diff --git a/airflow-core/tests/unit/cli/commands/test_dag_command.py b/airflow-core/tests/unit/cli/commands/test_dag_command.py
index 183e80ee216b0..9e353fc1f5291 100644
--- a/airflow-core/tests/unit/cli/commands/test_dag_command.py
+++ b/airflow-core/tests/unit/cli/commands/test_dag_command.py
@@ -966,6 +966,23 @@ def test_dag_test_with_custom_timetable(self, mock_get_or_create_dagrun):
             dag_command.dag_test(cli_args)
         assert "data_interval" in mock_get_or_create_dagrun.call_args.kwargs
 
+    @mock.patch("airflow.models.dagrun.get_or_create_dagrun")
+    def test_dag_test_uses_current_time_as_dagrun_start_date(
+        self, mock_get_or_create_dagrun, time_machine
+    ):
+        run_started_at = timezone.make_aware(datetime(2026, 4, 29, 21, 4), timezone=timezone.utc)
+        time_machine.move_to(run_started_at, tick=False)
+
+        cli_args = self.parser.parse_args(
+            ["dags", "test", "example_bash_operator", DEFAULT_DATE.isoformat()]
+        )
+
+        dag_command.dag_test(cli_args)
+
+        assert mock_get_or_create_dagrun.call_args.kwargs["logical_date"] == DEFAULT_DATE
+        assert mock_get_or_create_dagrun.call_args.kwargs["run_after"] == run_started_at
+        assert mock_get_or_create_dagrun.call_args.kwargs["start_date"] == run_started_at
+
     @mock.patch("airflow.models.dagrun.get_or_create_dagrun")
     def test_dag_with_parsing_context(
         self, mock_get_or_create_dagrun, testing_dag_bundle, configure_testing_dag_bundle
diff --git a/task-sdk/src/airflow/sdk/definitions/dag.py b/task-sdk/src/airflow/sdk/definitions/dag.py
index fd47de467fea4..a5c514411a307 100644
--- a/task-sdk/src/airflow/sdk/definitions/dag.py
+++ b/task-sdk/src/airflow/sdk/definitions/dag.py
@@ -1357,7 +1357,7 @@ def test(
 
             dr: DagRun = get_or_create_dagrun(
                 dag=scheduler_dag,
-                start_date=logical_date or run_after,
+                start_date=run_after,
                 logical_date=logical_date,
                 data_interval=data_interval,
                 run_after=run_after,