GATE COAP 2026: Registration (Open), Round 1 Counselling (May 11), Steps
Common Offer Acceptance Portal (COAP) 2026 ( COAP )
COAP 2026 registration starts (Round 1)
11 May '26 - 13 May '26
COAP 2026: IIT Roorkee has started COAP registrations. Candidates who want to apply for IIT MTech admission, must register at COAP to generate an ID and login credentials. Candidates can register for COAP for free. The schedule for COAP round-wise counselling has begun. The round 1 COAP counselling 2026 will start on May 11.
Candidates with valid GATE scorecard - 2026, 2025, and 2024 are eligible to participate in GATE counselling 2026. The mode of registration is online and can be done for free. The COAP 2026 dates have been released. The official website to register is https://coap2026.iitr.ac.in/coap2026/.
IIT Guwahati announced GATE 2026 result on March 19. Candidates can check their result at GOAPS login using enrollment ID and password. The GATE COAP counselling 2026 comprises 10 main rounds depending on seat availability. During COAP 2026 registration, candidates will be able to accept, freeze, retain, and wait for decisions. For COAP registration, candidates must enter their GATE exam details. Read below to know more about COAP 2026
Latest:
- What is GATE COAP?
- COAP 2026 Highlights
- COAP 2026 Features and Eligibility Criteria
- GATE COAP 2026 Dates
- COAP Registration Process 2026
- How to get seat allotment through COAP 2026?
- Admission Process via COAP 2026
- Offer Rounds by IITs in COAP 2026
- Flowcharts Explaining COAP Process for Main Rounds and Additional Rounds
- What After Accepting Offer at COAP?
- GATE COAP Participating IITs
What is GATE COAP?
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 |
Commonly asked questions
Yes, COAP portal for GATE 2026 counselling has been launched. Currently, registrations are ongoing for IIT M.Tech admission. In addition, the counselling dates (round-wise) have been released, and will begin from May 11 onwards.
IIT Roorkee is conducting COAP 2026 counselling. There are a total of 10 rounds of counselling, where GATE- qualified candidates have to perform the following actions -
Accept and freeze
Retain and wait
Reject and wait
COAP 2026 Highlights
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 |
|
| Official website |
https://coap2026.iitr.ac.in/coap2026/ |
| Downloads |
COAP 2026 Information Brochure |
COAP 2026 Features and Eligibility Criteria
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
Commonly asked questions
The seat acceptance fee is INR 20000 usually. Candidates must pay the acceptance fee to confirm their seat for admission to IITs and IISc.
CGPA is different for each category. For General/EWS and OBC-NCL category, the required CGPA is 6.5 on a 10-point scale, which is 60%. While, for SC/ST and PwD, required CGPA is 6.0 on a 10-point scale, which is 55%.
GATE COAP 2026 Dates
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 |
Commonly asked questions
GATE normalisation process is done to provide fairness to all applicants who are appearing for examination. It is because GATE is conducted in multiple sessions. In such case, raw marks are converted into normalised marks using the formula.
Candidates can check GATE expected safe marks for IIT M.Tech admission below -
Branch | Cutoff range |
Computer Science (CSE) | 65 - 75 marks |
Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DA) | 60 - 70 marks |
Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) | 70 - 80 marks |
Mechanical Engineering (ME) | 36 - 45 marks |
Electrical Engineering (EE) | 35- 40 marks |
Civil Engineering (CE) | 35 - 40 marks |
COAP Registration Process 2026
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:
Commonly asked questions
Candidates with a valid GATE scorecard of 2026/2025/2024 are eligible to participate in COAP counselling 2026
Yes, candidates with GATE score of 400 to 500 are also eligible for COAP counselling. However, admission and selection chances completely depends on different criteria such as branch selection, competition level, category, etc.
How to get seat allotment through COAP 2026?
Registration: 11 May ' 26 - 13 May ' 26
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 |
Commonly asked questions
GATE 2026 CSE cutoff (category-wise) can be checked here -
General | OBC-NCL EWS | SC/ST and PwD |
30 | 27 | 20 |
The cutoff is the minimum mark that is required for all candidates to qualify for the exam. IIT Guwahati announced GATE result 2026 on March 19.
In GATE, normalisation process generally makes a gap of 4 to 7 marks (approximately) between actual and normalised scores. However, if difficulty level of paper was high then the marks might increase. On other hand, for easier paper, marks may reduce offering fairness across sessions.
