This paper presents the synchronization between a pair of identical susceptible–infected–recovered (SIR) epidemic chaotic systems and fractional-order time derivative using active control method. The fractional derivative is described in Caputo sense. Numerical simulation results show that the method is effective and reliable for synchronizing the fractional-order chaotic systems while it allows the system to remain in chaotic state. The striking features of this paper are: the successful presentation of the stability of the equilibrium state and the revelation that time for synchronization varies with the variation in fractional-order derivatives close to the standard one for different specified values of the parameters of the system.