The NEET 2026 cutoff has a major effect on finding eligibility and getting into medical school in India. Overall, the qualifying cutoff is not likely to change very much for any of the participating Medical Colleges. General and EWS candidates will still have to get at least a 50th percentile score based on the approximate marks of 680–120. Whereas OBC, SC and ST candidates will still need to obtain a minimum of a 40th percentile score based on an approximate score of 100 to 120, this is only to qualify for the counselling process, but is not a guarantee of acceptance to that college.
The other major difference is between being able to qualify and getting into a school. If a person qualifies to participate in counselling, they still have to be at or above the admission cutoff to receive an offer of admission from the college of their choice. For example, someone applying to the highly sought-after AIIMS Delhi will need to attain at least 620 to 700+ on their NEET test; it is highly competitive.
Aspirants should strive to go well above the qualifying cutoff. For example, a strategic aspirant could aim for a 620+, as this increases substantially (more than 50%) their potential of being offered a government MBBS seat.
Also Read: Minimum 12th Percentage Required for NEET 2026 Eligibility
NEET Qualifying Cutoff (Expected 2026)
- General/EWS: 50th Percentile (Expected: 680–120 marks)
- OBC/SC/ST: 40th Percentile (Expected: 120–100 marks)
- General-PwD: 45th Percentile (Expected: 133–120 marks)
Types of NEET Cutoff
There are several different layers to what the cut-off marks in NEET are, and understanding these different layers will help you set smarter goals for the year 2026.
- Qualifying Cutoff-released by NTA results to provide a percentile-based minimum score to qualify you for counselling eligibility across all colleges, which fluctuates uniformly.
- Admission Cut Off (AIQ)-released by the MCC after each round of counselling, indicates the closing rank at which you have received your last allotted MBBS seat from your 15% All India Quota.
- State Quota Cutoff-released by state counselling authorities for their own 85% State Quota seats; these differ greatly from state to state.
- College-wise cut-off: Every college, whether government or private, has its own opening and closing ranks. For instance, a top college like AIIMS Delhi will have a much higher NEET cut-off than a lesser-known institution.
- Category-Wise Cutoff (General, OBC, SC, ST, EWS, PwD): There are varying percentages/cutoff marks associated with the different candidate categories.
It is worth noting that the qualifying NEET cut-off for 2025 has not changed (still at the same percentile thresholds); however, the actual marks corresponding to those thresholds have decreased due to variance in exam difficulty levels.
Note: Percentiles remain fixed, but marks change yearly.
NEET Cut Off 2026 – Expected Category-Wise Qualifying Marks
The NEET cut-off marks in 2026 will be released after the National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts the exam on May 3, 2026, with results expected in June 2026. Based on data from the past five years, the NEET cutoff category-wise 2026 is estimated using percentile trends derived from the 2025 actual NEET cutoff.
Expected NEET 2026 Cutoff by Category
| Category | Qualifying Percentile | Cut Off NEET 2026 (Projected) | NEET 2025 Cut Off |
| General (UR) | 50th percentile | 680–140 | 686–144 |
| General – PwD | 45th percentile | 142–127 | 143–127 |
| OBC | 40th percentile | 139–110 | 143–113 |
| SC | 40th percentile | 139–110 | 143–113 |
| ST | 40th percentile | 139–110 | 143–113 |
| EWS | 50th percentile | 680–140 | 686–144 |
| SC/OBC – PwD | 40th percentile | 125–110 | 126–113 |
| ST – PwD | 40th percentile | 125–110 | 126–113 |
NEET 2026 Cut Off for Government Medical Colleges (MBBS & BDS)
The NEET qualifying score is only the minimum requirement to become eligible for counselling; it does not guarantee admission to a medical college. To secure a seat in a government college that has MBBS courses available, the score required is much higher than just qualifying.
A scoring range for any general category student will generally be more than the range of 570+, but may vary based on the number of applicants, the level of examination difficulty, or the total number of available MBBS seats in that Government Medical College. For many states, especially the highly sought-after ones with some of the best Government Medical Colleges, oftentimes students will need to have scored more than 650+ in order to secure a seat.
As various factors will affect how high the NEET cut-off score will be each year, the NEET 2026 cut-offs will likely be higher than the NEET qualifying cut-off score because of the increased number of applicants every year to MBBS programs throughout India.
