COAP 2026 Dates OUT: Round-Wise Registration and Seat Allotment Schedule
Common Offer Acceptance Portal (COAP) 2026 ( COAP )
Registration - 11 May '26 - 13 May '26
COAP 2026 Dates OUT: The conducting body, IIT Roorkee has released COAP 2026 dates along with the official website. The mode of counselling is online. The portal link will be activated for students to perform COAP registration on May 11, choice filling, and other activities. Candidates who have qualified in GATE exam will be eligible for COAP counselling 2026. Through COAP, GATE- qualified candidates will be eligible for IITs and IISc Bangalore admission.
The GATE 2026 result was announced on March 19. With the help of COAP dates, students can track the schedule of round-wise COAP IIT registration and seat allotment. Last year, IISc Bangalore conducted COAP counselling. Candidates with valid GATE 2026/2025/2024 scorecard are eligible for counselling. Read below to know more about COAP 2026 counselling dates.
Latest:GATE 2026 COAP counselling dates out, round 1 registrations from May 11
- COAP 2026 Exam Dates & Schedule
- COAP Round-Wise Counselling Release Date
- COAP 2026 Registration Dates
- COAP 2026 Main Rounds
- COAP 2026 Additional Rounds
COAP 2026 Exam Dates & Schedule
Take a look at the table below for the complete schedule of COAP 2026 exam
| Dates | Upcoming Exam Dates |
|---|---|
| May ' 26 | COAP 2026 Main Round 1 of offers - registration, and selection of the college TENTATIVE |
| 11 May ' 26 - 13 May ' 26 | COAP 2026 registration starts (Round 1) |
| 17 May ' 26 - 20 May ' 26 | COAP 2026 Main Round 2- registration, and selection of the college |
| 24 May ' 26 - 27 May ' 26 | COAP 2026 Main Round 3- registration, and selection of the college |
| 31 May ' 26 - 03 Jun ' 26 | COAP 2026 Main Round 4- registration, and selection of the college |
| 05 Jun ' 26 - 10 Jun ' 26 | COAP 2026 Main Round 5- registration, and selection of the college |
| 13 Jun ' 26 - 17 Jun ' 26 | COAP 2026 Round 6 additional rounds of college allotment offers |
COAP Round-Wise Counselling Release Date
IIT Roorkee has released an official notification regarding the GATE 2026 COAP counselling dates. Candidates who want to apply for MTech at IITs must check the dates here to stay updated with the events. The COAP 2026 round-wise counselling will begin on May 11.
Also read:
COAP 2026 Registration Dates
COAP registrations are done online on the portal - Common Offer Acceptance Portal. Candidates who have qualified GATE and want to get admission at IIT can apply for COAP IIT MTech counselling. The mode of counselling is online and dates will be released for each phase.
What is COAP?
COAP is a portal that conducts admission process for MTech/research programmes at IITs through GATE scores. Interested candidates must be aware of the GATE 2026 admission cutoff for IITs before registering. Only GATE-qualified candidates will be eligible for the GATE 2026 counselling process. The COAP counselling 2026 has five main rounds and five optional rounds. Based on the GATE IIT cutoff scores, the counselling will be held. The dates for each round will be updated here, based on the schedule. Candidates have to perform the following activities -
- Accept and Freeze
- Retain and wait
- Reject and wait
COAP 2026 Registration Process
To apply, students have to visit official website and register to receive unique ID. During registration, students have to provide their details regarding Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering on COAP counselling form, which are as follows -
- Registration number of GATE paper
- Paper code
- GATE Result
- Date of Birth
Candidates must note that, no fee is charged for registration. Once verification is complete, students can login and access the dashboard for choice filling and locking within the specified COAP counselling dates. Students can either accept, hold, or reject their allotment. In case, a candidate is happy with the allotment, then they can download their COAP MTech seat allotment letter and appear for admission and document verification process.
For any updates regarding counselling, students will be informed via registered mobile or email ID.
Also read:
| GATE 2026 seat matrix for counselling | ||
| GATE marks vs rank | GATE 2026 cutoff for IIITs | How many students qualified in GATE 2026? |
Commonly asked questions
COAP also called as Common Offer Acceptance Portal is a platform used for GATE qualified candidates to exercise their college acceptance choices for admission to MTech/Ph/ME programmes. The COAP is a counselling platform used by participating IITs, IISc, and PSU for job recruitments.
It is one platform to perform all counselling activities starting from candidate registration to choice filling, locking, seat allotment and reporting to the allotted institute.
GATE counselling 2026 will be conducted by COAP and CCMT, which will be done by respective IITs and IISc on rotational basis.
- Through COAP, students will be offered admission to IITs
- Through CCMT, students will be offered admission to NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs.
COAP 2026 Main Rounds
The COAP is conducted in 5 main and 5 additional rounds. Qualified candidates can participate in the counselling. Check option availability details below -
Main rounds in COAP
| Round No |
Options available to candidates |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Accept & Freeze |
Retain & Wait |
Reject & Wait |
|
| 1 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| 2 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| 3 |
Yes |
Yes/ No* |
Yes |
| 4 |
Yes |
Yes/ No* |
Yes |
| 5 |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
What are main rounds in COAP mean?
