National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate)(NEET PG)

About the exam

About NEET PG

NEET PG is the single entrance examination prescribed for MD, MS and PG Diploma admission in India, and the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) held the 2026 edition on 30 August with a shorter paper: 180 questions, against the 200 its 2025 bulletin had set. The 2026 bulletin fixes 30 September 2026 both as the date by which the result is to be declared and as the date by which a candidate's internship must be complete. The qualifying bar a score must then clear is a percentile, and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare lowered it after the results were out in every cycle from NEET-PG 2022 to NEET-PG 2025.

NBEMS conducts NEET-PG as an eligibility-cum-ranking examination under Section 61(2) of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, and for the 2026-27 session no state government, private medical college or university may hold a separate entrance test for its MD, MS or PG Diploma seats, according to the NEET-PG 2026 Information Bulletin posted on the NBEMS NEET-PG examination page. The same result is used for Post MBBS DNB courses, Direct 6-year DrNB courses and 2-year Post MBBS NBEMS Diploma courses. The bulletin also draws a hard line around NBEMS's own job: it conducts the test, declares the result and hands it to the designated counselling authority, and it has no role in allotting seats.

That NBEMS page carries each cycle's bulletin, application link and results. For the 2026 cycle, NBEMS reported 2,73,096 registered candidates and 2,65,980 who appeared on 30 August 2026 (NBEMS notice on the NEET-PG 2026 re-examination at Sitapura).

At a glance

NEET PG highlights

Calendar

Important dates

Every row below comes from the NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, including an admit card date that NBEMS later changed by notice.

NBEMS first moved the admit card release from 27 August to 24 August 2026, then, citing unavoidable circumstances and requests received with regard to Assam and Meghalaya, set it at 25 August 2026 (NBEMS notice revising the NEET-PG 2026 admit card date). Candidates whose images were still deficient after the selective edit window closed on 10 August 2026 were given a final window from 12 August to 15 August 2026 (NBEMS notice on the NEET-PG 2026 selective edit window).

At the iON Digital Zone iDZ Sitapura 1 and 2 centres in Jaipur the paper could not be completed on exam day because of internal power failure issues at the centre (NBEMS notice on the NEET-PG 2026 re-examination at Sitapura). NBEMS scheduled a re-examination for those candidates on 5 September 2026 from 03:00 PM to 06:30 PM, with revised admit cards on 3 September 2026 (NBEMS notice on the Jaipur re-examination).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Which conditions apply depends on where the basic medical degree was earned and on nationality:

• MBBS from India: an MBBS degree or Provisional MBBS Pass Certificate recognised under the NMC Act, 2019 and the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023; a permanent or provisional registration certificate issued by the National Medical Commission, the erstwhile Medical Council of India or a State Medical Council; and one year of internship completed, or likely to be completed, on or before 30 September 2026 (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS).
• Indian citizens and OCI cardholders with a medical degree from abroad: a pass in the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination under the Screening Test Regulations, 2002, registration with the NMC, the erstwhile MCI or a State Medical Council, and internship completed or likely to be completed on or before 30 September 2026.
• Foreign nationals: a basic medical qualification equivalent to MBBS and recognised by the NMC, plus security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs, which the bulletin requires foreign nationals and anyone else covered by MHA requirements to obtain before applying and to submit with the application. The NMC may grant temporary registration for the length of the PG course, provided the candidate is registered in the country of the primary qualification and holds a No Objection Certificate from that country's medical council.

The internship start and completion dates a candidate enters in the application are treated as final, and the original Compulsory Rotatory Internship completion certificate has to be produced at counselling or admission (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). Applications from candidates who complete internship after 30 September 2026 are summarily rejected, as are those with qualifications not recognised under the NMC Act, 2019 and the repealed IMC Act, 1956. Proof of medical council registration is needed on the day of the examination as well as at counselling.

Doctors part-way through a PG course should check the rules of the university they are aiming for: some will not admit a candidate until the course in progress is complete, and the bulletin leaves a refused admission at the candidate's own risk and cost. For NRI seats at deemed universities it applies the NRI definition in the Supreme Court order dated 22/08/2017 in WP 689/2017 (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). Neither age nor the number of earlier NEET-PG attempts appears among the bulletin's eligibility conditions.

