National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate)(NEET UG)

About the exam

About NEET UG

The NEET UG exam was held twice in 2026. The National Testing Agency conducted the paper on 3 May 2026, then cancelled it and re-conducted it on 21 June 2026, and the result declared on 16 July 2026 qualified 11.21 lakh candidates out of close to 20 lakh who sat it. What that result buys is settled somewhere else: NTA's own information bulletin limits the agency to inviting applications, conducting the test, declaring the result and handing an All India Rank to the Directorate General of Health Services. Separate authorities, one for medical and dental seats, one in each state, one for Ayush and one for veterinary science, turn that rank into an admission.

NEET (UG) is the single uniform entrance test the law prescribes for undergraduate medical admission across all medical institutions in India, and the bulletin names the statutes one by one: Section 14 of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 for medical institutions, Section 14 of the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020 for BAMS, BUMS and BSMS, Section 14 of the National Commission for Homoeopathy Act, 2020 for BHMS, and the Dentists Act, 1948 and the regulations under it for BDS (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin). The same bulletin's disclaimer is unusually blunt about the limits of the agency running it, saying NTA's responsibility extends to inviting online applications, conducting the entrance test, declaring the result and providing the All India Rank to the Directorate General of Health Services, and no further.

NTA restated that division when it declared the 2026 result, recording that its mandate is to conduct the examination, declare the result on eligibility criteria provided by the NMC and issue the All India Rank, while merit lists, category lists, domicile determination and counselling are the remit of the admitting and State authorities (NTA press release on the NEET (UG) 2026 result). That press release also fixes the scale: close to 20 lakh candidates appeared at 5,440 centres in 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad, in 13 languages, and 11.21 lakh of them qualified.

At a glance

NEET UG highlights

Calendar

Important dates

The bulletin published a full registration calendar and left the post-examination dates open, to be announced later on the website. This is what it set.

That calendar stopped at the paper. NTA's press release dated 12 May 2026 records the decision, taken with the approval of the Government of India, to cancel the NEET (UG) 2026 examination conducted on 3 May 2026 and to re-conduct it on dates to be notified separately, and the Government's further decision to refer the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (NTA press release dated 12 May 2026 on NEET (UG) 2026). NTA's question-and-answer document on the re-examination then fixed the replacement date and the terms attached to it: 21 June 2026, a Sunday, from 02:00 PM to 05:15 PM including the time for formalities, with no additional payment required from candidates (NTA FAQs on the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination).

The result stage then ran to a published timetable, which NTA set out when it declared the result.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Age is the one hard bar. A candidate must have completed 17 years on or before 31 December of the year of the examination, which for the 2026 cycle meant being born on or before 31.12.2009, and that date is the same for General and General-EWS candidates as for SC, ST, OBC-NCL, PwBD and PwD candidates. On the other end the bulletin records, citing an NMC letter of 09 March 2022, that there is no upper age limit (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin). The eligibility chapter sets no ceiling on how many times a candidate may sit the test.

The academic qualification is not a single rule but seven numbered codes, and a candidate picks the one that matches their own record while filling the form. The bulletin lists them as follows.

1. Code 01, a candidate still appearing in the qualifying examination whose Class 12 result is awaited, who may apply and sit the test but cannot be admitted unless they have passed by the time of the first round of counselling. The same code covers candidates who studied Physics, Chemistry, Biology or Biotechnology along with English as additional subjects after passing Class 12 from a duly recognised board.
2. Code 02, the Higher or Senior Secondary examination, or the Indian School Certificate examination, equivalent to Class 12 after twelve years of study, with the requisite subjects including practical tests and with English at a level not below the core course.
3. Code 03, the Intermediate or Pre-degree examination in Science of an Indian University or Board, with Physics, Chemistry and Biology or Biotechnology including practical tests, and English as a compulsory subject.
4. Code 04, the Pre-professional or Pre-medical examination taken after the Higher Secondary, Pre-University or an equivalent examination, again with practical tests and compulsory English.
5. Code 05, the first year of a three-year degree course of a recognised University with Physics, Chemistry and Biology or Biotechnology including practical tests, provided the earlier qualifying examination carried those subjects with English.
6. Code 06, a B.Sc. examination of an Indian University passed with at least two of Physics, Chemistry, Biology (Botany, Zoology) or Biotechnology, again provided the earlier qualifying examination carried those subjects with English.
7. Code 07, any other examination equivalent in scope and standard to the Intermediate Science examination, which the bulletin defines as the last two years of 10+2 study comprising Physics, Chemistry and Biology or Biotechnology with practical tests in each, and English. Candidates who studied with a foreign or international board are told to satisfy themselves that their qualification meets this code.

