JEE Main 2026 Bihar Cutoff Analysis: NIT Patna, IIIT Bhagalpur, IIT Patna and UGEAC Closing Ranks

Key findings

This is an original analysis of the JEE Main 2026 Bihar cutoffs: JoSAA counselling for the three Bihar institutes in the Joint Seat Allocation Authority — NIT Patna, IIIT Bhagalpur and IIT Patna — plus the CSAB special rounds, and BCECEB's UGEAC state counselling for Bihar's government engineering colleges. The UGEAC figures come from the official BCECEB opening and closing rank PDFs. The JoSAA and CSAB figures are tracker-sourced, because the official JoSAA opening and closing rank tool could not be driven from this workspace; every figure was cross-checked against at least two tracker pages that state they reproduce the official JoSAA and CSAB reports, and the article says plainly where the data runs out.

• NIT Patna CSE closed at JEE Main rank 17,282 for Other State seats and 18,862 for Home State (Bihar) seats in JoSAA Round 5, the final round. The CSAB special rounds took CSE further, to 20,341 (Other State) in Special Round 2.
• IIIT Bhagalpur CSE closed at 48,416 in JoSAA Round 5, and at 67,746 in CSAB Special Round 2. Every IIIT Bhagalpur branch closed below 57,400 in JoSAA.
• IIT Patna CSE closed at JEE Advanced rank 3,635 in JoSAA Round 5, up from 3,303 in Round 1. The easiest IIT Patna B.Tech branch, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, closed at 17,179.
• In UGEAC, MIT Muzaffarpur CSE closed at UGEAC merit rank 134 (UR, General seat) and BCE Bhagalpur CSE at 191. All 26 government colleges offering plain CSE closed below 6,900 for UR.
• JoSAA 2026 ran 5 rounds (13 June to 16 July 2026) and CSAB ran 2 special rounds (6 and 12 August 2026). UGEAC ran 2 rounds (4 and 17 July 2026). No further round has been published for any of the three counsellings as of 25 October 2026.
• 2,50,182 candidates qualified for JEE Advanced 2026; the General qualifying percentile was 93.4123549. That is a qualifying cutoff, not an admission cutoff — see the section below.

How to read these closing ranks

A closing rank is the last rank admitted to a college in a category. If your rank is equal to or better (lower) than the closing rank, you were in range for that seat. An opening rank is the best (lowest) rank admitted. Both move every year with the number of candidates, seats and choices, so use these tables as a guide, not a guarantee for 2027.

JoSAA and CSAB publish one opening and closing rank document per round, and each one is round-specific: the closing rank in a round is the last rank admitted in that round only, not the final rank for the year. A later round can admit a higher (worse) rank than an earlier round — for example, NIT Patna CSE (Other State, OPEN) closed at 15,178 in Round 1 and at 17,282 in Round 5. So the final closing rank for a college and category is the highest closing rank across all rounds. That is how the main tables below are built. It is a calculation from the round documents, not a figure JoSAA itself published.

NIT Patna fills half its B.Tech seats under the Home State quota (candidates who passed Class 12 from Bihar) and half under the Other State quota. Each quota has its own closing rank, which is why the NIT Patna tables show both. IITs and IIITs use a single All India quota. OPEN seats use your JEE Main Common Rank List (CRL) rank; EWS, OBC-NCL, SC and ST seats use your category rank, so compare category tables only with your own category rank. JoSAA also keeps supernumerary female-only seats in every branch, shown in a separate table.

Bihar's state counselling (UGEAC) does not use an OBC-NCL category. It splits OBC into BC (Backward Classes) and EBC (Extremely Backward Classes), alongside UR, EWS, SC and ST. There are also RCG (Reserved Category Girls) and DQ (Disabled Quota) seat types, and E-prefixed categories (E-UR, E-SC and so on) for the 5% additional Tuition Fee Waiver seats for economically backward students; the tables below show the six main categories. UGEAC's state quota is 85% of seats (Bihar domicile) with 15% All India Quota, and one-third of state-quota seats are female seats.

A dash (—) in a table means no allotment of that category in that round in the source document. It does not mean zero seats and it does not mean nobody was admitted — it means the source has no row for that combination. JoSAA figures are tracker-sourced and labelled as such; UGEAC figures come from the official BCECEB PDFs.

NIT Patna — JoSAA 2026 closing ranks

NIT Patna is the most sought-after Bihar institute in JoSAA after IIT Patna. The table below is the final position for 2026: for each branch and quota, the highest closing rank across JoSAA Rounds 1 to 5, for OPEN gender-neutral seats. Ranks are JEE Main CRL ranks. B.Arch uses JEE Main Paper 2 ranks, a separate rank list, so it is shown on its own row.

