NTA has announced the JEE Main 2026 cutoff percentiles for General, OBC, SC, and ST categories. Check the official qualifying scores, admission cutoffs for NITs/IIITs, and historical score trends here.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) has officially released the category-wise JEE Main 2026 cutoff percentiles on jeemain.nta.nic.in. The minimum qualifying score required for JEE Advanced stands at 93.4123549 for General, 80.9232583 for OBC, 63.9172792 for SC, and 52.0174712 for ST candidates. While these percentiles determine eligibility, candidates aiming for seats in NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs must also review the JoSAA admission cutoffs—where securing an NIT seat in the General category often requires a percentile of around 98 or higher, depending on the branch and institute. Checking these cutoff benchmarks gives aspirants a clear picture of their admission prospects ahead of counseling.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) has officially announced the JEE Main 2026 cutoff percentiles alongside candidate scorecards. Aspirants who meet or exceed these minimum qualifying marks are eligible to sit for JEE Advanced to pursue admissions into the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). For admission into other participating institutions like NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs, candidates can evaluate their admission chances based on their ranks using the JEE Main college predictor.
JEE Main 2026: Category-Wise Qualifying Cutoff Percentiles
| Category | Qualifying Percentile |
| Unreserved (UR-ALL) | 93.4123549 |
| UR-PwBD | 0.0023186 |
| Gen-EWS (EWS-ALL) | 82.4164528 |
| OBC-NCL (OBC-ALL) | 80.9232583 |
| SC (SC-ALL) | 63.9172792 |
| ST (ST-ALL) | 52.0174712 |
Eligibility to sit for JEE Advanced 2026 is determined by candidate performance in JEE Main, aligned with the government's category-wise reservation norms. The top 2,50,000 qualifiers are shortlisted strictly according to these seat quotas:
| Category | Reservation Quota |
| Open / Unreserved (OPEN) | 40.50% |
| OBC-NCL | 27.00% |
| Scheduled Caste (SC) | 15.00% |
| General - EWS (GEN-EWS) | 10.00% |
| Scheduled Tribe (ST) | 7.50% |
| Persons with Disabilities (PwD) | 5.00% (Horizontal Reservation across all categories) |
JEE Main Cutoff Trends for General Category (2020–2026)
The JEE Main 2026 qualifying cutoff for the General (Unreserved) category has settled at 93.4123549 percentile, reflecting a noticeable rise compared to recent years.
| Year | General Category Qualifying Percentile |
| 2026 | 93.4123549 |
| 2025 | 93.1023262 |
| 2024 | 93.2362181 |
| 2023 | 91.0000000 |
| 2022 | 88.4121383 (Note: listed as 100 in unadjusted raw tables) |
| 2021 | 87.8900000 |
| 2020 | 90.3700000 |
Category-Wise JEE Main Cutoff Trends (2020–2025)
| Category | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
| General (UR / CRL) | 93.1023 | 93.2362 | 90.7788 | 88.4121 | 87.8992 | 90.3765 |
| Gen-EWS | 80.3830 | 81.3266 | 75.6229 | 63.1114 | 66.2214 | 70.2435 |
| OBC-NCL | 79.4314 | 79.6757 | 73.6114 | 67.0090 | 68.0234 | 72.8887 |
| SC | 61.1527 | 60.0923 | 51.9776 | 43.0820 | 46.8825 | 50.1760 |
| ST | 47.9026 | 46.6975 | 37.2348 | 26.7771 | 34.6728 | 39.0696 |
| PwD (UR-PwD) | 0.0079 | 0.0018 | 0.0013 |
Minimum JEE Main Marks Needed to Qualify for JEE Advanced 2026
If you are searching for "how many marks are required to clear JEE Main 2026," keep in mind that the qualifying bar changes annually based on paper difficulty and applicant count. The NTA issues the cutoff in the form of normalized percentile scores rather than direct raw marks. To make sense of your results, explore the category-wise qualifying thresholds, estimated safe marks out of 300, and previous years' cutoff history detailed below.
JEE Main Marks vs Percentile 2026
| JEE Main Marks (Out of 300) | Expected / Normalized Percentile Range |
| 300 – 291 | 100 – 99.99900000 |
| 290 – 280 | 99.99890732 – 99.99617561 |
| 279 – 271 | 99.99417236 – 99.99153171 |
| 270 – 259 | 99.99034797 – 99.97687156 |
| 258 – 250 | 99.97413985 – 99.95228621 |
| 249 – 240 | 99.95028296 – 99.91549924 |
| 239 – 230 | 99.91395128 – 99.87060821 |
| 229 – 220 | 99.86150253 – 99.78191884 |
| 219 – 210 | 99.77499852 – 99.69159044 |
| 209 – 200 | 99.68494329 – 99.57503767 |
| 199 – 190 | 99.56019541 – 99.40858575 |
| 189 – 180 | 99.39319714 – 99.17311273 |
| 179 – 170 | 99.15672250 – 98.87981861 |
| 169 – 160 | 98.85149993 – 98.52824811 |
| 159 – 150 | 98.49801724 – 98.09290531 |
| 149 – 140 | 98.07460288 – 97.54301298 |
| 139 – 130 | 97.49274960 – 96.87838902 |
| 129 – 120 | 96.80927687 – 96.06871150 |
| 119 – 110 | 95.98302700 – 95.05625037 |
| 109 – 100 | 94.96737888 – 93.80203330 |
| 99 – 90 | 93.67910655 – 92.21882783 |
| 89 – 80 | 92.05811248 – 90.27631202 |
| 79 – 70 | 90.04484550 – 87.51810893 |
| 69 – 60 | 87.33654157 – 83.89085926 |
| 59 – 50 | 83.51197170 – 78.35114254 |
| 49 – 40 | 77.81927947 – 69.57972710 |
| 39 – 30 | 68.80219265 – 56.09102043 |
| 29 – 20 | 54.01037138 – 36.58463962 |
| 19 – 10 | 35.28853640 – 18.16647924 |
| 9 – 0 | 17.14582299 – 5.71472799 |
Key Takeaways for Students
-
99+ Percentile: Typically achieved between 175–180+ marks, which usually guarantees top core branches in premier NITs.
-
General Qualifying Mark (~93.41 Percentile): Corresponds to roughly 98–103 marks depending on shift difficulty.
-
OBC / EWS Qualifying Mark (~80–82 Percentile): Corresponds to roughly 55–65 marks.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The official JEE Main 2026 minimum qualifying cutoff for the General (UR-ALL) category is 93.4123549 percentile. Candidates scoring equal to or above this score qualify to register and appear for JEE Advanced 2026.
Qualifying Cutoff: Issued by the NTA as a percentile score to determine which top 2.5 lakh candidates are eligible to sit for JEE Advanced (for IIT admissions).
Admission Cutoff: Released by JoSAA / CSAB as opening and closing ranks (All India Ranks, not raw marks) representing the final rank at which an NIT, IIIT, or GFTI offers a seat in a specific engineering branch.
Generally, securing 175 to 185+ marks out of 300 places a candidate safely above the 99 percentile bracket. The exact score requirement varies between exam shifts depending on the overall paper difficulty and session competition.
No. Clearing the qualifying cutoff only makes you eligible to sit for JEE Advanced. Admissions to NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs are based on institutional opening and closing ranks during JoSAA counseling. General category candidates typically need an overall percentile of around 96 to 98+ (or higher for top NITs and branches like Computer Science).
