JEE Advanced 2026 Eligibility Criteria - Check Age Limit, Marks Required, No of Attempts, Important Factor

JEE Advanced Eligibility Criteria 2026

The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, is expected to release the eligibility criteria for the JEE Advanced 2026 along with the release of the information brochure. As per the previous year's eligibility criteria, candidates will be allowed to take two attempts to qualify for the JEE Advanced exam. On the other hand, the basic eligibility criteria to appear for the JEE Advanced exam is to qualify for the JEE Main exam and be in the top 250,000 qualifiers. Candidates who are willing to appear for the exam are advised to check the detailed JEE Advanced 2026 eligibility criteria on the page.

JEE Advanced 2026 Eligibility Criteria

Before applying, all applicants should check the eligibility criteria of JEE Advanced 2026 to determine their admissions eligibility. The candidates must meet the requirements for JEE Advanced eligibility, which include age, tries, qualifying exam scores, and more. Additionally, droppers should examine the JEE Advanced 2026 requirements for droppers before submitting an online application.

Criterion 1- Performance in JEE Main 2026

Candidates must rank among the top 2,50,000 participants in the B.E./B.Tech. paper of the JEE Main 2025 exam (across all categories). The percentages of the different applicant groups that will be shortlisted are as follows: 10% for GEN-EWS, 27% for OBC-NCL, 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST, and the remaining 40.5% is OPEN for everyone. There is a 5% horizontal reservation available for PwD applicants within each of these five categories. According to their performance on the B.E./B.Tech. paper of the JEE Main 2025, the top 2,50,000 applicants in each category will be chosen in the order shown in the following table.

Note: The total number of applicants may exceed 2,50,000 in any category with "tied" ranks or scores.

Criterion 2  - Age Limit

Candidates should be born on or after October 1, 2001. However for candidates belonging to SC, ST and PwD categories. the age relaxation is five years permitting those candidates who are born before or on October 1, 2026.

Criterion 3 - Number of Attempts

As per the revised JEE Advanced 2025 eligibility criteria, candidates will be able to attempt the exam twice in two consecutive years. 

Criterion 4 - Appearance in Class 12 or its equivalent examination

• A candidate must have taken Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics as required courses while taking the Class 12 (or equivalent) exam for the first time in 2025 or 2026
• For the number of combinations of topics tried or provided, candidates who had first taken the Class 12 (or equivalent) examination in 2024 or before are NOT eligible to take the JEE Advanced in 2026

The qualifying examinations listed below will be regarded as 12th-standard equivalents:

• Final examination of class 12 boards conducted by a Central or State Board which is recognised by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).
• The intermediate or three-year Pre-University exam which is conducted by a Board or university and, moreover, recognised by the Association of Indian Universities.
• Final exam of the three-year course of the Joint Services Wing of the National Defence Academy.
• Senior Secondary School Examination, or the class 12 exam conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling with a minimum of five subjects compulsory.
• Any public school, Board or university examination in India or a foreign country that is recognised as equivalent to the 10+2 system by the Association of Indian Universities.
• H.S.C. vocational exam
• Diploma course that is recognised by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) or a State Board of Technical Education for at least 3 years' duration.
• General Certificate Education (GCE) examination (London, Cambridge or Sri Lanka) at the Advanced (A) level.
• Cambridge University's High School Certificate Examination or the International Baccalaureate Diploma of the International Baccalaureate Office, Geneva.

Process of Calculating Class 12 Marks:

• The marks will be scaled (up or down) to 100 if a subject's marks are not out of 100, making the total aggregate marks out of 500.
• The candidate must acquire a certificate from the Board stating the corresponding marks and provide it at the time of accepting the allotted seat if the Board only awards letter grades without providing a corresponding percentage of marks on the grade sheet. The Joint Implementation Committee will make the ultimate decision if the applicant fails to submit the certificate.
• The percentage of overall scores will be determined using the scores for the same subject from the previous year or years if any of the subjects—Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Language papers—are not assessed in the final year.
• The best of the three performances will be taken into account for candidates who took the 12th standard (or equivalent) board examination for the first time in 2024 and then again in all subjects in 2025.
• Only the marks from the 12th standard will be taken into account if a board awards aggregate marks based on both the 11th and 12th standard examinations. The final year's grades are the only ones taken into account if a board awards aggregate marks that take into account the completion of all three years of a three-year diploma or courses of comparable length. In the same manner, marks from the last two semesters will be taken into account for boards that use a semester system.
• The aggregate marks provided by the Board will be taken into consideration if it withholds the marks awarded for individual subjects.

Criterion 5 - Earlier Admissions at IITs

• Regardless of whether the applicant remained in the programme or accepted an IIT seat by reporting "online" or at a "reporting centre" in the past, the applicant should NOT have been admitted to an IIT. Candidates who joined an IIT after having their admission to an IIT revoked (for any reason) are likewise unable to take the JEE Advanced 2026
• Candidates who were first-time enrolled on a preparatory programme at any of the exams in 2024 may sit for the JEE Advanced Exam 2026
• Candidates who received an IIT seat through JoSAA 2025 but 

1. who failed to appear "online" or at any "reporting centre" OR
2. withdrew before the final round of seat allocation OR 
3. had their seat cancelled (for any reason) before the final round of IIT seat allocation are eligible to take the JEE Advanced 2026 exam

• But in each of the aforementioned situations, the applicant must also meet the prerequisites listed in Criteria 1 through Criteria 4.

Eligibility Criteria of JEE Advanced 2026 for Foreign Students

All Indian citizens are eligible to apply for JEE Advanced 2026. Furthermore, candidates from outside the country, who comprise less than 10% of the SNQ, may apply. It is imperative that applicants have finished their Class 12 examinations in the academic year 2025–2026.

Category Wise Distribution of JEE Main Candidates for JEE Advanced 2026

For the selection of the top 250,000 candidates for the JEE Advanced 2026 exam, the conducting authority will consider the reservations policy. As per the reservation policy for the JEE Advanced 2026 exam, the Gen-EWS will get the benefit of 10% reservation, 27% for OBC-NCL, 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST, and the remaining 40.5% for the open category. Check the category-wise distribution of JEE Main candidates for JEE Advanced 2026 in the table below:

Note:The total number of candidates who will take the JEE Advanced 2026 will slightly increase from 2,50,000 top candidates due to tied ranks and scores in the same category.

Eligibility Criteria for JEE Advanced 2026 Cutoff

Check the cutoff eligibility to appear in the JEE Advanced 2026 below:

• The JEE Advanced category-wise cutoff marks for the top 20 percentile are determined by taking into account the marks obtained by the candidates who pass their respective boards in that specific year.
• JEE Advanced 2026 cutoff marks for PwD category candidates will be the same as the lowest of the cutoff marks of the JEE Advanced for other category candidates.
• Candidates who passed the 12th standard (or equivalent) examination in the same year will be given consideration for the academic year 2026 if they scored in the top 20 percentile of results. Likewise, candidates who passed the exam during the academic year 2025 will be evaluated using the cutoff of 2025.
• Applicants who took the qualifying exam for the first time in 2025 and would like to retake it in 2026 in order to meet the top 20 percentile cutoff will need to retake every subject. For such candidates, the top 20 percentile cutoff of 2025 will be taken into consideration.
• Candidates must present a certificate from the relevant board attesting to their placement in the top 20 percentile of qualified applicants in the event that the board does not disclose the top 20 percentile cutoff.