IIT Cutoff Analysis 2026: What the Real JoSAA Ranks Show

By Sampath Kumar · Updated 9 Sept 2026

This is not commentary. Every figure below is computed from JoSAA's own 2026 seat allocation result for the 23 IITs — Round 1 and Round 5, every branch, every category, every quota. Here is what the numbers actually say.

Where each category actually reaches

Round 5, gender-neutral seats. Each row is that category’s own rank scale, so read down a row, never across one. “Best” is the single hardest seat in the whole IIT system for that category; “median” is the midpoint of every branch.

Female-only seats, measured

The IITs create supernumerary seats for women on top of the sanctioned intake. Same branch, same category, same round — another clean same-scale comparison. Across 1,414 matched pairs the female-only closing rank is a median 1.86× looser than the gender-neutral one.

How much Round 1 to Round 5 actually moves

Across 3,169 branch-category-quota combinations that appear in both rounds, the IIT closing rank loosens by a median of 2.6% between Round 1 and Round 5.

That is very little. At the IITs, what you can reach in Round 1 is close to what you can reach at the end — so do not build a choice list that depends on the later rounds rescuing you.

Round by round, so you can see where in the schedule the movement actually happens rather than assuming it is spread evenly:

Read that carefully: the median is 1.000× at every step. For a typical IIT branch-and-category combination the closing rank does not move at all after Round 1. The 2.6% overall figure above comes from a minority of branches that do shift — not from a general loosening you can count on. Plan on your Round 1 reach.

The hardest seats in the IIT system

OPEN category, gender-neutral, Round 5 — common rank list, so these are directly comparable with each other.

And the most reachable

The same list from the other end. These are where an OPEN-category candidate with a modest rank still has a real chance.

Computer Science, every IIT, quota-wise

The single most-asked branch, All India quota, gender-neutral, Round 5 closing rank. Each column is its own rank scale — compare down a column, not across a row.

A dash means no seat was allotted in that combination in Round 5 — usually a very small quota that filled earlier, not an absent branch.

Campuses

Campus photographs published by the institutes themselves, on their own websites. 9 of the 23 IITs on this page publish one that is a photograph of the campus rather than an event or a poster; the rest are not shown because nothing verifiable was available.

Frequently asked questions

Source and method

Every number on this page is computed from the Joint Seat Allocation Authority’s own 2026 opening and closing rank file — Rounds 1 to 5, all institutes, branches, quotas, categories and gender pools — published at josaa.nic.in. Medians are taken over matched pairs, so a comparison only counts where both sides of it exist in the same round. Ranks are a record of what happened in 2026 and are not a promise about 2027; JoSAA republishes the file every session. Confirm anything you are about to act on against the official portal.

Related guides:
IIT Admission Process 2026 · NIT Cutoff Analysis · IIIT Cutoff Analysis · All IITs, NITs & IIMs + Quota Rules