The official exam date for JEE Advanced 2026 was recently announced, and now IIT Roorkee has released new criteria for JEE Advanced 2026. On 6th December 2025, the official JEE Advanced website received a new update about this criterion. If you are going to appear in JEE 2026, you must go through this article.
The updated eligibility criteria for JEE Advanced 2026 include factors such as performance in JEE Main, Age limit, number of attempts, appearance in class 12, and prior admission to any IIT. So, let’s get started and address all these JEE Advanced 2026 eligibility criteria points.
New Criteria for JEE Advanced 2026: Age Limit, Number of Attempts, etc.
Students preparing for JEE Advanced 2026 are obliged to follow the criteria below. If anyone is not meeting any of the given criteria, he or she will not be allowed to appear in JEE Advanced 2026.
1. Age Limit
The first is the age limit: aspiring candidates must have been born on or before 1st October 2001. Make sure this is for the Non-reserve and OBC category. Additionally, a 5-year age relaxation has been granted to SC, ST, and PWD candidates.
2. Performance in JEE Mains
The second eligibility criterion for JEE Advanced 2026 is the aspirant’s performance in JEE Main. As always, a total of 2.5 Lakh aspirants will be shortlisted for JEE Advanced 2026. And these 2.5 lakh candidates will be selected based on their performance in JEE Main 2026 across both attempts.
Talking about the category-wise division of these aspirants, 10% students will be from GEN-EWS, 27% from OBC-NCL, 15% from SC, 7.5% from ST, and the remaining 40.5% is OPEN for all. Within each of these five categories, 5% horizontal reservation is available for PwD candidates.
Read More – Competition in JEE Advanced 2026
Well, the table below shows you the number of qualified candidates from JEE Mains for JEE Advanced 2026.
| Sl. No. | Category | Number of “Top” Candidates |
| 1 | OPEN | 96,187 |
| 2 | OPEN-PwD | 5,063 |
| OPEN Total | 1,01,250 | |
| 3 | GEN-EWS | 23,750 |
| 4 | GEN-EWS-PwD | 1,250 |
| GEN-EWS Total | 25,000 | |
| 5 | OBC-NCL | 64,125 |
| 6 | OBC-NCL-PwD | 3,375 |
| OBC-NCL Total | 67,500 | |
| 7 | SC | 35,625 |
| 8 | SC-PwD | 1,875 |
| SC Total | 37,500 | |
| 9 | ST | 17,812 |
| 10 | ST-PwD | 938 |
| ST Total | 18,750 |
3. Number of Attempts in JEE Advanced 2026
Again, bursting all the rumours of three attempts in JEE Advanced 2026, IIT Roorkee has said there will be only two attempts.
4. Education Eligibility Criteria for JEE Advanced 2026
To be eligible for JEE Advanced 2026, you must have appeared for Class 12 for the first time in 2025 or 2026, and your subjects must include Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics.
Who is not eligible?
Students who appeared for Class 12 for the first time in 2024 or earlier are not eligible for JEE Advanced 2026.
What does “appearing for Class 12 for the first time” mean?
The year your board declares your result is considered your “first attempt”—regardless of whether you actually took the exam or your result was withheld.
Special Exemption (for the 2024 batch)
If your board declared the Class 12 (2023–24) results on or after June 18, 2024,
Then such students (who appeared for Class 12 for the first time in 2024) will also be eligible for JEE Advanced 2026—provided they fulfil all other eligibility criteria.
However, if the board released the results before June 18 and only your result was withheld, you will not be eligible.
5. Earlier Admission at Any IIT
The last but not least new criterion for JEE Advanced 2026 is about the earlier admission at IITs. All the clauses regarding this criterion are given below, please have a look.
Who is not eligible?
If a candidate has ever been admitted to any IIT (whether they continued their studies or not), or if their seat was cancelled after joining, they are not eligible to appear for JEE Advanced 2026.
Who is eligible?
✔ Preparatory Course (2025): Students who were admitted to the IIT Preparatory Course for the first time in 2025 — are eligible to appear for JEE Advanced 2026.
✔ These situations after IIT seat allotment (JoSAA 2025): If you were allotted an IIT seat, but:
- You did not report, or
- You withdrew your seat, or your seat was cancelled before the final round, then you are eligible.