JoSAA JEE Main Counselling 2026: The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) conducts the JEE Main and JEE Advanced counselling for admission to NITs, IITs (through JEE Advanced), IIEST Shibpur, and GFTIs.

The JoSAA counselling 2026 for JEE Main Session 2 will start on June 2, 2026, on the official JoSAA Portal. The counselling process includes specific steps such as registration, seat confirmation and paying seat acceptance fees, document verification, online reporting, and confirming seats. Check out the complete details about it on this page.

What is the JoSAA - JEE Main Counselling Process?

The JEE Main Counselling 2026 is a centralised admission process through which students who qualify for the JEE Main 2026 are allotted seats in JEE Main participating institutes.

The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) conducts the JEE Main counselling, which includes several steps. These steps are mentioned below on this page.

JEE Main Counselling Eligibility 2026

To participate in the JoSAA JEE Main counselling 2026, candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria:

Criterion

Details

Criterion (i)

Qualified in JEE Advanced 2026 for academic programmes (excluding preparatory courses) at IITs AND satisfies the “Performance in Class XII (or equivalent) examination” criteria as mentioned below.

Criterion (ii)

Qualified in JEE Advanced 2026 for preparatory courses at IITs AND satisfies the “Performance in Class XII (or equivalent) examination” criteria as given below.

Criterion (iii)

Secured a rank in the JEE Main 2026 B.E./B.Tech paper for B.E./B.Tech programmes at NITs, IIEST, IIITs and Other-GFTIs AND satisfies the “Performance in Class XII (or equivalent) examination” criteria as given in Annexure 2(b).

Criterion (iv)

Secured a rank in JEE Main 2026 B.Arch paper for B.Arch programmes at NITs, IIEST, IIITs and Other-GFTIs AND satisfies the “Performance in Class XII (or equivalent) examination” criteria as given below.

Criterion (v)

Secured a rank in the JEE Main 2026 B.Plan paper for B.Plan programmes at NITs, IIEST, IIITs and Other-GFTIs AND satisfies the “Performance in Class XII (or equivalent) examination” criteria as mentioned below.

JEE Main Eligibility Criteria 2026

In addition to the JEE Main 2026 counselling eligibility criteria, candidates are also required to meet the JEE Main 2026 eligibility criteria in order to participate in the counselling process. The criteria are as follows:

The candidates should have appeared for the class XII (or equivalent) examination for the first time in 2024 or 2025 or 2026 and must satisfy at least one of the following two criteria:

  1. Must have passed class XII (or equivalent) Board examination with a minimum of five subjects and secured at least 75% aggregate marks. The aggregate marks for SC, ST, and PwD candidates should be at least 65%.

  2. Must have passed class XII (or equivalent) Board examination with a minimum of five subjects and be within the category-wise (category as per the central list https://www.ncbc.nic.in, https://socialjustice.gov.in and https://ncst.nic.in) top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their respective Class XII (or equivalent) board examination.

JEE Main Counselling 2026: Steps

The steps of the JEE Main counselling 2026 are listed below:

1. JoSAA Registration Process 2026

To participate in the JEE Main 2026 counselling, candidates first need to fill out the JoSAA registration form 2026 at josaa.nic.in. For registration and filling-in of the choices of academic programmes in various institutes, candidates should log in to https://josaa.nic.in using one of the following credentials:

  1. For candidates who have appeared in JEE (Main) 2026: Log in with the JEE (Main) 2026 Application Number and password.

  2. After logging in, the candidate must proceed to further steps such as registration, choice filling, choice locking, etc.

  3. The detailed instructions for completion of the above steps will be provided on the JoSAA 2026 portal.

2. Filling and Locking Choices Online

After filling out the registration form, the selected candidates will have to fill out the choices of institutes and academic programmes through the choice-filling process.

3. Seat Allotment

The candidate needs to accept the seat allocated and opt for any one of the options ‘Freeze’, ‘Slide’ or ‘Float’ for the choice of academic programme for subsequent round(s), if any, of joint seat allocation.

Freeze

  • Choose Freeze if you are fully satisfied with the allotted seat.

  • You accept the seat and do not want to participate in further rounds.

  • Your seat is locked, and no changes will be made in upcoming rounds.

