Which Colleges Will Accept Your JEE Main 2026 Rank?
JoSAA 2026 counselling opened on 2 June 2026. You will use your JEE Main CRL rank to compete for more than 57,000 engineering seats across 31 National Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Shibpur, 26 Indian Institutes of Information Technology and over 55 Government-Funded Technical Institutes. This page lays out exactly which colleges count, what cutoffs the first round delivered this year, and which tier your rank realistically reaches.
If you haven't already checked your detailed rank, the JEE Main results page explains how to read your scorecard. For a shortcut to personalised options, the JEE Main college predictor filters the entire database against your CRL rank and category.
The JoSAA 2026 Institute Pool - NITs, IIEST, IIITs, GFTIs
The Joint Seat Allocation Authority released the final seat matrix and institute list for the 2026-27 session in early June. The table below shows every NIT and IIEST Shibpur, with the total number of seats you will see across all quotas and branches. These numbers are drawn from the latest official JoSAA business rules.
The 26 IIITs focus almost exclusively on computer science, electronics, and IT. Their seat counts are smaller, which makes branch competition intense.
Over 55 GFTIs also fill seats through JoSAA this year. Some of the most applied institutes include BIT Mesra (762 seats), Punjab Engineering College (608 seats), University of Hyderabad (421 seats), and Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology (249 seats). You will find the full GFTI list inside the JoSAA seat matrix. Many of these colleges offer the same ₹1-1.5 lakh annual fee as NITs, and their reserved-category cutoffs are significantly softer.
JEE Main 2026 Round 1 Cutoffs - Actual Data
JoSAA published the Round 1 opening and closing ranks on 13 June 2026. The table below gives you the closing rank for Computer Science Engineering in the most competitive quota: General, Other State, Gender-Neutral.
These ranks are your anchor for building a realistic preference list. They shift in later rounds as candidates accept, upgrade, or withdraw. A closing rank of 1,317 at NIT Trichy means you need a rank inside the top 1,500 for a chance at CSE in the earliest round, but core branches like Mechanical and Civil stay open at 7,000-27,000 depending on the college.
Home state quota reduces the required rank dramatically. NIT Trichy CSE (General, Home State) closed at 4,463 in Round 1. A Tamil Nadu domiciled student with rank around 5,000 can access the same seat that an outside-state student would need roughly 1,300 for. This gap holds across every NIT. If you are domiciled in a state with a strong NIT, fill your home state choices before your other-state choices - the advantage translates to thousands of rank positions.
Reserved categories see even larger rank expansions. Based on the 2025 cycle, which followed a similar trend, the SC category closing rank for NIT Trichy CSE was approximately 713, and the ST closing rank was around 1,088. OBC-NCL closed around 1,620. The Round 1 2026 category-wise data will be available when JoSAA updates the full OR-CR documents, but the scale of advantage has remained consistent year on year. Always check your category rank on your scorecard, not your overall CRL, when you compare against closing ranks from any previous cycle.
Where Does Your Rank Place You? - The Tier Framework
The tier classification below is a student-consensus tool built from NIRF rankings, JoSAA closing ranks, and placement reports. It is not an official Ministry of Education label, but it is the fastest way to understand what your rank buys.
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Tier 1 (99+ percentile, top ~10,000 rank)
NIT Trichy, Surathkal, Warangal, Calicut, Rourkela, MNNIT Allahabad, VNIT Nagpur, IIIT Hyderabad, IIIT Allahabad. CSE averages cross ₹20 LPA. This year's CSE cutoff stayed below 6,000 for all of them in the general category. You are competing for the fastest tracks into top tech firms and core PSUs. -
Tier 2 (95-98.9 percentile, ~10,001-40,000 rank)
NIT Durgapur, Kurukshetra, Jamshedpur, Hamirpur, Raipur, Patna, SVNIT Surat, MANIT Bhopal, IIIT Gwalior, IIIT Pune. CSE packages range from ₹10-18 LPA. In the 2026 Round 1, NIT Durgapur CSE shut at 10,846; Kurukshetra at 11,112. Your branch choice now carries more weight than the NIT tag. -
Tier 3 (90-94.9 percentile, ~40,001-1,00,000 rank)
NIT Goa, Puducherry, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, IIIT Lucknow, IIIT Dharwad, IIIT Nagpur, top GFTIs like BIT Mesra and Thapar University (via JEE). CSE placements average ₹5-12 LPA. Home state quota becomes your single biggest multiplier here, often upgrading a tier-3 rank into a tier-2 seat. -
Tier 4 (below 90 percentile, rank above 1 lakh)
Northwest NITs, newer IIITs, strong private colleges like KIIT, and state GFTIs. Here, branch and location matter more than the tier label. A CSE seat in a tier-4 college typically outperforms a non-CS core branch in a tier-3 one in the software job market.