Non-Resident Indians, Overseas Citizens of India and foreign nationals may sit the test and are eligible for admission subject to the rules of the respective State Governments, institutions and the Government of India. NRI and OCI candidates have to upload a certificate from the Indian Diplomatic Mission in their country of residence with the application and keep the original for counselling; a foreign applicant uploads documentary proof of citizenship instead. The bulletin also records that OCI cardholders are entitled to the rights and privileges conferred on them before the notification dated 04.03.2021, in compliance with a Supreme Court order dated 03.02.2023 in WP No. 891 of 2021 (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin). An Indian citizen or OCI who intends to study medicine at a foreign institute also has to qualify NEET (UG).

Two of the Ayush streams add a language condition of their own. Admission to BUMS requires Urdu, Arabic or Persian as a subject at the Class 10 standard, or clearing a Class 10 Urdu test where such a test is conducted; admission to BSMS requires Tamil as a subject in Class 10 or the Higher Secondary course, failing which the candidate studies Tamil during the first professional year. For BAMS, BSMS, BUMS and BHMS the bulletin sets the age bar slightly differently, at seventeen years attained on or before 31 December of the year of admission to the first year of the course.

Step by step

Application process and fee

The form runs in three steps that can be done together or at separate sittings: register and note the system-generated application number, complete the form with personal details, the medium of the question paper, the choice of examination cities, academic details and the uploads, then pay. The application is only counted as submitted when the fee transaction succeeds and the Confirmation Page is generated, and the bulletin warns that deduction from a bank account is not by itself proof of payment (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin).

Identity is verified through Aadhaar, an Indian passport number, DigiLocker, a PAN number or another valid Central or State Government photo identity card; NRIs, foreign nationals and OCI candidates use a passport number. A live photograph is captured during form filling and matched against the UIDAI record, and where it does not match, or where the candidate verified identity by some route other than Aadhaar, the bulletin requires an attested certificate with a recent photograph from the school or college principal or a Class-I Gazetted Officer.

The same fee table carries a single figure of Rs 9500 for a centre outside India (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin). Processing charges and GST are charged on top by the bank or payment gateway, and the bulletin states that the examination fee once deposited is not refunded and is not carried forward to a future examination. The 2026 re-examination was the exception to both halves of that rule: candidates carried their existing candidature across with no fresh registration and no additional fee, and NTA separately opened a window for candidates to submit bank account details so the fee paid for the 3 May paper could be refunded, telling candidates in its re-examination FAQ that the module for sharing those details would be provided by 21st May 2026 (NTA FAQs on the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination).

Before the exam

Admit card and exam day

The admit card is downloaded from the NTA website and is issued provisionally, subject to eligibility being confirmed later; the bulletin states plainly that it will not be sent by post, that no duplicate will be issued at the centre, and that its issue does not by itself mean eligibility has been accepted (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin). Candidates who cannot download it are told to write to neetug2026@nta.ac.in or call the helpline between 10:00 AM and 05:00 PM.

The day itself is tightly timed. Reporting and entry at the centre begin at 11:00 AM, three hours before the paper, the last entry is 01:30 PM and no candidate who arrives after it is admitted under any circumstances, instructions and admit-card checking run from 01:30 PM to 01:45 PM, test booklets are distributed at 01:45 PM, the test begins at 02:00 PM and concludes at 05:00 PM, or at 06:00 PM for eligible PwD and PwBD candidates using the compensatory hour. A candidate who cannot appear on the scheduled date does not get a re-test; the bulletin says so in terms.

The list of what may be carried in is short and closed: a printed admit card with a passport-size photograph affixed to it, a second passport-size photograph for the attendance sheet, one post card size colour photograph on a white background pasted on the proforma that downloads with the admit card, one original valid photo identity document, which may be a PAN card, driving licence, voter ID, passport, Aadhaar, DigiLocker or APAAR ID, and, for anyone claiming under the PwBD category, the certificate of physical limitation to write or the PwBD certificate. Everything else is barred, including any watch, wallet, belt, cap, ornament, calculator, pen, scale, eraser or communication device, and no arrangement is made at centres for storing them. Candidates are frisked with metal detectors and may also be checked by biometric and face authentication and videography; the bulletin records that frisking of female candidates is done inside a closed enclosure by female staff only. The dress code asks candidates to avoid heavy clothes and long sleeves and prefers low-heeled slippers or sandals, and anyone in customary or cultural dress is asked to report at least an hour before the last reporting time, by 12:30 PM. Candidates with diabetes may carry sugar tablets, fruit such as a banana, apple or orange, and a transparent water bottle, with prior intimation.

