The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2026, for admission to the First Degree Programs at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will be held on May 17, 2026 (Sunday).

The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, is the organising IIT of JEE Advanced 2026.

The eligibility criteria for Indian Nationals and OCI/PIO (I) for appearing in JEE (Advanced) 2026 has also been published at https://jeeadv.ac.in/

All the candidates must simultaneously fulfill each and every one of the five criteria to appear for JEE (Advanced) 2026: Criterion A1 - Performance in JEE (Main) 2026; Criterion A2 - Age Limit; Criterion A3 -Number of attempts; Criterion A4 –Appearance in Class XII (or equivalent) examination; Criterion A5 –Earlier admission at IITs.

Performance in JEE (Main) 2026: Candidates should be among the top 2,50,000 successful candidates (including all categories) in B.E./B.Tech. paper of JEE (Main) 2026. The percentages of various categories of candidates to be shortlisted are: 10% for GEN-EWS, 27% for OBC-NCL, 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST, and the remaining 40.5% is Open for all. Within each of these five categories, 5% horizontal reservation is available for PwD candidates. The distribution of the top 2,50,000 candidates in various categories based on the performance in B.E./B.Tech. paper of JEE (Main) 2026 will be as follows: (i) Open-96187; Open PwD -5063 (total open -101250) (ii) Gen-EWS-23750, Gen EWS PwD -1250 (25000) (iii) OBC NCL- 64125, OBC NCL PwD – 3375 (67500) (iv) SC – 35625, SC-PwD – 1875 (37500) (v) ST -17812, ST PwD -938 (18750). The total number of candidates may be slightly greater than 2,50,000 in the presence of ‘tied’ ranks / scores in any category. OCI/PIO (I) candidates are not eligible for benefits of any kind of reservation such as GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, ST) with the exception of OPEN-PwD. These candidates are required to be in the rank list in OPEN or OPEN PwD categories.

Age Limit: Candidates should have been born on or after October 1, 2001. Five years’ age relaxation is given to SC, ST, and PwD candidates - these candidates should have been born on or after October 1, 1996.

Number of attempts: A candidate can attempt JEE (Advanced) maximum of two times in two consecutive years.

Appearance in Class XII (or equivalent) examination: A candidate should have appeared for the Class XII (or equivalent) examination for the first time in either 2025 or 2026 with Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics as compulsory subjects. However, if the examination Board of Class XII/equivalent declared the results for the academic year 2023-24 on or after June 18, 2024, then the candidates of that Board who appeared for their Class XII/equivalent examination in 2024 are also eligible to appear in JEE (Advanced) 2026, provided they meet all the other eligibility criteria.

Earlier admission at IITs: A candidate should not have been admitted to an IIT under any academic program that is listed in JoSAA Business Rules of 2025, irrespective of whether or not the candidate continued in the program or accepted an IIT seat by reporting ‘online’ / at a ‘reporting centre’ in the past. Candidates whose admission to IITs was cancelled, for whatever reason, after joining any IIT are also not eligible to appear for JEE (Advanced) 2026.

Candidates who have been admitted to a preparatory course in any of the IITs for the first time in 2025 can appear in JEE (Advanced) 2026.

The candidates who were allocated a seat in an IIT through JoSAA 2025 but (i) did not report ‘online’ / at any ‘reporting centre’ or, (ii) withdrew before the last round of seat allotment, or, (iii) had their seat cancelled, for whatever reason, before the last round of seat allotment for IITs, are eligible to appear for JEE (Advanced) 2026.

However, in all of the above cases, the candidate is also required to fulfil the other eligibility conditions.

Information Brochure and other details of JEE (Advanced) 2026 will be made available at https://jeeadv.ac.in/ in due course.