Step by step

Application process and fee

NBEMS took NEET-PG 2026 applications from 1 July to 21 July 2026 and said it would not entertain a request to accept any application after that window closed (NBEMS notice on the conduct of NEET-PG 2026). The online form on the NBEMS website was the only route, and the bulletin rejects applications sent any other way (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS).

The bulletin's summary puts the online form in this order (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS):

1. Register to generate a User ID / application sequence number and a password.
2. Fill in the form and upload a photograph, a scanned signature, a thumb impression and the prescribed documents.
3. Choose the test state preferences and pay the examination fee.
4. Agree to the declaration and submit, then print the form showing the transaction ID and a payment status of "S".

The fee depends on category.

Gateway charges come on top of both amounts, and the gateway is the only way to pay, whether by UPI or by a credit or debit card issued by a bank in India. Absent candidates and those declared ineligible also lose the fee, because NBEMS neither refunds it nor carries it forward to a later examination. A candidate may submit only one application: if more than one turns up, NBEMS may issue the admit card against the higher application sequence number and cancel the others with their fees forfeited (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS).

The edit window from 25 July to 28 July 2026 allowed changes to almost everything, including category and PwBD status, with any higher fee paid then; a change that lowered the fee brought no refund (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). Name, nationality, email ID, mobile number, Aadhaar details, correspondence address and test state preferences could not be edited at all, and the photograph had to have been taken no more than 3 months before the application was submitted. The same details are carried into the counselling registration form, which is why NBEMS asks candidates to keep the same email ID and mobile number until counselling is over.

Before the exam

Admit card and exam day

The admit card is not posted; candidates are told by email when it is issued and download it from the NBEMS website after logging in, and it is not issued to anyone declared ineligible before the examination. The bulletin lists what has to reach the examination lab with the candidate (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS):

• a printed colour copy of the barcoded or QR-coded admit card;
• a photocopy of the permanent or provisional SMC, MCI or NMC registration, which the centre keeps;
• one original, valid government photo ID, since photocopies and IDs shown in DigiLocker are refused;
• a UDID or disability certificate from the competent authority, for a candidate claiming a scribe or extra time under the RPwD Act, 2016;
• the original FMGE pass certificate for foreign medical graduates, and an original, valid passport for foreign nationals.

Aadhaar matters on the day only for candidates who opted into Aadhaar-based authentication and entered the number in their form: they must bring it, and its biometric authentication must not be locked (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). NBEMS's advisory of 1 July 2026 adds that where Aadhaar authentication is unsuccessful, alternate identity checks including IRIS-based authentication may be used (NBEMS advisory for NEET-PG 2026 applicants).

On 30 August 2026 candidates had to report at 07:00 AM, the entry gate closed at 08:30 AM and the paper ran from 09:00 AM to 12:30 PM, with frisking that included a hand-held metal detector at entry (NBEMS test day advisory for NEET-PG 2026). The advisory's barred list goes beyond phones and watches to health or fitness bands and rings, AI-enabled glasses, car keys, wallets, belts, caps, ornaments, and any food or water bottle; medicines and medical devices need supporting medical documents.

Identity checks continue inside: fingerprints and a photograph at registration, a Face ID match against the photograph uploaded with the application, and fresh photographs at every bio-break and during the paper. No extra time is given for any of these checks, and no rough paper, pen or pencil is provided or allowed (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). A scribe needs NBEMS's prior approval, sought through its Communication Web Portal with supporting documents and also declared in the application form.

Structure

Exam pattern

For 2026 the NEET-PG 2026 Information Bulletin, linked from the NBEMS NEET-PG page, sets 180 multiple choice questions on computer, in English only and with 4 response options apiece, to be answered in 3 hours 30 minutes. They fall into 5 time-bound sections, Group A to Group E, of 36 questions each, with 42 minutes allotted to each section. When a section's time runs out its answers are locked and the next section starts on its own, and flagging a question for review does not alter the marks it earns. The bulletin adds that the actual number of sections may vary with the total number of questions and operational feasibility.

