GATE COAP 2026: Registration (Open), Round 1 Counselling (May 11), Steps

COAP stands for Common Offer Acceptance Portal. It is designed to offer admission to MTech and other programmes in IITs and IISc. In addition, COAP also provide PSU jobs through GATE scores. Every year, different IITs participate in the COAP counselling process on rotational basis. 

This year, IIT Roorkee is conducting GATE 2026 counselling. 

List of participating institutes for COAP 2026

As per the updates, around 23+ institutes participate in GATE 2026 COAP counselling. The list of participating institutes can be checked below -

IISc Bangalore	IIT Bhilai	IIT Bhubaneswar
IIT Delhi	IIT Dharwad	IIT Gandhinagar
IIT Goa	IIT Guwahati	IIT Hyderabad
IIT Indore	IIT Dhanbad (ISM)	IIT Jammu
IIT Jodhpur	IIT Kanpur	IIT Kharagpur
IIT Madras	IIT Mandi	IIT Palakkad
IIT Patna	IIT Roorkee	IIT Ropar
IIT Tirupati

 

Candidates can check GATE 2026 COAP counselling highlights below -

Particulars	Details
Name of the Admission process	Common Offer Acceptance Portal / GATE counselling
Popularly known as	COAP
Conducting Body	IIT Roorkee
Level of counselling	Postgraduate Level
Counselling mode	Online
Eligible scores	2026/2025/2024
Registration cum counselling fee	No fees
Participating Colleges	IISc Bangalore IIT Bhilai IIT Bhubaneswar IIT BHU IIT Bombay IIT Delhi IIT Dharwad IIT Goa IIT Guwahati IIT Hyderabad IIT Indore IIT (ISM) Dhanbad IIT Jammu IIT Jodhpur IIT Kanpur IIT Kharagpur IIT Madras IIT Mandi IIT Palakkad IIT Patna IIT Roorkee IIT Ropar IIT Gandhinagar IIT Tirupati
Official website	https://coap2026.iitr.ac.in/coap2026/
Downloads	COAP 2026 Information Brochure

Interested candidates can check the features for COAP 2026 eligibility below. Applicants can also check the eligibility criteria details listed below. 

COAP 2026 Features

• COAP is also called as the Common Offer Acceptance Portal, where all the participating institutes and organisations will upload their offer in the same window. 
• COAP registration 2026 is mandatory to access the admission and job offers. Registration at the respective IITs official website is compulsory.
• Candidates must note that, COAP is not an application portal. It is a common window for students for choice filling, locking and performing other activities. Candidates will have to apply separately at the respective official portal. The GATE 2026 IIT MTech online registration details can be checked below. 
• Each institute and PSU will follow selection process according to norms and guidelines issued by the Common Offer Acceptance Portal. 
• Candidates can register at COAP 2026 for free. Also, it is mandatory to provide the COAP registration number while applying for MTech admission or PSU. 

Also read:

IIT Dhanbad GATE MTech Registrations Open, Last date to apply is April 19

GATE 2026 reservation criteria

IIT Kanpur GATE 2026 MTech Registrations Open, Last Date to Apply is April 13

COAP 2026 Eligibility Criteria

To participate in COAP 2026 counselling, it is important to meet criteria, which can be checked below -

• Nationality must be Indian
• Candidates must have valid GATE score (GATE 2026/2025/2024 scorecard). Only qualified candidates will be eligible for GATE counselling 2026 

IIT Guwahati will issue GATE scorecard 2026 from March 27 onwards. Qualified candidates can download their result scorecard at GOAPS portal using their enrollment ID and password.

Important Note

• Candidates can check their result at GATE candidate login using their credentials.
• Students with more than one scorecard must submit the scorecard with a better rank. 
• Candidates are advised to go through all information and guidelines carefully. 

MTech Admission Process through GATE Scores: For IIT Graduates

Students who have graduated from any IIT with a Btech degree with a CGPA of 8.0 or above can apply directly at the respective institutes for MTech admission. No registration is required for such applicants. 

Read here: Admission to IITs without GATE scores

The COAP 2026 counselling is divided into two rounds: main and optional round. Each counselling has five rounds. For each round, candidates will be allowed to perform specific activities: accept and freeze, retain and wait, and reject and wait. The deadline can also be checked below. 

The authorities have released COAP 2026 round-wise counselling dates. However, to participate in counselling, registration is mandatory. First the applicant has to complete COAP registration 2026 and then wait for the round results. The COAP 2026 dates for registration and counselling are now available.

