JEE Advanced Eligibility Criteria 2026: Number of Attempts, 75% Criteria Requirement, Age Limit

Before you start JEE Advanced 2026 application process, you must clearly have an idea what is the eligibility for JEE Advanced. Check details regarding number of attempts, minimum marks needed in JEE Main 2026 for JEE Advanced 2026, class 12 percentage, and all details here.

JEE Advanced 2026 Eligibility and Exceptions

JEE Advanced Eligibility Criteria 2026: IIT Roorkee is expected to conduct JEE Advanced 2026 and will be releasing the JEE Advanced 2026 eligibility details on the official website - jeeadv.ac.in. There are five important aspects of the JEE Advanced eligibility 2026 - JEE Main 2026 qualification, attempt limit, age, year of passing class 12 boards and earlier admission to the IITs. The candidates who will satisfy these five major aspects of the JEE Advanced eligibility 2026 will be eligible to apply for the exam in the coming session.

On this page, check all details on the JEE Advanced 2026 eligibility criteria, including how many attempts you get, what your age should be to apply for JEE Advanced 2026 and more details.

JEE Advanced 2026 Eligibility for Indian Nationals

The usual eligibility criteria that are applicable in JEE Advanced every year are:

Criteria 1: JEE Main Scores

Candidates should be among the top 2,50,000 successful candidates (including all categories) in BE/BTech Paper of JEE (Main) 2026. The number of top JEE Main 2026 candidates that can apply for JEE Advanced 2026 is as follows:

Also Read: Documents Required for JEE Advanced Registration 2026: Check Specifications of Photo, Signature, Certificates

Criteria 2: JEE Advanced Age Limit

Candidates should have been born on or after October 1, 2001. Five years of age relaxation is given to SC, ST, and PwD candidates, ie, these candidates should have been born on or after October 1, 1996.

Criteria 3: Number of JEE Advanced Attempt Limit

The maximum number of times a candidate can appear in the JEE Advanced exam is twice. These attempts should be in consecutive years.

Criteria 4: Appearance Year of Class 12 / Qualifying Exam

A candidate should have appeared for the Class XII (or equivalent) examination for the first time in either 2025 or 2026 with Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics as compulsory subjects. Candidates who had appeared in the Class XII (or equivalent) examination for the first time in 2024 or earlier are NOT eligible to appear in JEE (Advanced) 2026, irrespective of the combination of subjects attempted/offered.

Note: By appearance in Class XII (or equivalent) examination, it is meant that the Board concerned declared the result for that year irrespective of whether or not the examination was conducted. It will be considered as an appearance even if the result of a particular candidate got withheld.

Criteria 5: Earlier Admission to the IITs

A candidate should NOT have been admitted to an IIT irrespective of whether or not the candidate continued in the program OR accepted an IIT seat by reporting “online” / at a “reporting centre” in the past. Candidates whose admission to IITs was cancelled (for whatever reason) after joining any IIT are also NOT eligible to appear for JEE (Advanced) 2026.

Candidates who have been admitted to a preparatory course in any of the IITs for the first time in 2025 can appear in JEE (Advanced) 2026. The candidates who were allocated a seat in an IIT through JoSAA 2025, but:

• did not report “online” / at any “reporting centre” OR,
• withdrew before the last round of seat allotment, OR,
• had their seat cancelled (for whatever reason) before the last round of seat allotment for IITs, are eligible to appear for JEE (Advanced) 2026.

However, in all of the above cases, the candidate is also required to fulfil the conditions mentioned from Criterion 1 to Criterion 4.

Download detailed JEE Advanced 2026 eligibility criteria here

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JEE Advanced 2026: 75% Criteria Requirement

There are no minimum marks required in class 12 to qualify for JEE Advanced 2026. However, to gain admission to the IITs, candidates must achieve 75% class 12. If a candidate fails to meet these minimum score criteria, they will not be offered admission to the IITs, even if they pass JEE Advanced 2026.

JEE Advanced IIT admission criteria:

Candidates must have passed class XII (or equivalent) Board examination with a minimum of five subjects and secured at least 75% aggregate marks. The aggregate marks for SC, ST and PwD candidates should be at least 65%.

or

Candidates must have passed class XII (or equivalent) Board examination with a minimum of five subjects and be within the category-wise top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their respective Class XII (or equivalent) board examination.

Subjects considered for 75% marks calculation in class 12:

The marks scored in the following five subjects will be considered for calculating the aggregate marks and the cut-off marks for fulfilling the top 20 percentile criterion:

1. Physics
2. Chemistry
3. Mathematics
4. A language (if the candidate has taken more than one language, then the language with the higher marks will be considered)
5. Any subject other than the above four (the subject with the highest marks will be considered)

JEE Advanced 2026 Eligibility for Foreign Nationals

Who is a foreign national? Check below:

Eligibility Criteria for Appearing in JEE (Advanced) 2026 for Foreign Nationals

• JEE Advanced Age Limit: Candidates should have been born on or after October 1, 2000. In countries where a minimum stint in the armed forces (or allied) for a certain period is mandatory before/after Class XII (or equivalent) examination, the candidate will be given a relaxation of the required number of years. In such cases, the candidate is required to upload a certificate/testimonial issued by the competent authority to this effect at the time of registration.
• Number of JEE Advanced attempts: A candidate can attempt JEE (Advanced) a maximum of two times in consecutive years
• Appearance year of class 12 / qualifying exam: A candidate should have appeared for the Class XII (or equivalent) examination for the first time in either 2025 or 2026 with the subjects Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics as compulsory subjects. A Foreign national must have passed class XII (or equivalent) Board examination with a minimum of five subjects and secured at least 75% aggregate marks. Also, candidates must have passed Class XII (or equivalent) Board examination with a minimum of five subjects and be within the top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their respective Class XII (or equivalent) board examination. The marks scored in the following five subjects will be considered for calculating the aggregate marks and the cut-off marks for fulfilling the top 20 percentile criterion.
  • Maths
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • A language (if the candidate has taken more than one language, then the language with the higher marks will be considered)
  • Any subject other than the above four (the subject with the highest marks will be considered).
• Earlier admission to IITs: A candidate should NOT have been admitted to an IIT, irrespective of whether or not the candidate continued in the program OR accepted a seat at an IIT by reporting “online” / at a “reporting centre” through JoSAA in the past. Candidates whose admission to IITs was cancelled (for whatever reason) after joining any IIT are also NOT eligible to appear for JEE (Advanced) 2026.

JEE Advanced 2026 Eligibility Criteria for OCI/PIO Candidates

OCI/PIO card holders who have secured OCI/PIO card before 04.03.2021, are considered as Indian nationals for seat allocation to IITs. Candidates who have secured OCI/PIO cards on or after 04.03.2021 will be considered as foreign nationals. However, these candidates are not eligible for benefits of any kind of reservation (for example GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, ST) except for OPEN-PwD. These candidates shall be required to be in the Open and Open-PwD rank lists in JEE (Main) 2026 to appear for JEE (Advanced) 2026. At the time of seat allocation, the OCI/PIO candidates who have secured OCI/PIO cards before 04.03.2021 shall be considered for the seats in the OPEN category. These OCI/PIO candidates shall be included in the Common Rank List, and/or CRL-PwD list, as also for the Female Supernumerary seats, as applicable, subject to qualifying the JEE (Advanced) 2026. These OCI/PIO candidates are NOT entitled to the benefit of reservation under the GEN-EWS, OBC (NCL), SC or ST categories for the allocation of seats.

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