The June re-examination ran on a slightly longer clock, and NTA was careful to say what the extra time was not. Its re-examination FAQ describes the 02:00 PM to 05:15 PM window as an additional 15 minutes provided for completion of documentation, verification and other examination-related formalities, not as extra time to answer (NTA FAQs on the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination). A public notice dated 12 June 2026 added a second change, doubling the rough-work space in the question booklet from two pages to four and moving two of those pages to the front of the booklet immediately after the instruction page, after feedback that rough work only at the end was inconvenient for some candidates, particularly left-handed ones (Student-Friendly Measures Introduced for NEET (UG) 2026, NTA).

Structure

Exam pattern

The paper is a single-day, single-shift pen and paper test, and the bulletin ties that decision to an NMC letter dated 05.12.2025, describing the 2026 mode as pen and paper as was conducted in 2025. All 180 questions are compulsory and are to be attempted in 180 minutes; there is no optional section to choose from (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin).

Every question is graded off the OMR sheet on a three-way rule the bulletin prints as +4, -1 and 0, the middle term being the one candidates underrate: the minus mark attaches to any incorrect option marked, so a wrong bubble is worse than an empty one rather than merely no better. The bulletin then spells out what happens when a question misfires, and this is where the arithmetic can move: if more than one option is found correct, four marks go to everyone who marked any of them; if all options are found correct, four marks go to everyone who attempted it; and if none is correct, or the question is wrong or dropped, four marks go to every candidate who appeared, whether or not they attempted it.

Language is decided once, at the application stage, and the bulletin repeats on the same page that the option cannot be revisited. Its list runs to 13 mediums. A candidate who picks English gets an English-only test booklet; one who picks Hindi or a regional language gets a bilingual booklet with English printed alongside. Availability is geographic, and the bulletin sets it out as a table of medium against centre. English runs at every centre in India and outside India, English with Hindi at every centre in India, and Urdu likewise at centres anywhere in India; each of the other regional papers is confined to the states listed against it, so Malayalam is offered in Kerala and Lakshadweep, and Bengali in West Bengal, Tripura and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. If a translated question reads ambiguously, the bulletin makes the English text decisive and says NTA's decision on the point is final (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin).

Ties are broken without a lottery until the very end. The bulletin ranks equal scorers first by marks in Biology, then Chemistry, then Physics, then by the smaller proportion of incorrect to correct answers across all subjects, then by the same proportion within Biology, Chemistry and Physics in turn, and only if all of that is exhausted by a random process guided by an independent expert committee.

What to study

Syllabus

The syllabus is not NTA's to write. The Under Graduate Medical Education Board, an autonomous board under the National Medical Commission, finalised the NEET (UG) 2026 syllabus and notified it by public notice dated 22 December 2025, and the bulletin reproduces it as Appendix-III while pointing candidates to the NMC website for the source copy (Syllabus for NEET (UG) 2026, NMC).

It is organised as numbered units in Physics, Chemistry and Biology, each unit listing the topics rather than chapters of any particular textbook: Physics opens at units on measurement and kinematics and runs through thermodynamics, electrostatics and magnetism, and Biology carries the Botany and Zoology content together. The bulletin's own question-and-answer appendix answers the question candidates ask first, saying there is no change in the syllabus of NEET (UG) 2026 with respect to the previous year, and it carries one correction to the published text, that a phrase in Unit 2 of the Biology syllabus reading "of an insect(Frog)" should be read as "of an insect and a frog".

How to prepare

Preparation and books

Neither the information bulletin nor the NMC syllabus notice names a textbook, a question bank or a coaching programme, and the syllabus document is the only official statement of what can be asked. What NTA does publish after the paper is usable for preparation in a narrow, concrete way: the provisional answer key and then the final answer key, and the scanned image of each candidate's own OMR answer sheet alongside the responses the machine recorded, so a candidate can re-mark their own paper question by question against the key that was finally applied (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin). The scanned OMR sheet and the score card are also kept in DigiLocker for candidates who consented to it at the application stage.

Where it is held

Exam centres

Candidates do not choose a centre, they choose cities. The form takes three cities from the list at Appendix-V in order of priority, and that choice is restricted to the state of the candidate's permanent address or present address, with only one or two options available in some cases on the same address criterion. Allotment is done by computer with no human intervention, and the bulletin reserves the right to merge cities where too few candidates have opted for one, to allot a centre in a city the candidate did not choose, and to add or cancel centres and cities outright. The centre appears on the admit card and no request to change it is entertained. No travelling allowance is paid to any candidate, including SC, ST, PwBD and PwD candidates (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin).

