GATE COAP 2026 - Registration (Started), Counselling, Eligibility, Seat Allotment Updates

GATE COAP Important Dates 2026

The authority has announced the GATE COAP 2026 important dates on the official website, coap2026.iitr.ac.in. Candidates can check the GATE 2026 COAP important dates in the table below.

GATE COAP 2026 Important Dates

What is COAP?

Common Offer Acceptance Portal, commonly known as COAP, is a portal where all the participating IITs and IISc Bangalore publish the results of seat allotment. For admission in M.Tech courses in any of the participating IITs, candidates having a valid GATE 2026 score are required to register online at the COAP portal along with the institute. Admission to M.Tech courses at NITs and GFTIs is through the CCMT portal. Using the COAP portal, candidates will have to check their seat allotment status and accept/ reject the seat.

GATE COAP 2026 Eligibility Criteria

There are certain conditions and requirements that every applicant needs to fulfil to be eligible for admission. Candidates check the eligibility criteria at the COAP 2026 official website. Applications of candidates who do not meet the eligibility conditions are liable to be rejected. Candidates are advised to check the eligibility criteria of GATE 2026 COAP before applying.

GATE COAP Eligibility Criteria 2026

• Candidates should have a valid GATE score from the years 2024, 2025 or 2026 to apply for COAP.
• Candidates having more than one valid GATE score will have to enter the highest score during registration; however, details about other scores will also be required.
• Having a GATE score of 2026 in more than one paper must provide details about all the scores.
• Candidates must fulfil the eligibility criteria specified by the institute to which they are applying.

GATE COAP 2026 Registration

The GATE 2026 COAP application has been released online on March 26, 2026. Candidates seeking IIT admission must register for COAP 2026. The COAP login will be created after completing the registration process. Candidate can check the detailed procedure to fill the GATE COAP application form 2026 for reference purposes.

GATE COAP Registration Process

• In the first step, candidates have to register online by providing their basic candidate details and GATE qualification.
• Upon successful registration, candidates will receive login information by email and password details on their mobile phones.
• Log in using the COAP login ID and password, and verify the details entered while registering.
• In the next step, apply to the institutes in which admission is desired from the institute's official website.
• Check the allotment status after the seat allotment round.

Steps to check admission offers through the GATE COAP 2026 portal

Candidates can check the admissions offered by the participating institutes on the GATE COAP portal. To check the COAP counselling 2026 status, candidates must log in to the COAP login using valid credentials. Candidates should check the following steps to know how to check the COAP seat allotment result 2026.

• Visit the GATE COAP 2026 portal.
• Log in using a valid ID and password.
• Click on the “Seat Allotment” button.
• The institute-wise allotment of seats for every institute’s status in which applied will be reflected on the screen.
• Candidates have to confirm the seat allotment with options from “Accept and Freeze”, “Retain and Wait”, “Reject and Wait” and “Reject”.

How to accept the seat allotment through GATE COAP 2026?

Once the seat allotment is done during COAP counselling 2026, candidates will have to respond to the seat allotment with options from “Accept and Freeze”, “Retain and Wait”, “Reject and Wait” and “Reject”. Candidates who have not been allotted any seat will have to wait for subsequent rounds for the allotment.

• Accept and Freeze - Candidates should select this option when they wish to accept the allotted seat and do not want upgradation in any subsequent rounds of seat allotment. Such candidates will not be considered for any seat allotment or upgrading offers in any subsequent rounds of admission.
• Retain and Wait - This option should be selected when candidates wish to accept the allotted seat but at the same time, also want to be considered for upgrading in subsequent seat allotment rounds. Such candidates will not be considered for the other rejected offers in the current round. Also, if any higher preferred offer is made in the next round, then the existing 'Retain and Wait' offer will get cancelled.
• Reject and Wait - Candidates should select this option when they do not want to accept any of the allotted seats but wish to be considered for subsequent rounds of seat allotment.
• Reject - This option implies the final round of COAP, whereas the “Reject and Wait” option would imply “Reject” as there will be no further rounds of seat allotment. Candidates should select this option when they do not want to accept any seat offered during GATE COAP 2026.

GATE COAP Seat Allotment Options

* No, if the candidates have already used Retain & Wait on the same offer twice. The same offer refers to the program “XYZ” of a particular Institute “ABC”.

**Candidates may have to follow spot rounds either online or offline and it could be specific to the institutes. Depending on the vacancy status and admission date, there could be a few more extra rounds from the participating institutes.

• Retain & Wait” must be chosen in each eligible round. If no action is taken in a round, all offers in that round are automatically considered “Rejected.”
• Round 5 is a decisive round and rounds 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are treated as independent Decisive Rounds, where candidates only have “Accept and Freeze” or “Reject” options.

GATE COAP 2026 Important Instructions

• After COAP 2026 registration with a qualified GATE Number is done, candidates have to add the additional qualified GATE Registration Number when they log into the portal for the 1st time.
• After your registration is over, the user ID will be sent to your registered email address, and an SMS will be sent to your registered mobile number. Moreover, passwords will be sent by email and mobile may take some time because of the network issues of the service provider. Please wait for some time in case you don't receive the password.
• If you have multiple qualified GATE registration numbers and you are not able to add the qualified GATE registration numbers of previous years in COAP, it may happen because there is a mismatch of information (Name and Date of Birth) in different GATE years. Please check your name and date of birth on all the GATE admit cards of different years. Please write to us elaborately about the issue and include the name, date of birth and registration number year-wise in the email.
• Please wait for a couple of working days to resolve your problems.

COAP 2026 List of participating institutes

Candidates who complete the COAP registration 2026 will be eligible to be considered for admission into the following participating institutions:

GATE COAP Participating Institutes

• IISc Bangalore
• IIT Bhilai
• IIT Bhubaneswar
• IIT BHU
• IIT Dharwad
• IIT Delhi
• IIT Goa
• IIT Jammu
• IIT Indore
• IIT Kanpur
• IIT Jodhpur
• IIT (ISM) Dhanbad
• IIT Hyderabad
• IIT Kharagpur
• IIT Guwahati
• IIT Mandi
• IIT Tirupati
• IIT Madras
• IIT Palakkad
• IIT Patna
• IIT Bombay
• IIT Roorkee
• IIT Ropar
• IIT Gandhinagar