Admission Process via COAP 2026
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. |
Commonly asked questions
A GATE score of 700 to 800 is mainly required for M.Tech admission at IIT (especially for top IITs). However, the score also depends on the IIT popularity, branch popularity, and other factors. For new IITs, a GATE score of 500 to 600 is mainly required.
It is advised to check the past year's GATE cutoff trends before opting for counselling and admission.
Many new IITs do accept low GATE scores for M.Tech admission. Some old IITs also accept low GATE score, depending on category and other factors. Here are some IITs that accept low GATE scores for admission.
IIT Bhubaneswar
IIT Mandi
IIT Bhilai
IIT Ropar
IIT Jodhpur
These IITs mainly accept GATE scores starting from 330 to 400 (General Category), mainly in Round 4 or 5 of COAP counselling.
Offer Rounds by IITs in COAP 2026
Commonly asked questions
After receiving the admission offer letter from GATE COAP, counselling candidates will have three options available to perform, which can be checked below-
- Accept and freeze
- Retain and wait and
- Reject all and wait
Based on previous year's cutoff trends and experts analysis, here is an expected GATE score range required for M.Tech admission -
| GATE Score Range | MTech options |
|---|---|
| 300 to 400 | MTech in any state government college. Also, aspirants can apply for other exams. |
| GATE Score 500 to 600 | The maximum chances of getting into a state government college. Few new NITs options (specific branches or category) |
| 600 to 700 score in GATE | Top NITs (in-demand branches) and few new IITs |
| GATE score 700 to 800 | Top NITs, IITs, and IISc, High chances for PSU recruitment |
| GATE score 800 to 900 | MTech or MSc in Top IITs (core branches), top PSUs recruitment like ISRO, BARC, and DRDO |
| GATE score 900+ | Top IITs, NITs, IISc, and PSU recruitment. Aspirants can also opt for research work. |
Flowcharts Explaining COAP Process for Main Rounds and Additional Rounds
What After Accepting Offer at COAP?
Engineering exams whose registrations are closing soon
Register now and prepare to increase your chances at top colleges which accept these exams
23 Mar '26 - 22 Apr '26
GATE COAP Participating IITs
COAP Exam
Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered a week ago
| Institute Category | Specific Institutes |
| Newer/Mid-Tier IITs | IIT Patna, IIT Palakkad, IIT BHU (Varanasi), IIT Tirupati, IIT Mandi, IIT Jammu, IIT Jodhpur |
| Top-Tier NITs | NIT Trichy, NIT Warangal, NIT Surathkal, NIT Rourkela, NIT Calicut |
| Mid-Tier NITs | NIT Jamshedpur, NIT Jalandhar, NIT Patna, NIT Silchar, NIT Kurukshetra, NIT Durgapur |
| IIITs | IIIT Allahabad, IIIT Gwalior, IIIT Pune, IIIT Delhi, IIIT Lucknow, IIIT Jabalpur |
| Old IITs (Allied/Interdisciplinary) | IIT Bombay (Systems & Control), IIT Madras (Biomedical), IIT Delhi (Atmospheric Sciences), IIT Kharagpur (Quality & Reliability) |
| Other Premier Institutes | BITS Pilani (Main and Hyderabad campuses), DTU Delhi, NSUT Delhi, PEC Chandigarh |
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
Yes, candidates with GATE score of 400 to 500 are also eligible for COAP counselling. However, admission and selection chances completely depends on different criteria such as branch selection, competition level, category, etc.
B
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a week ago
Candidates with a valid GATE scorecard of 2026/2025/2024 are eligible to participate in COAP counselling 2026
H
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a week ago
CGPA is different for each category. For General/EWS and OBC-NCL category, the required CGPA is 6.5 on a 10-point scale, which is 60%. While, for SC/ST and PwD, required CGPA is 6.0 on a 10-point scale, which is 55%.
U
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
The seat acceptance fee is INR 20000 usually. Candidates must pay the acceptance fee to confirm their seat for admission to IITs and IISc.
A
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a week ago
IIT Roorkee is conducting COAP 2026 counselling. There are a total of 10 rounds of counselling, where GATE- qualified candidates have to perform the following actions -
Accept and freeze
Retain and wait
Reject and wait
T
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a week ago
Yes, COAP portal for GATE 2026 counselling has been launched. Currently, registrations are ongoing for IIT M.Tech admission. In addition, the counselling dates (round-wise) have been released, and will begin from May 11 onwards.
I
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a month 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
8 Institutes accepting COAP
4.8
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