For the June re-examination NTA reopened two fields and no others. Its public notice on the conduct of the re-examination told candidates whose present address had changed that they could update it, together with their first and second choice of examination city, on the NTA website, and that anyone who did not use that window would keep the choice of city already on record, with no request for a change entertained afterwards (NTA public notice on the conduct of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination). The medium of the paper stayed locked to what had been chosen at application, and NTA answered the question twice over in its re-examination FAQ (NTA FAQs on the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination). The re-examination ran at 5,440 centres across 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad (NTA press release on the NEET (UG) 2026 result).

After the exam

Answer key

There are two separate challenge windows and both cost money. A candidate may make a representation against the grading of the OMR sheet at a non-refundable processing fee of Rs 200 per question challenged, and may separately challenge the provisional answer key at a non-refundable Rs 200 per answer challenged, within the period named in the public notice. Challenges to the key are verified by a panel of subject experts, and the bulletin is explicit that a challenge found correct revises the key for every candidate, not only the one who raised it, with no individual told whether their own challenge succeeded (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin). The key finalised after challenges is displayed before the result is declared and the result is prepared on it.

In 2026 NTA unpicked the usual sequence to save time. It published the provisional answer key on 25 June 2026 with the challenge window open from 25 to 28 June 2026, displayed the scanned OMR sheets and recorded responses separately from 13 to 15 July 2026, and published the final answer key on 16 July 2026, describing the change as running stages in parallel rather than in sequence and de-linking the OMR challenge from the answer key release (NTA press release on the NEET (UG) 2026 result).

Scores

Result and scorecard

The result is declared on the NEET (UG) website and the score card is downloaded from there (NTA's NEET (UG) website). There is no re-checking and no re-evaluation of answer sheets, and the bulletin gives its reasoning rather than leaving it as a rule: the OMR sheets are machine graded by software applied identically to everyone, and candidates have already been given both the OMR representation window and the answer key challenge. Two clocks start at declaration. Records are preserved only up to 90 days from the date of result declaration and are then weeded out, and any legal question arising out of the examination is entertained only if raised within 30 days of the declaration (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin).

The 2026 result was declared on 16 July 2026 and NTA published the shape of it in some detail. The highest score was 715 out of 720, obtained jointly by two candidates, 19 candidates scored above 700, 1,492 scored 650 and above, 10,160 scored 600 and above and 90,780 scored 500 and above; 138 candidates scored above 690, of whom over 93 per cent were sitting NEET (UG) for the first time. More than 58 per cent of all qualified candidates were women, and women qualified at a higher rate than men, 56.8 per cent of the women who appeared against 55.1 per cent of the men (NTA press release on the NEET (UG) 2026 result).

Scores you need

Cutoff

There is no pass mark written into NEET (UG) anywhere. What the bulletin prescribes instead is a position in that year's own field of candidates: General and General-EWS candidates have to reach the 50th percentile, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class candidates the 40th, and candidates with benchmark disabilities under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 the 45th percentile if they are Unreserved or GEN-EWS and the 40th if they are SC, ST or OBC-NCL. The percentile is worked out on the highest marks secured in the All India common merit list that year, which is why the mark it lands on moves every cycle. The bulletin repeats the same percentile criteria, word for word, in its chapter on BAMS, BSMS, BUMS and BHMS. Where too few candidates in a category clear the bar, the Central Government may lower the minimum marks for that academic year alone, in consultation with the NMC, the Dental Council of India, the NCISM and the NCH (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin).

The marks those percentiles land on are published with the result, never before it. NTA's 2026 result press release states that category-wise cut-off marks and percentiles are being published simultaneously, alongside the full list of top rankers, state toppers, category-wise toppers and language-wise participation (NTA press release on the NEET (UG) 2026 result). The cycle-by-cycle figures live in one document, Key Data Points of NEET (UG) Over Years, which sets each category's qualifying percentile criteria against the marks range it produced and the number of candidates who landed inside that band (Key Data Points of NEET (UG) Over Years, NTA). NTA lists it under that exact title on the public notices of its NEET (UG) site, and it is published as a scanned document rather than as text (NTA's NEET (UG) website). Any cut-off quoted before it appears is somebody's estimate, and last cycle's figure is not a forecast of this one.