Source: AglaSem NIT Patna cut-off page, stating its data is from the official JoSAA opening and closing rank report; cross-checked against Shiksha, Collegedunia and JEEPrep. Tracker-sourced.

Round 1 to Round 5 movement for the Other State quota shows how much the cutoffs relaxed as counselling went on. CSE moved from 15,178 to 17,282; Mechanical from 31,743 to 37,779; Civil from 42,737 to 50,873. Home State CSE moved from 17,428 in Round 1 to 18,862 in Round 5.

Round 1 source: CollegeDekho JoSAA Round 1 live blog and Collegedunia Round 1 article, cross-checked. Rounds 2, 3 and 4 for NIT Patna could not be verified from a clean source and are not shown.

Category-wise closing ranks for Round 5 use category ranks, not CRL ranks. Compare them only with your own category rank. Home State first, then Other State.

Source: AglaSem, from the official JoSAA report. Tracker-sourced.

Source: AglaSem, from the official JoSAA report. Tracker-sourced.

JoSAA keeps supernumerary female-only seats in every branch. Their closing ranks run much wider than the gender-neutral seats — for example, CSE closed at 28,610 (Home State) and 24,677 (Other State) for female-only OPEN seats, against 18,862 and 17,282 for gender-neutral seats. One figure is flagged as printed: the Home State female-only closing for the CSE + M.Tech Data Science dual degree (18,449) is lower than its gender-neutral closing, which is unusual; it is reproduced exactly as published and could not be checked against the official tool.

Source: AglaSem, from the official JoSAA report. Tracker-sourced.

CSE has got steadily easier to get at NIT Patna over three years: the Other State OPEN closing was 14,442 in 2024, 14,996 in 2025 and 17,282 in 2026. Most branches moved the same way, but not all — Electrical closed at 27,263 in 2026 against 27,921 in 2025, and the EE Power System dual degree at 30,621 against 30,990. The 2025 final round was Round 6; the 2026 final round was Round 5.

2025 final = 2025 Round 6; 2026 final = Round 5. Source: AglaSem. Tracker-sourced.

IIIT Bhagalpur — JoSAA 2026 closing ranks

IIIT Bhagalpur has four B.Tech branches, all on the All India quota. Unlike NIT Patna, its full round-by-round picture could be verified: closing ranks rose in every round for every branch, so the Round 5 figure is the final figure for each branch.

Round 5 opening ranks: CSE 23,246; Mathematics and Computing 45,815; ECE 45,956; Mechatronics 50,150. Sources: Kollegeapply and Aakash, cross-checked against CollegeDekho and Shiksha. Tracker-sourced. (One tracker gives CSE Round 2 as 45,482 against 45,480 here — a 2-rank difference.)

Category ranks, not CRL ranks. Mathematics and Computing category-wise Round 5 ranks could not be found and are omitted. Source: Aakash. Tracker-sourced.

IIIT Bhagalpur CSE has also eased over three years — 39,481 in 2024, 44,476 in 2025 and 48,416 in 2026 — but the 2023 figure (43,801) warns against reading a straight line into it: cutoffs move with the number of candidates and choices each year.

2025 final = 2025 Round 6; 2026 final = Round 5. Sources: Kollegeapply and Aakash. Tracker-sourced.

The CSAB special rounds took IIIT Bhagalpur much further than JoSAA. CSE closed at 67,746 in Special Round 2, and Mechatronics at 1,02,413 — the last IIIT Bhagalpur seat of 2026. All CSAB ranks are All India CRL ranks.

Source: Aakash, explicitly labelled CSAB Round I and II. Tracker-sourced; not cross-checked branch-by-branch against a second tracker.

IIT Patna — JoSAA 2026 closing ranks

IIT Patna is the only Bihar institute that admits through JEE Advanced, so its ranks are JEE Advanced 2026 ranks and cannot be compared with the JEE Main ranks in the tables above. Only candidates who qualified JEE Main and then took JEE Advanced could get these seats. The table below shows Round 1 against Round 5 for OPEN gender-neutral seats, All India quota.

Economics (B.S.) Round 5 figures were not published branch-wise; its General closing range in Round 5 was 12,826-14,550. Sources: Collegedunia, CollegeDekho and Shiksha — the Round 1 CSE figure (2,184-3,303) agrees across all three. Tracker-sourced.

For CSE in Round 5, the category-wise closing range (female-only to gender-neutral) was: General 3,303-3,635; EWS 476-507; OBC-NCL 1,255-1,258; SC 761-775; ST 359-381; General-PwD 127; OBC-NCL-PwD 57. These are JEE Advanced category ranks. Dual-degree programmes also exist at IIT Patna: the CSE dual degree closed at 4,432 for General in Round 5, and the Mechanical + MBA at 9,006.

