GATE 2026 Reservation Criteria: Types, Seat Intake for IITs and NITs

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering, otherwise called GATE is a national-level post engineering entrance exam that offers admission to IITs, NITs, and PSUs. With GATE 2026 scorecard valid for three years, the exam also aims to provide equal opportunity to every applicant category, be it registration, admission or GATE counselling 2026. Let’s discuss in detail.

GATE Reservation Criteria

GATE 2026 Reservation Criteria: The reservation criteria in GATE exam suggest total number of seats allocated for General, OBC-NCL, SC/ST and PwD categories. The reservation policy in Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering is not only limited to counselling, but also in registration stage as well. Now that the GATE 2026 results are declared, and GATE counselling 2026 is to begin soon, candidates must be aware of reservation criteria.

IIT Guwahati will issue GATE scorecard 2026 on March 27. Candidates can download it using their enrollment ID and password through the GOAPS login. The scorecard is vallid for three years.

Latest Update:

• GATE Counselling 2026: COAP registrations from March 27, check details here
• IIT Kanpur MTech Admission through GATE 2026 ongoing, last date to apply is April 13
• COAP counselling 2026 dates out, round 1 begins from May 11

GATE 2026 Reservation Criteria

The reservation in GATE 2026 aims to provide seats to students from various categories, such as SC, ST, EWS, etc.  Policy is designed by the authorities, and all institutes are advised to reserve seats as per government norms. GATE reservation criteria ensures that every category must get equal opportunity in GATE. 

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GATE Reservation Criteria: Category-Wise

As per the Government of India, the GATE seat matrix follows the GATE reservation policy, which can be checked below -

How are seats distributed across institutions as per GATE 2026 Reservation Criteria?

The distribution of seats for postgraduate programmes (MTech, MSc, and PhD) across IITs, NITs and other institutions follow a prescribed format based on the central reservation policy. This policy is used at the time of GATE 2026 COAP counselling and CCMT counselling 2026. However, the process can differ depending on whether it is an IIT, IIIT, NIT, or GFTI. 

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Institutional seat distribution under the GATE reservation policy 2026: Types

There are basically two types of reservation policy based on which GATE 2026 seats are allocated as per category. 

Check: GATE College Predictor

The Vertical Reservation Model

Many institutes participating in GATE counselling follow a vertical reservation model. It means that a total sanctioned seat intake for a specific branch is divided into primary categories.

For example, if a department has 100 seats available for counselling, then the distribution of seats will be done as follows-

Horizontal Reservation Model (for PwD) 

The person with disability reservation of 5% comes under the GATE horizontal reservation model. It does not mean a separate set of seats added on top, but is extracted from within the existing category.

For example, if a general category has 40 seats, then 5% of 40 seats (around 2 seats) are reserved for PwD applicants. The same thing is implied for all categories. 

In case, if no qualified PwD candidate is available in a specific category, then the seat is usually reverts to a non-PwD candidate of that same category. 

All IITs, NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs offer seats for MTech admission through based on the GATE 2026 reservation criteria. Therefore, candidates are advised to check seats allocated to specific branch/department and then opt for choice filling and locking in CCMT or COAP counselling 2026.

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