Getting a seat

Counselling and seat allotment

Qualifying puts a candidate into a queue, and which queue depends on the course. For MBBS and BDS the Medical Counselling Committee under the Directorate General of Health Services runs the counselling for the 15 per cent All India Quota and for the whole of the seats at deemed universities, the central universities including Delhi University, Banaras Hindu University and Aligarh Muslim University, AIIMS institutions, JIPMER, ESIC colleges and AFMC, while the remaining state quota seats are counselled by each state's own designated authority under its own reservation rules (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin). Admission to AFMC, Pune goes a step further: MCC only registers candidates and forwards the data, and AFMC then runs a second-stage screening test of its own.

MCC's counselling runs in four rounds, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3 and a Stray Vacancy Round, and registration costs differently depending on which pool a candidate enters (Revised UG Counselling 2026 Information Bulletin, MCC).

Registering for both pools does not mean paying twice: MCC's bulletin puts the question to itself and answers that only the higher fee falls due, so a candidate who enters the deemed-university pool as well pays the Rs 5000 and the Rs 2,00,000 deposit and nothing more. The security deposit is what enforces the round structure, and the rule tightens as the rounds go on. A Round 1 allottee has a free exit and can walk away without losing the deposit. From Round 2 onwards a candidate who is allotted a seat and does not join forfeits it, and a candidate who joins a Round 2 seat and then resigns forfeits it too. After Round 3 the door shuts: an allottee who does not report forfeits the deposit and is eliminated from the remaining rounds, and a candidate who has joined a Round 3 seat cannot resign or surrender it at all.

MCC's schedule for the 2026 rounds, dated 14 September 2026, sets Round 2 reporting from 12 September 2026 to 18 September 2026, Round 3 registration and payment from 22 September 2026 to 27 September 2026 with choice filling from 23 September to 28 September, the Round 3 result on 30 September 2026 and reporting from 1 October 2026 to 9 October 2026, and then an online stray vacancy round with registration from 12 October 2026 to 14 October 2026, its result on 17 October 2026 and reporting from 19 October 2026 to 26 October 2026 (UG AIQ Counselling Schedule 2026 Round 2, 3 and 4, MCC). The final result of Round 2, dated 12.09.2026, is published on MCC's counselling page (MCC UG medical counselling page). The academic session for undergraduate courses was fixed to commence on 15 September 2026 (NEET-UG Schedule 2026, MCC).

Ayush is a different committee entirely. The Ayush Admissions Central Counseling Committee under the Ministry of Ayush conducts the online counselling for All India Quota seats in BAMS, BSMS, BUMS and BHMS at government and government-aided colleges, deemed universities, central universities and the national institutes of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy (AACCC, Ministry of Ayush). Veterinary science is a third. The Veterinary Council of India fills 15 per cent of the seats in recognised veterinary colleges on an all-India basis, and for the 2026-27 session it is using the qualified merit list of NEET (UG) 2026 to do it, with 858 seats available under that quota (Veterinary Council of India composite information bulletin 2026-27). Two more uses of the result sit in the bulletin's own chapter on what other organisations may do with it: B.Sc. (Hons) Nursing admissions draw on the NEET (UG) data, and Military Nursing Service aspirants seeking the four-year B.Sc. Nursing course run at Armed Forces Medical Service hospitals are required to qualify NEET, their score then being used for shortlisting (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin).

Where it is accepted

Participating institutes

The bulletin does not print a college list, and says so: its Appendix-IV is a page of pointers rather than a roster, directing candidates to the NMC website for medical colleges, to the Dental Council of India for dental colleges, and to the Ayush bodies for Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy colleges (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin). The list that actually matters at counselling time is MCC's, which publishes participating institute details for NEET UG 2026 alongside the round-wise seat matrix, clear vacancy and virtual vacancy files on its counselling page (MCC UG medical counselling page).

Get help

Contact

NTA's helpdesk for this examination takes calls on 011-40759000 and 011-69227700, and queries by email at neetug2026@nta.ac.in; legal notices go to legal@nta.ac.in, and grievances may be addressed to NTA or to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin). For counselling, MCC lists a toll-free helpline under its contact section along with the number 7824848020 and the email mcc2026@gov.in (MCC UG medical counselling page).

One warning in the 2026 result press release is worth repeating exactly as NTA put it: candidates were cautioned against fraudulent calls, messages or websites offering admission, seat blocking or score improvement, and told that NTA does not contact candidates seeking money or credentials, with suspicious communication to be reported to neetug2026@nta.ac.in or 011-40759000 (NTA press release on the NEET (UG) 2026 result).

Source

Official links

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Exact dates, registration windows, answer keys, cutoffs, qualifying percentiles, results are per-cycle. 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.

Explore more

Related exams

References

Sources