IISERs have officially announced the IAT 2026 seat allotment dates for candidates who qualified the IISER Aptitude Test 2026. The counselling authority has published the dates for the three admission rounds on the official IISER Admissions portal, allowing candidates to plan the next stage of the admission process. According to the latest schedule, Round 1 of seat allotment will commence at 5:00 PM on July 24, 2026.
Candidates who successfully completed the counselling registration and choice-filling process must regularly log in to the admission portal to check their allotment status and complete the required admission formalities within the stipulated deadlines. Missing any deadline may result in cancellation of the allotted seat.
IAT 2026 Seat Allotment Schedule
The IISER Admission Committee has released the following tentative counselling schedule:
Seat Allotment Round | Dates |
Round 1 | July 24 (5:00 PM) – July 28 (5:00 PM), 2026 |
Round 2 | August 01, 2026 (5:00 PM) – August 05 (5:00 PM), 2026 |
Round 3 | August 10 (5:00 PM) – August 13 (5:00 PM), 2026 |
The counselling authority has termed these dates as tentative and may revise them if required.
What Happens During Seat Allotment?
The IISER seat allotment process is conducted online based on several factors, including:
Candidate's IAT 2026 rank
Category
Reservation criteria
Institute preferences filled during counselling
Availability of seats
Candidates who receive a seat allotment must carefully follow the instructions provided on the admission portal. Depending on the counselling guidelines, they may be required to accept the allotted seat, upload necessary documents, and pay the prescribed seat acceptance fee within the specified deadline.
IAT 2026 Seat Allotment Process
Upon the release of the IAT 2026 seat allotment list, the institute-wise opening and closing ranks will also be published. Based on these ranks, candidates whose ranks fall within the allotted cutoff will have the opportunity to either freeze or float their allotted seat.
Candidates can FREEZE the seat (they will be allotted to the IISER shown in the offer; they will not participate in further rounds of counselling),
Candidates can FLOAT (they will participate in further rounds of counselling to get their higher preferences).
The candidates MUST take action on their choices in every round (i.e., choose FREEZE or FLOAT). They MUST confirm in every round if they want to FLOAT or FREEZE. If a candidate DOES NOT TAKE ACTION (i.e., choose FLOAT/FREEZE) in a given round, they will NOT be able to participate in subsequent rounds of counselling. Their candidature will be considered withdrawn. They will be eliminated from the counselling process and will not be able to get back into the counselling process.
Seat Acceptance Fee (SAF)
The Seat Acceptance Fee is to be paid only after an offer of admission has been made to the candidate. The SAF will have to be paid as per the category mentioned in the offer letter.
Rs. 35,000/- (Rs. 25,000/- + Rs. 10,000/- (Non refundable administrative fee)) for General/EWS/OBC/OBC-NCL/PwD/KM/Kashmiri Pandit/Kashmiri Hindu Families (Non-Migrants) categories.
Rs. 17,500/- (Rs. 12,500/- + Rs. 5000/- (Non refundable administrative fee)) for SC/ST categories.
Failure to deposit the SAF within the stipulated time will result in the cancellation of the offer. Furthermore, the candidate will not be considered in any subsequent rounds of seat allotment during admission 2026.
Once the candidate registers in the allotted IISER, SAF will be adjusted against the first semester fee. Please note that the overall fee structure at various IISERs is different. For more details, please visit the webpage of the respective IISER.