Round No	Time window for candidates to view  offers and take a decision	Accept & Freeze	Retain & Wait	Reject & Wait
Round 1	May 11 (10:00 AM) to May 13 (09:00 AM)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Round 2	May 17 (10:00 AM) to May 20 (09:00 AM)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Round 3	May 24 (10:00 AM) to May 27 (09:00 AM)	Yes	Yes / No	Yes
Round 4	May 31 (10:00 AM) to June 03 (09:00 AM)	Yes	Yes / No	Yes
Round 5	June 05 (10:00 AM) to June 10 (09:00 AM)	Yes	No	Yes

COAP 2026 Optional Round Schedule Released

Round No	Time window for candidates to view  offers and take a decision	Accept & Freeze	Retain & Wait	Reject
Round - 6	June 13 (10:00 AM) to June 17 (09:00 AM)	Yes	No	Yes
Round - 7	June 20 (10:00 AM) to June 23 (09:00 AM)	Yes	No	Yes
Round - 8	June 27 (10:00 AM) to July 01 (09:00 AM)	Yes	No	Yes
Round - 9	July 03 (10:00 AM) to July 05 (09:00 AM)	Yes	No	Yes
Round - 10	July 08 (10:00 AM) to July 10 (09:00 AM)	Yes	No	Yes

Candidates who have qualified in the GATE exam and want to get admission at IITs must register at COAP. The registration process can be checked below -

• First, candidates must provide following details: GATE registration number, highest score at Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering, date of birth, e-mail address, and mobile number.
• Eligible GATE scores include: 2025, 2024, and 2023
• Through COAP registration, candidates can also apply for PSU job offers through participating institutes. 
• The registration is successful only when the credentials are sent to the candidate's registered email ID and password. The email ID will have the URL along with login ID and SMS will contain the password.
• While filling COAP application form, students have to enter all their valid GATE scores and enter required details. 
• Students must note that the authorities do not provide any correction facility. Therefore, ensure that all information (provided) is correct.
• In addition, keep GATE admit card safe till COAP seat allotment and counselling process.

Also check:

GATE 2026 toppers list	Is GATE score of 500 enough to get MTech admission at IITs	GATE 2026 admission cutoff for IITs and NITs
What is the salary of GATE topper in a month	GATE 2026 IIT Bombay cutoff	GATE seat matrix 2026
GATE cutoff 2026 for NITs	Minimum GATE score required for IITs and NITs	GATE 2026 safe score for Mechanical Engineering

Candidates can take a look at the COAP 2026 round-wise activities below -

Round	Accept and Freeze	Retain and Wait	Reject and Wait
Round 1	Yes	Yes	Yes
Round 2	Yes	Yes	Yes
Round 3	Yes	Yes/No	Yes
Round 4	Yes	Yes/No	Yes
Round 5	Yes	No	Yes

COAP Choice filling and seat allotment process

Candidates can check the detailed GATE 2026 COAP counselling details below -

Offer uploading and selection

• First, the participating institutes and PSUs will upload their offer details on COAP portal with specific timeline.
• Registered candidates will have to view and perform any of the following activity mentioned on the table above. 

Decision Round

In each main round, candidate have to decide one option out of three to confirm their decision. Let’s understand in detail -

Options	What do they mean?	Action to be taken
Accept and Freeze	Candidates can select this option if they are confirm with their decision. Selecting this option is opting out from other rounds or upgradation	After selecting “Accept” option in COAP 2026, candidates must click on submit to confirm.  After that, visit the respective institute’s website complete the rest of the selection process.
Retain and Wait	In this case, a candidate can select the current offer, while still seeking for the further possible upgrades in subsequent rounds.  If there is any higher preference order, then candidates can release the previous offer and opt for new one.	Candidates can choose “retain and wait” for the same offer (same institute and same programme). Candidates must submit their option to confirm.
Reject and Wait	Candidates can choose this option, if they don’t want to accept any current offer, but still wish for high preferences in future rounds.	The same offer that you accept in this round will not appear in the subsequent offers. After selecting, submit to confirm

Candidates can check process below for how GATE IIT admission process takes place -

• First, candidates have to register separately at respective IITs for MTech admission. 
• Then, once COAP portal is launched, candidates have to register at portal
• Then they have to login and enter their COAP registration number
• COAP counselling process is done in different rounds. Applicants can check the updates regarding the activity and seat allotment on their dashboard
• After each round, candidates have to make a decision - accept and freeze or retain and wait or reject all the above and wait and confirm it by clicking 
• Keep visiting the website for latest updates, and complete stages to confirm your admission
• Additional rounds in COAP are done to fill leftover seats

Also read:

• GATE 2026 qualification rate for popular branches: CSE, ME, EE, ECE, and CE
• 40 marks in CSE, best colleges via COAP registration
• IIT Jodhpur GATE 2026 MTech Registrations Ongoing, Last Date to apply is April 15

What is a decisive round in COAP?

Decisive round in COAP is also called as final main round. Only two options are available under this: "accept and freeze" and "reject"

"Accept and Freeze"	If a candidate is willing to accept one of the offer then they can select this option. After choosing "accept and freeze" candidates must follow subsequent admission or joining procedure within deadline.
"Reject"	Choose this option if you are not willing to accept any of current offer. All offers available in this round will be considered as rejected.