NEET-PG 2026: eligibility, pattern, percentiles and dates

What NEET-PG covers

NEET-PG is “an eligibility-cum-ranking examination prescribed as the single entrance examination” for MD, MS and PG diploma courses. The 2026 bulletin lists what it is used for:

• All India 50% quota seats in every state and union territory
• State quota seats in every state and union territory
• All private medical colleges, institutions, universities and deemed universities
• Armed Forces Medical Services institutions
• Post-MBBS DNB courses, direct six-year DrNB courses and NBEMS diploma courses

Not covered: AIIMS New Delhi and the other AIIMS, PGIMER Chandigarh, JIPMER Puducherry, NIMHANS Bengaluru and SCTIMST Thiruvananthapuram. These admit through INI-CET.

No state government, private college or university may hold a separate entrance examination for its MD, MS or PG diploma seats.

2026 dates

Eligibility

Indian medical graduates must hold an MBBS degree or provisional pass certificate recognised under the NMC Act, 2019 and PGMER-23; hold permanent or provisional registration with the NMC, the erstwhile MCI or a State Medical Council; and have completed, or be due to complete, the one-year internship on or before 30 September 2026. Requests from candidates finishing internship after that date “shall be summarily rejected”.

Foreign medical graduates — Indian citizens or overseas citizens of India with a primary medical qualification from abroad — must have qualified the FMGE under the Screening Test Regulations, 2002, be registered with the NMC, erstwhile MCI or a State Medical Council, and complete internship by the same date.

Foreign nationals need a basic medical qualification recognised by the NMC, and security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs where it applies. The NMC may grant them temporary registration limited to the course and institution, subject to registration in their own country and a no-objection certificate from that country’s medical council.

Already in a PG course? Some universities do not admit candidates already pursuing a PG course until they finish it. The bulletin tells such candidates to check the university’s conditions and says NBEMS, the Ministry and the counselling authority are not responsible if admission is refused. For DNB seats specifically, NBEMS’s trainee manual states that candidates already pursuing or who have joined a DNB, MD, MS or diploma course are not eligible for another DNB seat for the whole prescribed duration of that course, even if they resign.

Eligibility is provisional throughout. An admit card confers no right to admission, and candidature can be cancelled at any stage if a candidate is found ineligible.

The paper

Questions marked for review are evaluated normally. Candidates may challenge a question for technical error, with supporting literature, within two days of the examination (until 1 September 2026). There is no re-evaluation, re-checking or re-totalling.

Qualifying percentiles

Candidates below these percentiles “will not be considered for admission to MD / MS / PG Diploma courses”. Percentile is calculated as 100 × (number of candidates with a score at or below yours) ÷ (total candidates who appeared).

Qualifying NEET-PG is not the same as being eligible for a particular quota. A candidate may qualify but not meet the counselling authority’s criteria for All India Quota seats, and still be considered for state quota seats under that state’s rules.

Ties

Ties in score are broken in this order:

1. Fewer negative (incorrect) responses in the whole paper
2. Fewer incorrect responses in Section A, then Section B, C, D and E in turn
3. If still tied, date of birth, as given in the application

State quota seats

NBEMS passes only candidates’ data and scores to states, through the Directorate General of Health Services, without applying any state’s eligibility or reservation criteria. State quota rank, state category rank, in-service benefits and rural-service weightage are worked out by each state’s counselling authority. NBEMS does not prepare merit lists for state quota seats, private colleges or universities, and passing NEET-PG does not by itself make a candidate eligible for a state’s seats.

Counselling, reservation and OCI candidates

• MCC (Medical Counselling Committee, DGHS) counsels 50% All India Quota seats, 100% of seats in deemed and central universities, and 100% of All India open DNB seats. State counselling authorities handle in-service seats.
• For All India Quota reservation, the bulletin refers candidates to MCC’s information bulletin.
• Following the Supreme Court’s order of 3 February 2023 in Anushka Rengunthwar & Ors. vs Union of India (W.P. (C) 891 of 2021), OCI cardholders are treated at par with Indian citizens for UR (General) seats and NRI seats in MCC counselling. NRI candidates are eligible for both NRI and Indian national seats on merit.
• Candidates claiming NRI, OCI or PIO status cannot claim SC, ST, OBC or EWS reservation.
• Only OBC non-creamy layer candidates on the Central list can claim OBC reservation in MCC counselling.

DNB, direct six-year DrNB and NBEMS diploma seats

Three-year post-MBBS DNB courses are filled through NEET-PG, and MCC counsels them along with MD, MS and diploma seats. Two-year post-diploma DNB courses are filled through a separate NBEMS examination, DNB-PDCET. Direct six-year DrNB courses are also entered through NEET-PG. Training rules for these courses are on the DNB training page.

Armed Forces Medical Services institutions

• Candidates wanting MD, MS or DNB seats at AFMS institutions must select “Yes” to the AFMS question in the NEET-PG application, and must register with MCC at mcc.nic.in to be considered.
• MCC handles only registration for serving AFMS officers (Priority I) and for candidates from friendly foreign countries and AFMS officers on study leave (Priority II). Medical officers sponsored by paramilitary and other Government of India organisations (Priority III), former AFMS short service commission officers (Priority IV) and civilian candidates (Priority V) are counselled online by MCC on inter-se merit.
• There is no SC, ST, OBC or PwBD reservation in AFMS institutions’ PG courses.
• Civilian candidates provisionally allotted an AFMS seat must pass the medical examination at the institute under AFMS policy.
• The bulletin refers candidates to the AFMS website for eligibility and admission procedure.

Score cards

Score cards can be downloaded from the NBEMS website for six months from the result. NBEMS does not send them by email or issue them after that window.