IIT Patna CSE has risen every year since 2022: 2,685 (2022), 2,811 (2023), 3,144 (2024), 3,377 (2025) and 3,635 (2026). AI and Data Science was broadly flat between 2024 and 2025 (4,346 to 4,312) before rising to 4,574 in 2026.

2025 final = 2025 Round 6; 2026 final = Round 5. Sources: Collegedunia, CollegeDekho and Shiksha. Tracker-sourced.

CSAB 2026 special rounds — NIT Patna

After JoSAA's five rounds, the Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) ran two special rounds for the NIT+ system — NITs, IIITs and GFTIs — on 6 August (Special Round 1) and 12 August 2026 (Special Round 2). IIT Patna does not take part in CSAB. All CSAB ranks are JEE Main All India CRL ranks, for all categories. A dash means no seat was allotted in that round for that branch and quota.

Sources: Collegedunia NIT Patna CSAB page; the Special Round 2 values match Shiksha's last-round figures exactly, and the CSE Special Round 1 value (20,028) matches Collegedunia's CSAB Round 1 report. Tracker-sourced.

Source: Collegedunia NIT Patna CSAB page. Tracker-sourced. Category-wise CSAB tables (OBC-NCL, SC, ST, EWS, both quotas) are published on the same page; all values are CRL ranks.

UGEAC 2026 — Bihar state engineering counselling closing ranks

UGEAC is Bihar's own engineering counselling, run by BCECEB for the state's government engineering colleges. It uses JEE Main scores, but the ranks it publishes are UGEAC merit ranks — a Bihar state rank list, not All India ranks. The figures below come from the official BCECEB opening and closing rank PDFs for Round 1 (allotment 4 July 2026) and the combined Round 1 + Round 2 document (allotment 17 July 2026). For every institute, branch, seat type and category that appears in both documents, the combined Round 2 closing is equal to or higher than the Round 1 closing, so the combined document already is the final position — the table below is the maximum across both rounds. BCECEB has published no Round 3 or mop-up opening and closing rank PDF for B.Tech as of 25 October 2026.

UR (R1) is the Round 1 closing; the other columns are the final (Round 2-combined) closings. Source: official BCECEB UGEAC26_OCR_R1.pdf and UGEAC26_OCR_R2.pdf. WIT Darbhanga is a women-only institute; its Round 2 opening rank for UR was 2,193.

The Round 1 to Round 2 movement was large: MIT Muzaffarpur CSE moved from 35 to 134 for UR, BCE Bhagalpur from 86 to 191, and Sheikhpura from 5,240 to 6,870. That is normal for state counselling — Round 2 admits candidates who did not get a seat in Round 1, including many who were holding JoSAA seats and withdrew.

Source: official BCECEB UGEAC26_OCR_R1.pdf and UGEAC26_OCR_R2.pdf.

Ten government colleges offer no plain CSE at all — only CSE-family specialisations such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Data Science, Cyber Security, Internet of Things or Computer Science and Technology. They are Sheohar, Lakhisarai, Samastipur, Aurangabad, Jamui, Jehanabad, Kaimur, Khagaria, Munger and Sasaram. In total, 36 institutes offer plain CSE and 42 institutes appear in the UGEAC PDFs, including CIPET Bihta, SGIDT Patna and WIT Darbhanga.

MIT Muzaffarpur is the toughest state college in every branch. Its full branch table for the final round is below.

Source: official BCECEB UGEAC26_OCR_R2.pdf (combined Round 1 + Round 2).

What rank gets which college

Read off the final closing tables above. These are 2026 closing ranks for General/OPEN gender-neutral seats, unless a line says otherwise — reserved-category seats close much wider, and female-only seats wider still.

