Cutoffs edge up in JEE Main 2026 Session 2 results, over 2.5 lakh qualify

Category-wise cutoffs for JEE Advanced 2026 eligibility have been released along with the JEE Main 2026 Session 2 results, showing a slight increase across most categories this year.

For the unreserved category, the cutoff stands at the 93.4123549 percentile, up from 93.1023262 in 2025. The EWS cutoff has risen from 80.3830119 to 82.4164528, while OBC has increased from 79.4313582 to 80.9232583.

The SC category cutoff has gone up from 61.1526933 to 63.9172792, and ST from 47.9026465 to 52.0174712. For PwBD candidates, the minimum percentile has slightly declined from 0.0079349 to 0.0023186.

Overall, the trend indicates a marginal rise in competition, though qualifying patterns remain largely stable.

The National Testing Agency declared the JEE Main 2026 Session 2, Paper 1 (BE and BTech) results on April 20, with scorecards now available on jeemain.nta.nic.in.

A total of 250,182 candidates are eligible for JEE Advanced this year, while overall, 250,272 candidates have qualified across categories.

Candidates who cleared the exam must now verify their eligibility and complete registration for JEE Advanced 2026, which opens on April 23 and closes on May 2. The last date for fee payment is May 4, and the exam is scheduled for May 17.

For those who appeared in both sessions, the scorecard reflects the best NTA score across attempts, along with subject-wise percentiles for Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, overall NTA score, All India Rank, category rank, and qualification status.

To be eligible, candidates must rank among the top 2.50 lakh in Paper 1. The category-wise distribution includes 10% for GEN EWS, 27% for OBC NCL, 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST, and 40.5% open to all, with a 5% horizontal reservation for PwD candidates within each category.

The detailed category-wise data shows that 96,873 candidates qualified in the unreserved category, 4,391 in UR PwBD, 25,009 in EWS, 67,597 in OBC, 37,522 in SC, and 18,790 in ST.

Across both sessions, 1,604,854 unique candidates registered, of whom 1,538,468 appeared.

Session 1 in January saw 1,355,293 registrations and 1,304,653 candidates appearing, while Session 2, held from April 2 to 8, recorded 1,110,904 registrations and 1,034,330 appearances.

A total of 861,343 candidates registered for both sessions, and 800,516 appeared in both.