Students compete every year for limited government MBBS seats across India; there are over 55,000+ MBBS seats in government medical colleges at approximately 390-400 institutions. Each year, through centralized counselling, thousands of students compete against each other for fewer available MBBS Seats than there is an increased number of students taking the NEET Exam, making it important for students to score higher.
Also Read: NEET Admit Card 2026: Release Date & Download Steps
Expected NEET Cutoff at Government Colleges for All India Quota
| Category | Expected Safe Score | Expected Rank Range for Last Admit |
| UR/COVID-19 | 620–650 or more | Around 15,000 |
| OBC | 580–610 | Around 25,000 |
| SC | 520–560 | Around 50,000 |
| ST | 480–520 | Around 70,000 |
| EWS | 600–630 | Around 20,000 |
NEET 2026 Cut Off for Private Medical Colleges
When government seat cut-offs are unattainable for them, many candidates turn to private medical colleges. Throughout the years, NEET cut-offs at private colleges will be lower than neet cut off 2026 for the MBBS government college. There is no fixed NEET cut-off for all private medical colleges.
Many factors can have an impact on NEET cutoffs for private medical college admissions:
- Management Quota vs. Merit Quota: Private medical colleges that offer both management and merit quotas usually have higher NEET cut-offs for merit seats versus management seats, which may accept candidates with lower NEET scores than merit seats; however, they would also have a lot more annual fees for the institution.
- State and Location: As there are more students wanting admission to private colleges in the metropolitan area, those colleges are likely to have higher NEET cut-offs than colleges located outside of the metropolitan area.
- Reputation of College: Newer and/or lesser-known/established private medical colleges may accept as low as 300-350 or even 350-400 marks for general-category candidates.
- Fee Structure of College: Private medical colleges whose fee structure is above ₹20-25 lakhs per year will tend to have lower NEET cut-off marks due to fewer competitors.
- Counselling Round: The different rounds of counselling – Round 1, Round 2, Mop-Up, and Stray Vacancy-would have different closing cut-offs at the same private medical college.
If your NEET score is in the range of 350–500, then it is worth considering private medical college/deemed university counselling.
MBBS Abroad Option
For students who find both government and private options due to high NEET cutoffs or fees, options like studying MBBS abroad, especially MBBS in Russia, are becoming increasingly popular due to lower costs and easier admission processes.
Popular universities chosen by Indian students include
- Tver State Medical University
- Chechen State University
- Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
- Ivanovo State Medical Academy
Factors Affecting NEET Cutoff Off 2026
At any point in time, the NEET cut-off will never be set or predetermined. It is determined by many different types of variables that change from year to year.
- If many more candidates take the exam, obviously, there will be a larger number of candidates competing for the same number of places.
- If you were to compare the number of candidates who had taken NEET, 2025 had over 22 lakh candidates sitting for the exam, and 12.36 lakh of them passed. This means that there were fewer candidates who had passed than in the previous year (2024 – 13.15 lakh passed).
- If the exam is much harder than last year’s, then the overall raw scores would be much lower, affecting the cutoff marks since the cutoff is based on percentiles.
The total number of seats made available by way of new NMC approvals (more government MBBS seats) will also have some effect on the cutoffs, as well as the number of candidates taking up available seats.
Also Read: NEET UG Result 2026: Expected Date, Cutoff & Rank Details
How to Calculate NEET Cut Off Marks?
Most students are unsure of the meaning of NEET cut-off marks and how NTA calculates them. The following steps outline the process that NTA takes to arrive at cut-off marks for NEET.
- Step 1: NTA records the highest mark obtained by a candidate in a particular category in the NEET exam each year.
- Step 2: Following that, NTA finds out the lowest raw score to be higher than or equal to the percentage of candidates in that category that achieved that score or higher and then lists the cut-off mark (percentile).
- Step 3: The general category will have a cut-off mark that will be 50% of the candidate population, and so forth for the other categories.
Example for 2026:
- If the highest score is 715, NTA will check the 50th percentile for the general category to determine how many candidates scored less than this number and establish that score as the cut-off for 2026.
- If the lowest score at this level is 143, then 143 will be the cut-off for the general category in 2026.
