.com/api/law.json) ### Found an error? [Write to us →](https://astrokube.com/contact)