Float

  • Choose Float if you are okay with the current seat but want a better option in any institute.

  • You keep your current seat but remain eligible for upgradation across all participating institutes in the next rounds.

  • If a better seat is allotted later, your previous seat will be automatically replaced.

Slide

  • Choose Slide if you want a better course within the same institute.

  • You stay in the same college but can be upgraded to a higher-preference branch (if available) in upcoming rounds.

  • You will not be considered for other institutes, only for branch changes in the allotted institute.

The seat allotment depends on the following factors:

  1. The category [GEN, GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, ST, GEN-PwD, GEN-EWS-PwD, OBC-NCL-PwD, SC-PwD, ST-PwD] of the candidate.

  2. The position of the candidate in the respective rank list(s).

  3. The order of preference of academic programs selected by the

  4. candidate.

  5. The availability of seats in different seat categories / seat quotas for which the candidate is eligible.

To confirm the allotted seat, candidates must pay the seat acceptance fee. The seat acceptance fee is INR 15,000 for candidates with the category tag SC, ST, GEN-PwD, GEN-EWS-PwD, OBC-NCL-PwD, SC-PwD or ST-PwD and INR 30,000 for all other candidates (the fee includes InR 5,000 JoSAA processing charges). The seat acceptance fee, excluding JoSAA processing charges of INR 5000, will be adjusted against the admission fee.

Candidates must note that the fees mentioned above are subject to change.

4. Upload the Documents

The candidate must upload all the required documents on the JoSAA portal if the required documents have not already been uploaded during JoSAA registration.

The documents required for the JEE Main counselling are listed below:

1. Class X Mark Sheet/Certificate or Aadhaar Card or Birth Certificate (for Date of Birth)

2. Class XII Mark Sheet and Certificate (Qualifying Examination)

3. Admit card of JEE (Main) 2026

4. Certificate of category (SC/ST/OBC-NCL/GEN-EWS), if applicable, as per Government of India format, available on the JoSAA 2026 website, issued by the competent authority. In case of OBC-NCL/GEN-EWS category, the certificate must be either

a) issued on or after April 01, 2026,

 OR

b) a Government issued, online verifiable certificate which must be valid till August 31, 2026 or the day of physical reporting at the admitting institute, whichever is later.

Please note that

(i) Caste certificate (SC/ST/OBC-NCL) issued by Maharashtra State must be validated by Social Welfare department (in case of SC and OBC-NCL categories) and the Tribal Welfare department (in case of ST category) of the Maharashtra Government. The SC/ST/OBC-NCL candidates of

Maharashtra State has to produce their caste validity certificate in the format available on the JoSAA 2026 website.

(ii) ST certificates from Tamil Nadu state must be issued by the concerned Revenue Divisional Officer.

5. Original Certificate for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwD), if applicable,

issued by the competent authority.

6. Crossed Bank Cheque copy / Image of Passbook with bank account details

7. Medical Certificate

8. OCI certificate/PIO card, if applicable

9. Passport/Citizenship certificate, if applicable

5. Respond to Queries (if any)

At the time of document verification, if the document verification officer raises any query, the candidate must respond in online mode (through the candidate portal) within the stipulated time. Failure to respond to the query(ies) on time will lead to cancellation of the allotted seat and the candidate will no longer be able to participate in the subsequent rounds of JoSAA 2026, if any.

6. Verification of Documents

The documents uploaded by candidates will be verified online. All JEE (Main) 2025 qualified PwD candidates with benchmark disabilities who do NOT possess a valid UDID card indicating disability and are seeking to get a seat in the NIT+ System through JoSAA are required to visit any of the Verification Centres of the NIT+ System for physical verification along with a copy of the PwD certificate(s).

The JEE (Main) 2026 qualified PwD candidates with a valid UDID card indicating disability are NOT required to report physically for verification. However, even if the candidates have UDID card indicating disability, they will be required to appear for physical verification if either (i) the online verification of the UDID card fails or (ii) the candidate was allotted a seat in an academic programme with special restrictions given in the JoSAA portal.

7. Reporting to the Allotted Institute

In the last step of the counselling, candidates must visit the allotted institute and pay the remaining admission fee to confirm their seats.