The Joint Entrance Examination Main 2026 Session 1 is currently being conducted by the National Testing Agency from January 21 and will conclude on January 29. The examination is being held in two shifts each day for Paper 1, which is taken by candidates aspiring to pursue undergraduate engineering courses in premier institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Information Technology, and other centrally funded technical institutions.
As soon as candidates complete their examination, one of the most common questions is regarding the expected cutoff percentile. The cutoff plays a crucial role as it determines eligibility for JEE Advanced and further participation in counselling processes conducted by JoSAA and other authorities.
It is important to note that the expected cutoffs discussed at this stage are unofficial and based on analysis of previous year data, feedback from candidates, difficulty level of question papers, and the overall number of test takers. The final cutoffs will be announced by the National Testing Agency along with the declaration of JEE Main 2026 results.
Based on early assessments, the expected category wise cutoff percentiles for JEE Main 2026 are as follows.
General category candidates may see the cutoff range between 93 and 95 percentile. For candidates belonging to the General EWS category, the expected cutoff is likely to fall between 80 and 82 percentile. The OBC NCL category cutoff is predicted to be around 79 to 81 percentile.
For Scheduled Caste candidates, the expected cutoff percentile is estimated to be between 60 and 63. Scheduled Tribe candidates may see a cutoff range of approximately 47 to 50 percentile. For candidates under the UR PwD category, the qualifying percentile is expected to remain extremely low, ranging between 0.001 and 1 percentile, in line with previous year trends.
Several factors influence the cutoff every year. These include the total number of candidates appearing for the examination, the overall difficulty level of the question papers across different shifts, availability of seats in participating institutes, and normalization of scores due to multiple sessions.
Compared to previous years, the JEE Main exam has seen an increase in competition, with more students aiming for top engineering colleges. Any significant variation in difficulty level between sessions can also impact the cutoff marginally.
Candidates must remember that qualifying the cutoff does not guarantee admission to an institute. It only makes a candidate eligible for JEE Advanced or counselling rounds, where ranks, seat availability, and category based reservations play a decisive role.
The National Testing Agency will release the official cutoff along with scorecards after the conclusion of all JEE Main sessions. Students are advised to rely only on official notifications published on the NTA website and avoid misinformation from unofficial sources.