NEET Counselling & Cut Off – What Students Should Know
Once you have passed the NEET cut-off for 2026, you have opened up the initial doorway into the counselling process. After the National Testing Agency has announced the results, the process splits into two pathways:
- MCC (Medical Counselling Committee) Counselling consists of 15% of All India Quota Seats as well as 100% of the seats allocated to different Deemed Universities and Central Universities. The NEET cutoff for admissions in these seats will be established based on the closing rank for each of the four rounds of counselling – Round 1, Round 2, Mop-Up Round, and Stray Vacancy Round.
- State Counselling consists of 85% of the State Quota Seats, and each state will create its own merit list and set its own NEET cutoff through state counselling.
The most effective recommendation we can make is to look at the closing ranks from the prior year for every one of the colleges and programs you wish to gain admission to, then compare your NEET 2026 rank against those benchmarks to assist you in planning for the best college and program combination. For students planning in their medical careers, understanding postgraduate admission is also important. Explore the complete process of NEET PG Counselling to stay informed about MD/MS admission procedures, counselling rounds, and seat allocation in India.
State comparisons for NEET 2026 cutoffs
State comparisons for NEET 2026 cutoffs provide an accurate reflection of admissions relative to averages across the country since there is significant influence on admission outcomes from domicile requirements, numbers of available seats, and level of competition within each state. Each state provides its own 85% State Quota allocation and requires a unique counselling process to support those who want to enter the medical system, as well as different factors that exist within each state to establish a cutoff, including repeated candidate attempts and reservations for those candidates. For example, states (Delhi and Rajasthan) that have greater densities of candidates applying for limited seats generally will have higher closing marks because of the higher level of competition associated with them. Other states (such as those with much lower densities of candidate applicants and those with a good balance of available seats) show lower cutoffs as a result of being more equitable.
The ratio of the number of candidates to the overall number of available spaces must also be considered when discussing cut-offs. For example, states, including Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, have numerous medical colleges; therefore, cutoffs are not impacted as much as they are in jurisdictions such as Bihar and Delhi, where there is less rounded availability of spaces than the number of candidates. Another factor that can impact state cutoffs is the difference between levels of performance across each year as well as the amount of difficulty associated with these exams from year-to-year; therefore, thousands of ranks can vary from one year to another.
Detailed State-Wise NEET 2026 Expected Cutoff (Government MBBS – General Category)
| State / Region | Estimated Score Closures | Rank Range | Seats vs Aspirants | Competition Trend | State Insight |
| Delhi | 650–700+ | 1–3,000 | Very Few Seats | Extreme | Higher cutoffs due to prestigious colleges and limited seats |
| Rajasthan | 640–680 | 3,000–6,000 | Many Aspirants | Very High | Strong competition driven by coaching culture |
| Uttar Pradesh | 620–650 | 5,000–10,000 | More Seats | High | Large population leads to high competition |
| Maharashtra | 610–640 | 7,000–12,000 | Balanced | High | Stable trends with gradual seat growth |
| Bihar | 600–630 | 8,000–15,000 | Fewer Seats | High | Consistently high cutoffs due to limited seats |
| Tamil Nadu | 580–620 | 10,000–18,000 | More Seats | Moderate | More medical colleges improve chances |
| West Bengal | 580–610 | 10,000–18,000 | Average | Moderate | Historically stable cutoff trends |
| Karnataka | 570–610 | 12,000–20,000 | High Availability | Moderate | Advantage of many government & private colleges |
| Madhya Pradesh | 570–600 | 12,000–22,000 | Increasing Seats | Moderate | Expanding medical infrastructure |
| North East | 500–550 | 25,000–40,000 | Fewer Aspirants | Lower | Lower cutoffs but limited college availability |
Strategic Insight
Instead of a hard target score, an aspirant must focus on preparing for their state’s NEET cut-off trends. While a 620+ may assure aspirant a government MBBS if the aspirant is from one of the less competitive states, it probably will not assure the same if they are in one of the most competitive states. Therefore, a combination of state analysis and predicted rank is the best strategy for success in NEET 2026.
NEET 2026 exam date and NTA calendar
According to standard timelines established by the NTA, it is likely that the NEET 2026 exam will occur on Sunday, May 3, 2026, from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM IST (Indian Standard Time). As such, the official announcement of the examination date has not yet been made.
Registration for NEET 2026 will probably take place in February 2026 and will likely continue through March 2026, followed by an abbreviated window for corrections. Expected dates for releasing the NEET 2026 Admit Card and the Results of the NEET 2026 exam would be April 2026 and June 2026, respectively. It is anticipated that the MCC (Medical Counselling Committee) will start the NEET-UG 2026 Counselling Process in or around July 2026.