A count of 200 questions or a scale of 800 marks describes NEET-PG 2025, not NEET-PG 2026. The NEET-PG 2025 Information Bulletin set 200 multiple choice questions across five time-bound sections of 40 questions each, also with 42 minutes a section, and NBEMS stated its NEET-PG 2025 cut-off scores out of 800 (NBEMS notice declaring the NEET-PG 2025 result). The 2026 bulletin states no maximum score for its 180-question paper (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS).

What to study

Syllabus

One clause of the NEET-PG 2026 bulletin covers the syllabus, tying it to the subjects and knowledge areas of the MBBS curriculum issued by the National Medical Commission or the erstwhile Medical Council of India (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). There is no subject list and no subject-wise weightage in the bulletin, only the statement that questions from the subjects of the MBBS curriculum are distributed across the time-bound sections.

How to prepare

Preparation and books

For getting used to the computer-based interface, the NEET-PG 2026 bulletin pointed candidates to a demo test on the NBEMS website, due tentatively from 15 August 2026, and it names no books (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS).

Its non-disclosure terms put the risk of recycled questions on the candidate (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). Enrolling in, taking part in or using a coaching programme, service or online forum that circulates actual NEET-PG questions or answers, or sharing such content, is grounds for cancelling candidature and nullifying the result, and the Examination Ethics Committee's penalties for unfair means run from cancellation of the examination up to expulsion for the next 14 attempts or 7 years.

Where it is held

Exam centres

NEET-PG 2026 was held at 1111 centres across the country (NBEMS notice on the NEET-PG 2026 re-examination at Sitapura).

The way a candidate lands at one changed for 2026. The NEET-PG 2026 bulletin had each applicant pick 3 preferred test states, the first of which had to be the state of the correspondence address, with the other two preferably neighbouring states (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). Allotment ran through a randomised computer sequence rather than first come, first served, so applying early earned no preference, and NBEMS kept the right to allot a centre anywhere in India. There is no test centre in the UT of Chandigarh, so candidates with a Chandigarh correspondence address are treated as belonging to Punjab. The correspondence address needs a proof from the bulletin's list, and neither it nor the test state choices could be edited after submission.

For NEET-PG 2025 the rule had been the opposite: after the exam moved to a single shift, candidates re-submitted an exam city choice, and that selection was on a first come, first served basis (NBEMS notice of 7 June 2025 on the conduct of NEET-PG 2025).

Test cities for 2026 were published on 11 August 2026 in each candidate's application portal, and NBEMS said the city shown there is final. The same notice records that a technical issue sent some candidates an incorrect test city by SMS, and that corrected SMS and emails followed (NBEMS notice on NEET-PG 2026 test city intimation). Which building in that city a candidate would sit in was printed only on the admit card (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS).

After the exam

Answer key

The NEET-PG 2026 bulletin commits NBEMS to publishing the answer key of NEET-PG 2026 on its website, in compliance with the Supreme Court's orders dated 29.04.2025 in SLP No. 9298 of 2018, without fixing a date for it (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). Alongside the correct key it is to publish each candidate's marked responses and the score given for each question, all reached through the applicant login on the NEET-PG 2026 index page.

Separately, the bulletin allowed a pre-result challenge, and only on technical grounds (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). A bonafide candidate could challenge any question for a technical error, with supporting literature, within 2 calendar days of the examination, that is until 1 September 2026, and only through the NBEMS Communication Web Portal from the registered email ID; a complaint that a question was too difficult is not a valid challenge. Every question is also reviewed after the examination by faculty from the specialty concerned, and any question found technically incorrect or ambiguous earns full marks for every candidate who appeared, attempted or not. No challenge fee appears in that clause.

For the 2025 cycle, NBEMS announced on 21 August 2025, after the result declared on 19 August 2025, that the answer key and marked responses would be published shortly through a portal it was still developing (NBEMS notice on the NEET-PG 2025 answer key). Because question order and option order were shuffled between candidates, a correction issued the same day said question ID numbers, the key and the responses would be displayed according to the master set of the question paper (NBEMS correction to the NEET-PG 2025 answer key notice).