For detailed branch-wise cutoffs across all 31 NITs, the JEE Main cutoffs page keeps the round-wise closing ranks updated.
Beyond JoSAA - State and Private Colleges
Your JEE Main score also unlocks hundreds of state government engineering colleges, but you must register on each state's counselling portal separately. The most sought-after cluster is Delhi's Joint Admission Counselling (JAC), which opened registration on 28 May 2026 and closes on 9 June 2026. It covers DTU, NSUT, IIIT-Delhi, IGDTUW, and DSEU. DTU CSE (General, Delhi region) closed at around 12,000-15,000 rank in the 2025 cycle; outside-Delhi candidates needed ranks closer to 4,500-6,000. IIIT-Delhi is exceptionally competitive, requiring a rank around 1,200 for outside-Delhi general candidates in 2025, and carries a minimum 70% aggregate in PCM plus 70% in Mathematics at 10+2 level. The counselling process includes physical reporting for document verification at the first allotment, unlike JoSAA's online verification in early rounds.
Other states that conduct counselling using JEE Main ranks include Haryana (HSTES), Rajasthan (REAP), Madhya Pradesh (MP DTE), Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha. Each operates on its own timeline. You must check the state's information brochure for domicile requirements, fee structures, and branch availability.
Private and deemed universities form a vast safety net. Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (TIET) in Patiala fills its 3,390 B.E./B.Tech seats through JEE Main ranks in its own counselling process. The 2026 Round 1 cutoffs for TIET illustrate the range: CSE (Other State) closing at 53,883, AI & Data Science at 79,882, and Electronics & Computer Engineering at 137,419. Home state (Punjab) candidates obtained significantly higher ranks for the same branches. The four-year fee ranges from approximately ₹20-26 lakh, but the institute runs several scholarship schemes based on family income and category.
Other private names that accept JEE Main for at least part of their intake include SRM Institute of Science and Technology (Chennai), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Coimbatore), and Manipal Institute of Technology. Many also run their own entrance tests (like VITEEE and SRMJEEE), so JEE Main often unlocks NRI, management-quota, or leftover seats. Always verify the exact share of JEE-based seats with the institute's admission brochure.
IIIT Bangalore is a special case. It does not participate in JoSAA or CSAB counselling; instead, it admits through its own application portal using JEE Main ranks. The institute has no category-based reservations - all admissions are merit-based on the Common Rank List. In 2025, the final round closing rank for CSE was 6,942, and for ECE it was 8,844. For 2026, a rank inside 3,500-4,000 is the stretch target for CSE in the early rounds, with final closing possibly touching 6,500-7,000. You must register on IIIT Bangalore's website (iiitb.ac.in) once admissions open.
Counselling Pathways - JoSAA, CSAB, and State Portals
The JEE Main counselling page covers the JoSAA timeline in detail, but here is the essential sequence that affects your college list.
JoSAA runs five rounds this year. Registration and choice filling opened on 2 June and locked on 11 June 2026. The first round seat allotment came on 13 June, and the final round for the NIT+ system concludes by late July. During registration, you filled your preferred college-branch combinations in order. The system allots seats based on your CRL rank, category, quota, and your choices. After each allotment, you choose Freeze, Float, or Slide. Float allows you to upgrade to a higher-preference seat in subsequent rounds without losing your current seat. Most meaningful upgrades happen in Rounds 4 and 5, so do not freeze early unless you land your absolute top choice.
After JoSAA, the CSAB (Central Seat Allocation Board) runs two special rounds for seats that remain vacant. Registration for CSAB special rounds opens on 28 July 2026 and closes on 3 August. Choice filling ends on 5 August, with Round 1 results on 6 August. CSAB covers only the NIT+ system - no IITs. It is a second opportunity if you did not register for JoSAA, did not get a seat, or want to upgrade within the NIT/IIIT/GFTI pool. The special rounds have their own fee structure: ₹40,000 enrolment fee for General/OBC/EWS and ₹19,000 for SC/ST/PwD. Many students secure seats in CSAB at ranks that were not competitive in JoSAA because seats that were withdrawn or not filled become available.
State counselling portals for Delhi, Haryana, MP, and others operate in parallel, with timelines that frequently overlap. The prudent strategy is to register in all applied channels simultaneously. Accept a seat that you would attend, float for upgrades, and withdraw only when a clearly better option is confirmed elsewhere. Keeping a confirmed private seat reduces pressure, and you can still upgrade via JoSAA or CSAB later.