NEET is conducted once per year and contains a total of 180 questions, worth a combined total of 720 points, and serves as the only entry point into undergraduate medical programs throughout India.
Quick Check
NEET 2026 Expected Exam Timeline
- Exam Date: Likely 3 May 2026
- Registration: Feb–March 2026
- Admit Card: April 2026
- Result: June 2026
- Counselling: July 2026
NEET Cutoff Trends – Last 5 Years Analysis
A score in the range of 620 to 630 is usually seen as a safe zone for government MBBS colleges. Scores between 400 and 500 are often enough for mid-tier medical or dental colleges.
When it comes to AIIMS, the competition is much tighter. Top institutes like AIIMS Delhi generally have closing ranks within the top 2000 for the General category, which reflects the high score requirement.
Looking at previous years, the General category cutoff was 720–162 in 2024 and 720–137 in 2023. This shows a steady increase in the cutoff range over time.
Examining the NEET cutoff from previous years will give you good insight into predicting how the cutoff will be in 2026.
Here is a table showing the NEET qualifying cutoffs for the general category from 2021 to 2026.
The table below:
| Year | Qualifying Percentile | Marks Range (General) | Qualifying Candidates |
| 2021 | 50th Percentile | 720–138 | 8,70,075 |
| 2022 | 50th Percentile | 715–117 | 9,93,069 |
| 2023 | 50th Percentile | 720–137 | 11,45,976 |
| 2024 | 50th Percentile | 720–162 | 13,15,853 |
| 2025 | 50th Percentile | 686–144 | 12,36,531 |
| 2026 (Projected) | 50th Percentile | 680–120 | ~12–13 Lakh |
Key Observations
Additionally, the number of qualifying candidates also fell by almost 79,000. If NTA reduces the difficulty level of the test for 2026, then you should see the cutoff marks return to the 2023-2024 levels; however, if the level of difficulty remains at present levels, then we will continue to see suppressed cutoff scores. Nevertheless, the qualifying percentile thresholds will remain unchanged; it is their associated raw score that will vary.
Disclaimer: These figures are based on past trends and estimates. The actual NEET 2026 cutoff may vary depending on factors like exam difficulty and the number of candidates appearing.
Also Read: Hostel Life in Russia for MBBS Students
Your Trusted Partner for a Smooth MBBS Journey Abroad
EOCL India offers an easy and carefree ride for potential medical learners. EocL India is a trustworthy counselling office that helps students to attain their future. EOCL India helps students obtain education, which is good and reasonably priced, and helps students build a successful medical career.
FAQs on NEET Cut Off 2026
What is the minimum qualifying NEET cut-off for the General category in 2026?
The qualifying NEET cut-off for the General (UR/EWS) category for the year 2026 is expected to remain at the 50th percentile or approximately 140 to 680 (the corresponding range of scores), from the lowest qualifying score to the highest possible score, respectively.
Does meeting the NEET qualifying cut off guarantee admission in medical colleges?
No, absolutely not! Meeting the qualifying NEET cut-off allows you to be eligible for participation in the counselling process. All other admissions depend upon your rank, placement in a category, selected school(s), and the closing rank (cut-off) of the selected school after each round of counselling.
How do state quota cutoffs differ from All India Quota cutoffs?
The AIQ NEET cut-off is generally a higher score than a state quota NEET cut-off because the AIQ includes all the top-ranked candidates of the entire country for 15% of all government medical seats.
Can NEET cut off marks vary for private medical colleges?
Yes, The top private and deemed universities will typically have cutoff scores that are closer to those of the government colleges. In contrast, newer institutions may accept scores of 300-350 for general category students under management quotas.
How is NEET cut off percentile calculated?
NTA calculates the NEET cutoff using the raw scores from all candidates who took the exam. For example, 50% of all candidates taking the NEET general are required to have a higher raw score than 50% of all candidates. The cutoff for the NEET will be determined by the NTA calculating the exact raw scores of all candidates who participated in the NEET.
Where can I find official NEET 2026 cutoff and counselling updates?
To view the official NEET 2026 cutoff and counselling announcements, please visit neet.nta.ac.in (NTA’s exam administration website) or mcc.nic.in (MCC’s official page for AIQ counselling, closing ranks after each AIQ counselling round). Please refer to these official sources for updated information.