Scores

Result and scorecard

The NEET-PG 2026 bulletin sets 30 September 2026 as the date by which the result will be declared on the NBEMS website, and it calculates each candidate's percentile as 100 multiplied by the number of candidates with a total score equal to or below that candidate's, divided by the total number of candidates who appeared (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). The scorecard can be downloaded through the candidate's login for 6 months from the date of the result, and requests to email it or supply it later are rejected. Marked responses are never re-evaluated, rechecked or re-totalled. The result is valid only for the 2026-27 admission session.

The NEET-PG 2026 rank is the overall merit position among everyone who appeared (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). Tied scores are separated by the bulletin's criteria, applied in sequence:

1. fewer negative responses in the whole paper;
2. fewer negative responses in Section A, then in Section B, Section C, Section D and Section E, taken one at a time;
3. higher aggregate percentage in all MBBS Professional Examinations, or FMGE marks for those who qualified abroad, as entered in the application form;
4. the older candidate, by date of birth.

If the aggregate percentage entered in the form proves wrong at admission and it was used to break a tie, the candidature is cancelled (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). NBEMS does not prepare state quota merit lists: it passes candidates' data and scores to states through the DGHS, and each state or UT works out state rank, category rank and any in-service or rural-posting benefit under its own rules.

NEET-PG 2026 was set for a single shift, and its bulletin describes no normalisation of scores (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). The 2025 bulletin did describe one, but NBEMS did not apply it once that exam also ran in a single shift under a Supreme Court order; NEET-PG 2025 was held on 3 August 2025, its result declared on 19 August 2025 and scorecards made downloadable on or after 29 August 2025 (NBEMS notice declaring the NEET-PG 2025 result).

Scores you need

Cutoff

The NEET-PG 2026 bulletin fixes the qualifying bar as a percentile, not a score (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). A candidate below it is not considered for admission to MD, MS or PG Diploma courses.

Eligibility for counselling follows the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 and the amendments the NMC issues with the Health Ministry's prior approval (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). In practice the bar has moved after results: in each NBEMS notice below, the lower percentile follows a Ministry of Health and Family Welfare letter, and the published rank stays unchanged.

For NEET-PG 2025, NBEMS lowered the percentiles on 13 January 2026 for the third round of 2025-26 counselling, following a Ministry letter (NBEMS notice on revised NEET-PG 2025 cut-off scores).

The NEET-PG 2024 bar was lowered in January 2025 and again in February 2025. A notice of 6 January 2025 brought it down from the 50th, 45th and 40th percentiles to the 15th percentile for General/EWS and the 10th percentile for both UR-PwBD and SC/ST/OBC (NBEMS notice of January 2025 on the NEET-PG 2024 percentile). A second notice on 25 February 2025 set it at the 5th percentile for every category (NBEMS notice of February 2025 on the NEET-PG 2024 percentile).

For NEET-PG 2023, the Ministry reduced the qualifying percentile to zero across all categories, as NBEMS notified on 20 September 2023 (NBEMS notice on the NEET-PG 2023 percentile). For NEET-PG 2022, the bar went to the 25th percentile for General (UR/EWS), the 20th for UR-PwD and the 15th for SC/ST/OBC, with revised cut-off scores of 201, 186 and 169 out of 800 (NBEMS notice on revised NEET-PG 2022 cut-off scores).

No NEET-PG 2026 cut-off score appears in the bulletin: under its percentile formula, the score sitting at each percentile depends on how everyone who appeared scored (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS).

Getting a seat

Counselling and seat allotment

Seats are allotted by counselling bodies, not NBEMS, and the bulletin splits the work as follows:

• the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) of the DGHS handles the 50% All India Quota seats, 100% of seats at deemed and central universities, and 100% of all-India open DNB seats (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS);
• the counselling authority of each state government handles in-service seats;
• state quota seats, and seats in institutions set up by state governments, universities under state or UT Acts, municipal bodies, trusts, societies, companies and minority institutions, are filled from the NEET-PG merit list under each state's own eligibility and reservation rules.

