Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering
Registration opens
28 Aug 2025
Exam date
7 Feb 2026
Application fee
₹2000(₹1000 SC/ST/reserved)
Official website
https://gate.iitg.ac.inGATE is the entrance exam for M.Tech/PhD admission at IITs, NITs, and other technical institutes - and, separately, a widely-used recruitment screen for engineering roles at major PSUs (BHEL, IOCL, NTPC, and others), making it relevant even to some students not planning postgraduate study at all. A different IIT or IISc organizes it each year on rotation; IIT Madras is organizing GATE 2027.
Mode
Computer-based test (CBT)
Duration
3 hours
Questions
65
Total marks
100
Sections
Question types mix MCQs (with negative marking), Multiple Select Questions, and Numerical Answer Type questions (neither of the latter two penalized for a wrong attempt).
M.Tech/PhD seats are allotted through CCMT (Centralized Counselling for M.Tech/M.Arch/M.Plan) based on GATE score and category. PSU recruitment is separate - each PSU sets its own GATE-score cutoff and hiring process, not a shared counselling round.
The GATE 2026 exam is scheduled for 7 Feb 2026 to 15 Feb 2026.
The application fee for GATE 2026 is ₹2000 for General candidates and ₹1000 for SC/ST/reserved candidates. Payment charges and some categories can differ, so check the notification on the official website (https://gate.iitg.ac.in).
You must be in the 3rd year or higher of a government-approved Bachelor's program (Engineering/Technology/Architecture/Science/Commerce/Arts/Humanities), or have already completed one. No minimum percentage or upper age limit. The full rules, including age and category relaxations, are in the Eligibility section above.
GATE 2026: it is held as a computer-based test (cbt), lasts 3 hours, has 65 questions, carries 100 marks in total. See the Exam pattern section for the marking scheme and sections.
GATE 2026
Results declared · 15 Feb 2026