During the COAP main round counselling, students have the option to "accept and freeze" or "retain and wait" or "reject and wait." However, retain and wait option can be used twice on the same offer, usually for the same programme from the same institute. Students must note that if there is no action taken during the deadline, then the offer will be automatically rejected. The COAP round 5 is the final round/decisive round. In this round, only "accept or freeze" or reject option is available.
COAP GATE Counselling 2026
The COAP GATE counselling is conducted every year by IITs and IISc on a rotational basis. Students who want to take admission at IITs must register in order to participate in the counselling. In 2025, 23+ IITs participated in the counselling including the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Candaites with valid GATE scorecard were eligible to participate in the counselling process. All the activities were held online only, and were mandatory to perform.
Also read:
| GATE Safe Score for Mechanical Engineering | Safe Score for GATE EE | Safe score for GATE 2026 ECE |
| GATE 2026 expected cutoff for DA | GATE 2026 cutoff for ECE | Safe score for GATE DA 2026 paper |
Commonly asked questions
The GATE counselling process starts after the announcement of results. The GATE counselling is conducted by COAP and CCMT. The COAP (Common Offer Acceptance Portal) is the counselling portal that offers admission to IITs. While CCMT (Centralised Counselling for MTech/M.Arch/M.Plan) is the counselling portal that offers admission to NITs, IIITs, and other GFTIs. The GATE CCMT/COAP counselling usually starts in the second or third week of May.
The GATE counselling is conducted online by CCMT and COAP. Authorities will announce GATE results 2026 on March 19. Qualified candidates can participate in counselling. COAP is done IIT and IISc admission and CCMT for NITs and other institutions.
COAP 2026 Additional Rounds
Additional Rounds 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are independent rounds and each one is treated like a Decisive Round. That is, the candidates will have only 'Accept and Freeze' and 'Reject' options in these rounds. The rounds will depend on the availability of the seats during the counselling rounds.
| Round No |
Options available to candidates |
|
|---|---|---|
| Accept & Freeze |
Reject & Wait |
|
| 6 |
Yes |
Yes |
| 7 |
Yes |
Yes |
| 8 |
Yes |
Yes |
| 9 |
Yes |
Yes |
| **10 |
Yes |
Yes |
| 11 |
Yes |
Yes |
| 12 |
Yes |
Yes* |
**Only for those institutes that would like to continue beyond Round 9. *Only if there are no more additional rounds.
Read More:
Commonly asked questions
The GATE 2025 cutoff of computer Science and information technology (category-wise) can be checked below -
- For general - 29.2
- OBC-NCL/EWS - 26.2
- SC/ST/PwD - 19.4
The cutoff is the minimum mark that is required for all candidates to qualify for the exam. IIT Guwahati will announce the GATE cutoff 2026 after the announcement of results.
Candidates who have passed GATE exam can download scorecard. The validity of GATE exam scorecard is three years. It is available from March 27 at GOAPS portal. Candidates use their enrollment ID and password to download.
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 3 weeks ago
COAP also called as Common Offer Acceptance Portal is a platform used for GATE qualified candidates to exercise their college acceptance choices for admission to MTech/Ph/ME programmes. The COAP is a counselling platform used by participating IITs, IISc, and PSU for job recruitments.
It is one platfo
H
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 2 months ago
Yes, COAP registration is mandatory for IIT Madras admissions done on the basis of GATE exam. The institute accepts GATE + COAP for both M.Tech and MA admissions. Any student choosing to register via GATE score at the institute must register on COAP portal as well.
P
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 months ago
The IIIT Bangalore M.Tech Cutoff 2025 has been released for admission for all categories under the All India quota. The closing cutoff in the last round for 2025 was 668 for the General AI category candidates. Whereas, in 2024, the closing cutoff in the last round was 570, indicating that the compe
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 months ago
The IIIT Bangalore GATE COAP Cutoff 2025 has been released for admission to the M.Tech course specialisations for all categories under the All India quota. For the General AI category candidates, the last round cutoff score ranged from 555 to 668, wherein M.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 months ago
Candidates can check their offer status using their login ID and password obtained during COAP registration. GATE COAP offers will be displayed on given date and time only, where students have to confirm their choices.
I
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 2 months ago
The COAP counselling is done online only. For registrations, students need to keep the following details ready-
- GATE application details
- Scores secured in GATE exam
- Mobile number and email address
P
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 2 months ago
Candidates who have qualified GATE exam will be eligible for GATE COAP counselling. The counselling offer admission to IITs. The admission counselling registration is online and is done in multiple rounds depending on seat availability.
A
Contributor-Level 7
8 Institutes accepting COAP
IIT Madras - Indian Institute of Technology
Adyar, Chennai • Public
IIT Kanpur - Indian Institute of Technology
Kanpur • Public
4.8IIT Dhanbad (ISM) - Indian Institute of Technology (...
Dhanbad • Public
IIT Patna - Indian Institute of Technology
Patna • Public
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