The group stage of the 2013 AFC Cup was played from 26 February to 1 May 2013.
[1] The draw for the group stage was held on 6 December 2012, 15:00 UTC+8, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The following 32 teams (16 from West Asia Zone, 16 from East Asia Zone) were entered into the group-stage draw, which included the 31 automatic qualifiers and the qualifying play-off winner, whose identity was not known at the time of the draw:
As a result, Regar-TadAZ (Tajikistan), which were initially to enter the qualifying play-off, instead directly entered the group stage, and only two teams participated in the qualifying play-off.
The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the round of 16.