A candidate can qualify NEET-PG 2026 and still not meet the counselling authority's criteria for All India Quota counselling, while remaining eligible to be considered for state quota counselling (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). In MCC counselling, OBC reservation is open only to the non-creamy layer on the central list, OCI cardholders are treated at par with Indian citizens for unreserved and NRI seats, and candidates claiming NRI, OCI or PIO status get no SC, ST, OBC or EWS reservation. For the 5% PwBD reservation in All India Quota and central university seats, the bulletin names 33 centres that issue the certificate.

Admission to MD, MS or DNB at an Armed Forces Medical Services institution needs a "YES" to the AFMS question in the NEET-PG application and registration with MCC (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). MCC handles only the registration for serving AFMS officers and for candidates from friendly foreign countries and officers on study leave, and runs online counselling on inter-se merit for medical officers sponsored by para-military and other Government of India organisations, ex-AFMS SSC officers and civilians. AFMS institutions have no SC, ST, OBC or PwBD reservation.

PG round schedules and notices appear on the MCC PG Medical Counselling page. For the 2025-26 session, the MCC NEET-PG Schedule 2025 set the first All India Quota round from 17th Oct. to 22nd Nov., 2025, and MCC's later Round-3 and stray vacancy round schedule for PG 2025 opened Round-3 registration on 15th Jan., 2026 and put the online stray vacancy round result on 21st Feb., 2026.

Where it is accepted

Participating institutes

The NEET-PG 2026 bulletin lists what the exam covers for the 2026-27 session (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS): All India 50% quota seats and state quota seats in every state and UT, all private medical colleges, institutions, universities and deemed universities, Armed Forces Medical Services institutions, and Post MBBS DNB, Direct 6-year DrNB and Post MBBS NBEMS Diploma courses.

Both the bulletin and the NBEMS NEET-PG page name the institutions left out of centralised MD and MS admission through NEET-PG: AIIMS New Delhi and the other AIIMS, PGIMER Chandigarh, JIPMER Puducherry, NIMHANS Bengaluru, and the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram.

On the Armed Forces side, the bulletin lists ten AFMS training institutes open to eligible candidates, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune and Army Hospital (Research & Referral), Delhi Cantt. among them, and sends candidates to the AFMS website for their eligibility criteria and admission procedure (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS).

Get help

Contact

The bulletin lists these ways to reach NBEMS and, for counselling, MCC:

• NBEMS Candidate Care helpline, the preferred mode: +91-7996165333, with phone support from 09:30 AM to 06:00 PM between 1 July 2026 and 2 October 2026, and from 07:00 AM to 12:30 PM on the examination day (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS).
• Helpline portal: inside the applicant login, for application submission, refunds of failed transactions and payment gateway problems.
• NBEMS Communication Web Portal: reached from the NBEMS website, for all other queries.
• By post: Executive Director, NBEMS, Medical Enclave, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi-110029.
• Counselling queries only: MCC of DGHS on 0120-4073500 or toll free 1800 102 7637, from 09:00 AM to 06:00 PM and only during counselling, or mccpostgraduate@gmail.com.

NBEMS processes NEET-PG queries only when they come from the candidate's email ID registered with it, and wants each one to carry the candidate's name, email ID, mobile number, correspondence address, application sequence number or roll number, and session (NEET-PG 2026 bulletin, NBEMS). The bulletin describes the phone support hours as working days, Monday to Friday, except gazetted holidays. The NEET-PG 2026 application portal instead gives the same number's hours as 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM on all days except Sunday and gazetted holidays. NBEMS's test day advisory asks anyone approached by a person claiming access to the question paper or answer key to report it to reportumc@natboard.edu.in (NBEMS test day advisory for NEET-PG 2026).

Source

Official links

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Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Exact dates, registration windows, answer keys, cutoffs, qualifying percentiles, results are per-cycle. NOTE: verify against NBEMS official bulletin (one agent source was secondary). Anything per-cycle here is stated for the cycle it names and is taken from the conducting body's own notification; confirm it on the official website before acting on it. Expertie does not conduct any exam, process applications or charge fees.

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