Premium

JEE Main Result 2026: What can be the expected cut-off for JEE Advanced this year?

JEE Main Cutoff 2026 Percentile: The official JEE Main cut-off for admission to NITs, IIITs, GFTIs, and to become eligible for JEE Advanced application will be announced by NTA with the final results of JEE Main after the conclusion of the JEE Main 2026 session in April.

4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jan 31, 2026 09:28 AM IST

NTA is expected to declare the JEE Main 2026 January session result by February 12 (representative image/ Gemini-generated)

JEE Main Expected Cutoff Marks and Percentile 2026: Candidates who took the JEE Main 2026 between January 21 and 28 can expect a minor increase in the JEE Main cut-off this year, experts analyse. This year, the papers were moderately difficult as compared to last year. The official JEE Main cut-off will be announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA) with the final results of JEE Main after the conclusion of the JEE Main 2026 session 2 in April.

For more updates on JEE Main answer key, result date and analysis, click here

Citing the moderate overall difficulty of the physics and chemistry sections, Dr Saurabh Kumar, founder and CEO of Shiksha Nation said that Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2026 cut-offs are expected to rise slightly compared to previous years when the exams were more challenging. However, he also added that significant increases are unlikely and the key factor in determining top percentiles will be performance in mathematics relative to peers who are strong across all subjects.

The January 21 to January 28 BTech/ BE or the paper 1 test emphasised consistency, conceptual clarity, and efficient time management more than sheer difficulty. Students with a strong NCERT foundation who have practiced diligently and prepared evenly across all three subjects were most likely to perform successfully.

According to Sandeep Mehta, IIT alumnus and co-founder, Vidyamandir Classes, the JEE Main 2026 cut-off to become eligible for JEE Advanced 2026 will be based on the difficulty level of the exam, number of aspirants, and overall performance. Going by recent trends, the General category cut-off is expected to hover between the 93.5 to 95 percentile, which is approximately equivalent to over 140 marks out of 300. For OBC-NCL and EWS candidates, the JEE Main 2026 cut-off is likely to be a bit lower, around 79.5 to 81.5 percentile, with scores over 90 marks.

JEE Main Rank Predictor 2026: Check Here

For SC candidates, the cut-off percentile is likely to be around 61 to 63 and for ST candidates, around 48 to 51 percentile. This implies that candidates belonging to these categories might need to secure over 45 and 60 marks. EWS candidates are likely to have a lower cut-off at around 81 to 83 percentile, IIT alumnus and co-founder said.

Story continues below this ad

Category	Expected 2026 Percentile for Cut-off	Safe Score (out of 300)
General	93.5 – 95.0	140+
OBC-NCL	79.5 – 81.5	90+
EWS	81.0 – 83.0	100+
SC	61.0 – 63.0	60+
ST	48.0 – 51.0	45+

Besides clearing the JEE Main cut-off, JEE Advanced aspirants also have to qualify the eligibility in their Class 12 board examination, which usually is 75 per cent aggregate for General and OBC candidates and 65 per cent for SC, ST and PwD categories.

As per PhysicsWallah, to qualify for JEE Advanced 2026, general category candidates would require 93.2 – 94.1 percentile, Gen-EWS will need 81 to 82 percentile, OBC-NCL candidates must get 79 to 80 pecentile, SC and ST candidates need 60 to 62 percentile and 47 to 49 percentile, respectively, and PwD candidates have a threshold of just 0.001 – 1 percentile.

Expected cutoff of JEE Mains 2026
Category	Expected Qualifying Percentile (2026)
General	93.2 – 94.1
Gen-EWS	81 – 82
OBC-NCL	79 – 80
SC	60 – 62
ST	47 – 49
PwD	0.001 – 1

The JEE Main cut-off also depends on multiple factors, including the number of total candidates taking the exam and the difficulty level of each of the sessions.

JEE Main cut-off from the past 5 years

Category	JEE Main 2025 Cut-Off	JEE Main 2024 Cut-Off	JEE Main 2023 Cut-Off	JEE Main 2022 Cut-Off	JEE Main 2021 Cut-Off
General	100 – 93.1023262	93.2362181	90.7788642	88.4121383	87.8992241
OBC-NCL	93.0950208 – 79.4313582	79.6757881	73.6114227	67.0090297	68.0234447
SC	93.0950208 – 61.1526933	60.0923182	51.9776027	43.0820954	46.8825338
ST	93.0950208 – 47.9026465	46.697584	37.2348772	26.7771328	34.6728999
GEN-EWS	93.0950208 – 80.3830119	81.3266412	75.6229025	63.1114141	66.2214845
Gen-PwD	93.0950208 – 0.0079349	0.00187	0.0013527	0.0031029	0.0096375

In the JEE Main 2025 Paper 1 for BE, BTech as many as 15,39,848 unique candidates registered for either the January or April session, while 14,75,103 unique candidates actually appeared in the exam across both rounds. Out of these, 8,33,536 candidates registered for both sessions, and 7,75,383 of them appeared in both attempts.

Story continues below this ad

NTA is expected to declare the JEE Main 2026 January session result on February 12.