CAT 2026 Registration To Start Soon: Notification Expected On July 26; Check How To Apply, Documents Required, Fee At iimcat.ac.in

CAT 2026 Registration: The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2026 notification is expected to be released on Sunday, July 26, 2026, after which the registration window is likely to open at iimcat.ac.in from August 1. The notification has not been released by the conducting authority so far, and registration for CAT 2026 has not begun. Candidates seeking admission to MBA and PGDM programmes at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other participating institutes should treat the next 11 days as preparation time, not waiting time.

CAT 2026 At A Glance (Expected)

All dates are expected and based on past cycles. Only the official notification confirms them.

Why July 26? The Pattern Behind The CAT 2026 Notification Date

This is not a guess pulled from the air. Across the last four cycles, the CAT notification has been released on the last Sunday of July, which places the CAT 2026 notification on July 26, 2026.

Last year the notification came out on July 27 and registration commenced on August 1, which is why candidates can expect the CAT 2026 registration process to begin in the first week of August. The notification is published simultaneously on iimcat.ac.in and as advertisements in major national newspapers.

Which IIM Will Conduct CAT 2026?

The responsibility of conducting CAT rotates among the six older IIMs — Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore — and there is no official confirmation yet on the CAT 2026 conducting body. Because IIM Indore has not conducted the exam since 2020, the rotation makes it the most likely convening institute for CAT 2026. The convening IIM is officially confirmed only in the notification released on the last Sunday of July; for CAT 2025, that institute was IIM Kozhikode.

Why this matters to you: the last time IIM Indore ran the exam, it rewrote the format. In 2020, IIM Indore cut the paper duration from 180 minutes to 120 minutes, moved from two slots to three, and adjusted the section-wise question count. That institutional appetite for change is the single biggest reason to read the CAT 2026 notification PDF line by line instead of relying on last year's assumptions.

Note: Some pages currently circulating online list IIM Kozhikode or IIM Bangalore as the CAT 2026 conducting body. Both are unverified. Wait for the notification.

CAT 2026 Registration: How To Apply Online At iimcat.ac.in

Once the window opens, the application is completed entirely online. There is no offline form. The expected steps:

1. Visit the official CAT website — iimcat.ac.in.

2. Click New Candidate Registration.

3. Enter name, date of birth, nationality, mobile number and a valid email ID.

4. Complete OTP verification to activate the account.

5. Log in with the User ID and password sent to your registered email.

6. Fill in personal details, then academic details (Class 10, Class 12, graduation, and higher education if applicable).

7. Enter work experience details.

8. Upload photograph, signature and category/PwD certificates where applicable.

9. Select IIM programmes and preferred interview cities.

10. Choose your test city preferences in ranked order.

11. Pay the application fee via net banking, debit/credit card or UPI.

12. Preview everything, submit, and download the confirmation page.

Do not log off until the confirmation email arrives. Payment alone does not mean the form is registered.

One detail that trips up applicants every year: only full-time work experience gained after graduation should be entered. Projects, articleships and internships are not counted as work experience.

CAT 2026 Documents Required: The Complete Checklist

This is the section most CAT aspirants search for and rarely find in one place. Assemble these before August 1, not on the day you apply.

A. Identity and personal

• Valid government photo ID — Aadhaar, PAN, Passport, Voter ID or Driving Licence

• Date of birth proof

• Active mobile number and email ID (both must stay valid through the entire admission cycle)

B. Academic

• Class 10 marksheet/certificate

• Class 12 marksheet/certificate

• Bachelor's degree marksheet and percentage/CGPA

• Higher education/professional qualification details (CA, CS, CMA, if applicable)

• Final-year students: semester marksheets and a provisional certificate where applicable, since final results are still pending

C. Category and reservation (if applicable)

• NC-OBC, EWS, SC/ST or PwD certificate, uploaded as a PDF, in the latest prescribed format

• Certificate PDFs should be self-attested and typically kept under 200 KB

• As per last year's rule, NC-OBC certificates were required to be issued on or after April 1 of the exam year — for CAT 2026, this would mean on or after April 1, 2026

• PwD candidates: disability certificate and scribe affidavit, where the scribe facility is sought

D. Employment

• Company name, designation, and duration of full-time work experience

E. Preference decisions to make in advance

• IIM programmes you want to apply to

• Preferred interview cities

• Up to five test city preferences, in ranked order

CAT 2026 Photo And Signature Specifications

Upload errors are the most common cause of application rejection. Based on the CAT 2025 guidelines:

Selfies, caps, dark glasses, black-and-white prints and blurred images are not acceptable, and a signature written in block capitals or typed text will not be accepted — the normal handwritten signature in black ink is required. Digital signatures are not accepted, and the same signature should be used throughout the process.

Guardrail on file size: commonly cited limits sit around 80 KB for both photograph and signature, but sources differ, with some citing 1 MB for the photograph. Follow the on-screen limits shown in the upload editor and the CAT 2026 Information Bulletin. Do not trust a coaching blog over the bulletin.

CAT 2026 Application Fee (Expected)

These figures are based on the CAT 2025 fee and will be confirmed in the CAT 2026 notification in July. Some forecasts anticipate a marginal revision, to around ₹2,700 for general category and ₹1,350 for SC/ST candidates, in line with the fee movement of recent cycles. The fee is non-refundable and payable online only. It is paid once, regardless of how many institutes you apply to.

CAT 2026 Eligibility Criteria

• A bachelor's degree with a minimum of 50% marks (45% for SC/ST/PwD) from a recognised university

• Final-year graduation students are eligible to apply

• Professional degree holders such as CA, CS and ICWA with the required marks are eligible

• There is no age limit and no restriction on the number of attempts

• Individual IIMs apply their own additional criteria at the admission stage

CAT 2026 Exam Pattern (Expected)

The paper is expected to retain 68 questions across three sections in a 120-minute computer-based test, with +3 for a correct answer, −1 for an incorrect MCQ, and no negative marking on TITA questions.

Every MCQ carries four options, and candidates are provided an on-screen calculator. Section switching is not permitted. The exam is expected to be held in three sessions across roughly 170 cities and 300-plus test centres.

The Correction Window Trap Most Aspirants Miss

The CAT form correction window opens a day or two after registration closes and stays open for only about three to four days. During it, only three fields can be edited: photograph, signature and test city preference. Errors in any other field cannot be changed, and no requests for changes are accepted. If you make a mistake in a non-editable field, the only remedy is to fill a fresh application form before the deadline and pay the fee again.

Translation: a typo in your name, category or graduation percentage is a ₹2,600 mistake. Preview before you pay.

Why You Should Register In The First Week, Not The Last

Test city allotment is subject to availability, which is why candidates are advised to register early to improve the chances of getting their preferred test city. The other reason is structural: server load spikes near the deadline every cycle, and a rejected photograph on the last evening leaves you with no runway.

Confirmed vs Expected: Read This Before You Trust Any CAT 2026 Page

The official CAT 2026 exam date has not yet been announced. Candidates should verify every figure from the official notification PDF at iimcat.ac.in once released.

What CAT 2026 Opens Up

CAT scores are used for admission across 22 IIMs and more than 1,600 B-schools in India, including FMS Delhi, the IIT Departments of Management Studies, MDI and SPJIMR. For scale: 2.95 lakh candidates registered for CAT 2025 and 2.58 lakh appeared for the test, which was conducted by IIM Kozhikode on November 30, 2025.

Candidates are advised to keep checking iimcat.ac.in for the CAT 2026 notification, registration dates and other official announcements.