NEET Cutoff 2027: Expected Qualifying Marks, Last Year's Trends and the Score You Really Need

Every NEET aspirant asks the same question: "NEET me kitne marks chahiye?" The honest answer has two parts. There is the qualifying cutoff, the minimum score to be eligible for counselling. And there is the admission cutoff, the score that actually gets you a seat. This guide explains both, shows how the cutoff moved in 2025 and 2026, and tells you what score to aim for in NEET 2027.

Qualifying cutoff vs admission cutoff

• Qualifying cutoff: set by NTA as a percentile. Crossing it only makes you eligible for counselling. It does not guarantee a seat.
• Admission cutoff: the rank at which the last seat in a college is filled during counselling (the closing rank). For government MBBS seats this is far higher than the qualifying cutoff.

Many students relax once they cross the qualifying marks. That is a mistake: lakhs of students qualify every year, but government MBBS seats are limited.

Qualifying percentiles by category

The qualifying percentile has stayed the same in recent years:

Category	Qualifying percentile
General / EWS	50th percentile
General / EWS – PwBD	45th percentile
OBC, SC, ST (including PwBD)	40th percentile

Because the cutoff is a percentile, the marks needed change every year with the difficulty of the paper and how everyone performs.

How the cutoff marks moved: 2025 vs 2026

Category	2025 cutoff marks	2026 cutoff marks
General / EWS	686–144	715–213
OBC / SC / ST	143–113	212–177
General / EWS – PwBD	143–127	212–194

In one year, the general category qualifying mark jumped from 144 to 213, a rise of 69 marks. NEET 2026 was also an unusual year: the original exam on 3 May 2026 was cancelled over a paper leak and a re-exam was held, with about 11.21 lakh candidates qualifying.

What will the NEET 2027 cutoff be?

No one can predict the exact number. NTA announces the official cutoff only with the result. What the last two years show is that the qualifying marks can swing by 60–70 marks depending on the paper. So don't plan around a guessed cutoff. Plan around a score that is safe in any year.

The score you should really aim for

1. Decide your target college first. Look up last year's closing ranks for that college and category on the official MCC (all-India quota) or your state counselling website.
2. Convert the rank into marks. Check what score matched that rank in last year's result, then add a safety margin, because cutoffs can rise.
3. Track your mock test average, not your best score. If your average across five full mock tests is below your target, you know exactly how many marks to find before the exam.

How to add 50–100 marks before NEET 2027

• Biology first: it is 360 of the 720 marks. Read NCERT line by line and solve chapter-wise previous year questions.
• Cut negative marks: each wrong answer costs 5 marks compared with a correct one (+4 vs −1). Leave questions where you can't rule out two options.
• One full mock test every week: analyse every wrong answer and fix that topic the same week.
• Fix your weakest chapter first: moving one weak chapter to average often adds more marks than polishing a strong one.

Frequently asked questions

What is the NEET qualifying cutoff for the general category?

The 50th percentile. In marks, it was 144 in 2025 and 213 in 2026. The 2027 marks will depend on the 2027 paper.

Is crossing the cutoff enough to get MBBS?

No. The qualifying cutoff only makes you eligible for counselling. Government MBBS seats need a much higher rank, so aim well above the cutoff.

When will the NEET 2027 cutoff be released?

NTA releases the qualifying cutoff along with the NEET result, usually a few weeks after the exam.

Cutoff figures for 2025 and 2026 as reported by Careers360 from NTA's results.