• JEE Advanced rank under about 3,700: IIT Patna CSE. Under about 6,100: IIT Patna ECE. Under about 12,100: IIT Patna Mechanical. Under about 17,200: any IIT Patna B.Tech branch.
• JEE Main CRL under about 17,300 (Other State) or 18,900 (Home State): NIT Patna CSE. Under about 21,900 (Other State): NIT Patna ECE. Under about 37,800: NIT Patna Mechanical. Under about 50,900: NIT Patna Civil. Under about 53,900: any NIT Patna branch in JoSAA. The CSAB special rounds extended CSE to 20,341 (Other State) and the last branch to 72,969.
• JEE Main CRL under about 48,500: IIIT Bhagalpur CSE. Under about 57,400: any IIIT Bhagalpur branch in JoSAA. The CSAB special rounds extended CSE to 67,746 and Mechatronics to 1,02,413.
• UGEAC merit rank under about 200: MIT Muzaffarpur CSE or BCE Bhagalpur CSE. Under about 1,000: GCE Gaya, NCE Chandi or DCE Darbhanga CSE. Under about 2,500: GEC Vaishali or SIT Sitamarhi CSE. Under about 7,000: CSE at any of the 26 plain-CSE government colleges.
• For reserved categories, use the category tables, not these bands: for example, NIT Patna CSE closed at OBC-NCL rank 5,437 (Other State) and 5,941 (Home State), and at SC rank 2,908 (Other State) and 4,097 (Home State).

JEE Main 2026 qualifying cutoffs (not admission cutoffs)

The table below is the JEE Main 2026 qualifying cutoff for JEE Advanced — the minimum percentile needed to be eligible to sit JEE Advanced. It is not an admission cutoff for any college. Clearing it only gets you into the JEE Advanced candidate pool; the admission cutoffs in the tables above are separate, and much higher for the popular branches.

Sources: NDTV, CollegeDekho and Vedantu, all agreeing. The General qualifying percentile was 93.1023262 in 2025 and 93.2362181 in 2024.

Session 2 Paper 1 had 11,10,904 registered candidates and 10,34,330 who appeared (7,08,163 male and 3,26,167 female). Across both sessions, 15,38,468 unique candidates appeared, and 26 candidates scored 100 percentile. Session 1 was held in January 2026 and Session 2 Paper 1 on 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 April 2026.

How many seats

Seat counts are given only where an official document was found. The UGEAC 2026 prospectus (Schedule-I) lists 13,860 seats across the 38 government engineering colleges — most colleges have 360 seats (six branches of 60), MIT Muzaffarpur has 480, KCE Katihar 330 and GEC Vaishali 450. The counselling-time seat matrix published on 23 June 2026 shows 60 more seats than the prospectus at several colleges (MIT 540; Bhagalpur, Gaya, Darbhanga, Bakhtiyarpur, Purnea, Supaul and Chapra 420 each), so the counselling-time total is higher than 13,860 by an amount that could not be extracted cleanly from the matrix PDF. On top of Schedule-I there are 40 B.Arch seats at GCE Gaya, 120 seats at WIT Darbhanga (CSE 60, IT 30, Bioinformatics 30) and 94 seats at SGIDT Patna (Dairy Technology 54, Food Technology 40, plus 6 self-financed Dairy Technology seats).

For the JoSAA institutes, no official seat matrix was fetched in this workspace. Trackers report 430 B.Tech seats at IIIT Bhagalpur (CSE 150, ECE 120, Mechatronics 85, Mathematics and Computing 75), though the category split on the same page does not add up to 430 and is not reproduced here. For NIT Patna, two trackers disagree — 1,023 seats on one page and 983 on another — so no total is stated here. Per-branch seat counts for IIT Patna could not be verified either; the only table found was internally inconsistent and is not used.

What is still pending and what could not be verified

• JoSAA Rounds 2, 3 and 4 for NIT Patna could not be verified from a clean source, so the article shows Round 1 against Round 5 only for that institute. The final Round 5 figures are unaffected.
• All JoSAA and CSAB figures are tracker-sourced. The official JoSAA opening and closing rank tool could not be driven from this workspace; a re-check against the live tool would upgrade them to official.
• No UGEAC Round 3 or mop-up opening and closing rank PDF for B.Tech has been published by BCECEB as of 25 October 2026. If a mop-up happened at institute level, it is not in the published record; the article will be updated if a further official PDF appears.
• IIIT Bhagalpur Mathematics and Computing category-wise Round 5 ranks, and branch-level CSAB cross-checks for IIIT Bhagalpur, could not be verified and are omitted or single-sourced as labelled.
• NIT Patna's total B.Tech seat count (1,023 vs 983 across two trackers) and IIT Patna's per-branch seat counts could not be verified and are not stated.
• UGEAC 2025 trends were not gathered — the official 2025 OCR PDFs were not fetched and tracker claims conflict — so this article has no year-on-year UGEAC comparison.
• NIELIT Patna, a GFTI that appears in CSAB vacancy lists, has no 2026 cutoff data located and is outside the JoSAA scope of this article.

Sources

The closing ranks in this article come from the official BCECEB PDFs for UGEAC Rounds 1 and 2, and from tracker pages that state they reproduce the official JoSAA and CSAB opening and closing rank reports for the JoSAA and CSAB tables. Check the official sources below before acting on any rank or date.